Bearkat Plaza

The land east of Avenue J was first used by the university for the Sam Houston Efficiency Apartments, built in 1945, and later the Rix, Wilson, and Frels apartment buildings.

The earliest attempts at making this a pedestrian-friendly area came in the early 1980s when roadways and surface parking were eradicated from central campus:

• Avenues I and J no longer ran uninterrupted through the middle of campus.
• The parking lots east of the Administration and Education buildings were removed and landscaped.
• The stretch of 19th Street between the LSC and Frels Apartments was converted into an area known today as the LSC Mall Area.
• The Rix and Houston apartments were demolished, replaced by the Drain Building. The resulting space between the Drain Building and Wilson Apartments was known as the LDB Mall Area.

The Alumni Fountain was installed at the western end of the LSC Mall area in the early 1980s. An Alumni Garden was added between the Alumni Fountain and LSC in 2002. During the summer of 2005 the Blatchley Bell Tower was built east of the Marks Administration Building. The Frels, Wilson, and Post Office buildings were razed in December 2006 to prepare for the next phase in the mall enlargement project.

Bearkat Plaza officially opened in November 2007. In August 2008, the Telephone Services building was removed thereby fully completing the expanded mall area.

The plaza is considered separate from the LDB Mall and LSC Mall Areas.

Since December 2007 the plaza has been the location of the annual Tree of Lights ceremony.

Around 2009 the university motto was spelled out in letters on a wall on the western edge of the plaza. It has since become the place to gather when told to "Meet at the motto." The individual letters were replaced by a new sign in 2014.