The Center for Character and Leadership Development (CCLD) is the first and only facility of its kind in the nation: a unique institution and focal point supporting the total integration of character and leadership into all aspects of the Air Force Academy experience. The Center will conduct sophisticated research concerning contemporary challenges of the military experience and their relationships to the Academy mission and will proactively support the cultivation of leadership through its comprehensive physical, programmatic, and conceptual structure. The signature element of the facility is an oculus tower with a vertex that point to Polaris, the north star and guide of world travelers for centuries.

Matrix Design Group provided landscape architecture, lighting design, civil engineering, and land surveying for the Honor Plaza surrounding this state-of-the-art facility. The plaza includes a series of at-grade fountains and reflecting pools that create outdoor rooms which function as extensions of interior spaces. The Honor Plaza will serve both the academy cadets and faculty, as well as provide event space for visiting heads-of-state and private-sector clients.