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Alum gives $17 million to Viterbi

Grant from Sonny Astani is the largest naming donation ever received by a college civil engineering department.

Janna Brancolini

Media Credit: Isabella Josefsberg | Daily Trojan Festive flair | USC President Steven B. Sample speaks at a ceremony honoring the naming of Viterbi School of Engineering's civil engineering department after alumnus Sonny Astani. Astani is a developer and designer in Los Angeles.

With a burst of red and gold streamers and "Fight On" blaring, the Viterbi School of Engineering civil engineering program was officially named the Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering on Thursday afternoon.

The change comes with a $17 million grant from USC alumnus, designer and developer Sonny Astani, whose contribution is the largest naming donation ever received by a collegiate civil engineering department, according to Viterbi officials.

In addition to preparing students to plan and implement various civil structures such as buildings, road systems and dams, the department of civil engineering focuses on earthquake-resistant building design, tsunami modeling, air pollution studies, groundwater and runoff studies and biological-pollution remediation strategies.

"My fervent dream with my work and my gift is for us to continue as a microcosm facing global challenges and urban living," Astani said to a crowd of Viterbi students, staff and alumni, as well as his family and friends.

Earlier presentations at the naming ceremony emphasized the contemporary role of the "megacity," which Viterbi Dean Yannis Yortsos described as a metropolis with more than 10 million people. Although there were only two such metropolises in 1950, there are currently about 20 worldwide.

While megacities are focal points of culture, ideas and commerce, they also pose significant challenges to developers and designers because they raise issues of expansion, infrastructure, transportation, energy, water distribution and susceptibility to catastrophes.

Astani, a native of Iran who earned a master's degree in industrial and systems engineering from USC in 1978, told this audience that he hoped his donation would help prepare USC's civil engineering students to successfully tackle these challenges - especially in the Los Angeles area.

Astani is chairman of Astani Enterprises Inc., a real estate development company that is working to revitalize Downtown Los Angeles. The company donated $1.5 million to a Skid Row Housing Trust project last year, which will house 115 mentally ill and homeless people.

"My passion has always been architecture and design, especially unique buildings," Astani said. "I was always eyeing downtown. We have everything there - the architecture, the high rises, museums, a vibrant economy with the jewelry and the fashion districts. I was always taken aback that nobody lived there."

Five years ago, Astani took a risk and purchased the two largest available downtown lots for development for $100 million. Astani Inc. now owns or operates about 4,000 apartments and 2,000 condominiums and lofts downtown.

"I am very glad to have an active part in this urban movement," he said.

Astani said USC's strategic location near downtown and his positive experiences there made it a perfect candidate for a donation.

"There's a natural marriage between civil engineering and the environment," he said. "USC is near downtown. The young people who learn here can help cities and make them more sustainable."

Though civil engineering students said the technical nature of their coursework leaves little room for detailed lessons about sustainability, Brandon Pernell, a senior majoring in civil engineering, said he agrees with Astani's vision.

"That's the way of the future: green building," he said. "I support it. I would definitely like to learn more about it."

Marjan Baghaie, a first-year doctoral student in electrical engineering, said she was very proud to see a fellow Iranian make such a large contribution to the school.

"He is quite an inspiration," she said.

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