The 1960 dedication of the St. Olaf Center and of its companion Administration Building marked the completion of the last of three critical facilities projects of the 1940s and 1950s. The building of Rolvaag Library (1941-2) had addressed the intellectual needs of the college. The building of Boe Memorial Chapel (1952-3) ended a 30-year period in which the institution lacked its own place of worship. The St. Olaf Center was designed to centralize student dining, recreational, and social services for the first time and to provide those services to an enlarged student body.

The college’s enrollment in 1960 was about 1800; but President Clemens Granskou and Board Chairman H. P. Skoglund (read his dedicatory address) wanted to position the institution better for the college influx of the post-World War II baby boom generation. College enrollments in the United States were expected to double in the 1960s. The St. Olaf Center was intended as the centerpiece of an on-going construction program that would also provide up-to-date dormitories and classrooms for a much expanded student body. The building was sited mid-way between two developing wings of dormitories, one of which then housed women and the other of which housed men.

Although the St. Olaf Center was popularly renamed the “student center,” it was never intended exclusively for the use of students. Instead, it was regarded as a center for the St. Olaf community, as a common meeting place for faculty, staff, administrators, and alumni, as well as for students. Its fireplace and faculty lounges, its President’s and Kings' Dining Rooms, and the Lion’s Cage and bookstore opened the building to this broader college community.

The total cost of the Center and Administration complex was $2.2 million, an amount that was raised as part of the college’s most extensive fund-raising appeal to that date.