The campus comprises a variety of different environments; its northern half is a Botanical Garden, with extensive sports facilities at its east, west and south.

These converge in the center of the campus at the Tierra de nadie — green space and woodland pertaining to no discipline — and the Plaza Cubierta complex of shared buildings and the titular museum of permanent modern art features.

Though elements of the campus face both natural and deliberate deterioration, it remains a landmark of Venezuela, and maintains its excellence in design and planning.

Built on the site of the old Hacienda Ibarra (which originally belonged to Simon Bolívar's family) and connected to the new city center at Plaza Venezuela, the project required a massive undertaking in both urban planning and architectural design.

The selected location gave Villanueva a unique opportunity to apply his conscious integration of art and architecture on a grand scale.

Villanueva worked closely with all the artists who contributed with their oeuvres and personally supervised the project for over 25 years until the late 1960s when his deteriorating health forced him to leave some buildings in the design stage.

[citation needed] After the death of Juan Vicente Gómez, urban renewal became a large focus; Caracas saw "extraordinary urban-renewal plans", including Villanueva's "Synthesis of Arts" architecture, beginning with the El Silencio complex in the city center.

[4]:56 Though the campus is unlikely to be seen as an urban project by modern definitions, it is seen as among the grand architecture that put Caracas on the map and helped to promote tourism and migration.

[4]:55 The government of President Isaías Medina Angarita bought the Hacienda Ibarra in 1942, in order to expand the university beyond the limited space it had at the Saint Francis Covent.

Villanueva altered his designs in 1949; he was able to redesign and complicate the process because of the economic and political situation he and Venezuela were in, wanting to do so for personal and professional reasons.

Events that have impacted the health of the gardens include the 2010 El Niño drought, the invasion of the Giant African snail, thefts of groundskeeping equipment, electrical blackouts, and other financial issues restricting the care and management of the facilities.

[4]:356 The Plaza Cubierta is noted for having perforated walls, sections of open roof, and a series of ramps linking elements, giving it a feeling of flow.

[9] In 2013, an open library incentive was initiated in the covered walkways of the Plaza Cubierta, as an art project and to promote book-sharing and enjoyment of the campus recreational spaces.

[12] The Modernist art is not only historically renowned, but was used to the benefit of propaganda in the 1956 American film Assignment: Venezuela, trying to encourage oil workers to move to Maracaibo.

The interior of the hall is considered artistically and architecturally significant, especially its most notable feature, Alexander Calder's acoustic 'clouds', which serve both aesthetic and practical functions.

Some of these works include Arp's Berger des nuages, Laurens's L'Amphion, Pevsner's Projection dynamique dans l'espace au 30° degré, and Lobo's Maternidad.

[4]:359 [a] The international artists who contributed to the campus include: Hans Arp and Sophie Taeuber-Arp, André Bloc, Alexander Calder, Wifredo Lam, Henri Laurens, Fernand Léger, Baltasar Lobo, Antoine Pevsner, and Victor Vasarely.

Venezuelan artists involved include: Miguel Arroyo, Armando Barrios, Omar Carreño, Carlos González Bogen, Pedro León Castro, Mateo Manaure, Francisco Narváez, Pascual Navarro, Alirio Oramas, Alejandro Otero, Héctor Poleo, Braulio Salazar, Jesús-Rafael Soto, Víctor Varela, Oswaldo Vigas, and Lisbhet Mariela Ojeda D'Elía.

[1] UNESCO describes it specifically as "an outstanding example of the Modern Movement in architecture" and adds that "[t]he university campus integrates the large number of buildings and functions into a clearly articulated ensemble, including masterpieces of modern architecture and visual arts, such as the Aula Magna with the "Clouds" of Alexander Calder, the Olympic Stadium, and the Covered Plaza.

[1] There are bodies with the purpose of creating plans to protect the site, but UNESCO reports that these are disjointed and do not work together, advising that the Cultural Heritage Institute right down to COPRED — the university's Consejo de Preservación y Desarrollo (Council of Preservation and Development) — and the separate management interface of the Jardín Botánico, as well as the regional offices of Venezuela responsible for the area at different levels of government, need to coordinate.