In a campus landscape defined by the celebrated names of overseas benefactors—Wu Shunde, Lui Che-woo—the South Main Building possesses a distinctively functional anonymity. Its title refers simply to its geography. Anchoring the southern precincts near the Tiansha River, this structure has served as the university’s operational cortex since the institution's formative years in the mid-1980s. While the twenty-two-story North Main Building dominates the skyline, the South Main Building retains a grounded authority, prioritizing governance over verticality.

The architecture creates a curious vertical timeline of the university's priorities. The upper levels, particularly the sixth floor, house the Graduate Work Department and procurement offices, spaces characterized by administrative continuity and quiet decision-making. Conversely, the ground floor has been adapted to house the AI Visual Technology Experience Center. Within a shell that has witnessed nearly four decades of history, the physical space forces an immediate proximity between the bureaucratic traditions of the leadership and the machine-vision technologies of the future. It stands as a pragmatic structure, holding the weight of the school's administrative memory while incubating the tools of the next generation.