Posted: March 30, 2015 | Written by Michael Isberto
In “Back to the Future Part II” released in 1989, the main characters, Marty Mcfly and Emmett “Doc” Brown took their DeLorean time machine and traveled to the future, which was depicted as the year 2015.
The world still hasn’t seen hover boards, hover cars, self drying jackets and power-lacing shoes, but things have definitely changed since then.
“We had no Internet or computers in those days,” said Lee Krauss, Riverside City College faculty member.
“If I had walked in here in 1976 and took one look around here, I would have screamed and thought I was thrown right in the middle of a sci-fi movie not knowing when the monster was going to have me for lunch.”
Plenty of things have also changed in Riverside since the making of “Back to the Future” in the 1970s and 1980s, including major changes to the Riverside City College campus.
New buildings have been erected including: a Digital Library/Learning Resource Center, a Math and Science building and a Nursing building.
“A look at our campus” published by Viewpoints March 26, 1976, shows how RCC looked, and the current set of campus photos shows how the school has maintained its image.
If RCC alumni walked around the campus today, they wouldn’t feel out of place.
Many of the older buildings continue to stay consistent to how they were.
The Landis Performing Arts Center is still creating theater productions.
The tree by the Martin Luther King building is still used for advertisements and announcements.
The Life Science building still lives, though it isn’t being used.
The Ceramics and Sculpture building is still used and still has the same sign as in 1976.
Although the Quad has gone through some changes over the years, it still remains the trademark of the college.
“The Quad has been renovated and remodeled three times since I’ve been here,” Krauss said. “So that’s forever. The Quad is RCC. It’s the symbol of RCC. “I think the essence remains the same.”
The soul of RCC is intact and it looks like it has its own time machine.
