Title: Architecture & Academe: College Buildings in New England before 1860
Abstract: Architecture & Academe: College Buildings in New England before 1860 by Bryant F. Tolles, Jr. University Press of New England 2011 217 pages ISBN: 978-1-58465-891-7 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The trustworthy Mr. Tolles lets history, rather than his own speculations, speak for these beautiful campuses, each college basking in its own unique glow. His effort stacks up as dependably and timelessly as the Old Brick Row. The task of building and sustaining America's first higher education institutions could be a serious and difficult job. The lack of trained architects, limited funding, an ongoing threat of fire, and (at times) unruly students all posed challenges. In this book, Bryant F. Tolles, emeritus professor at the University of Delaware, applies a lifetime of experience to the task of documenting the early architecture and campus development of New England's higher education institutions. The result is a well-written history of pre-civil war campus buildings that draws heavily on the records of individual colleges and other archival sources. Mr. Tolles' passion is borne of a career focused on the architecture of New England that includes teaching, authoring books on regional architecture, serving in professional and leadership roles for historical societies and museums, and a desire to further develop his doctoral dissertation on a similar topic. Accordingly, he works in a deliberate way, going campus by campus through New England, capably gathering the many facts and exhibits describing each building project and assessing its role in campus development. The book's first section on the Colonial period begins with chapters on Harvard and Yale, then Brown and Dartmouth, pairing campuses in logical groups. This is followed by a second section on the period between the Revolution and the Civil War, in which he continues the method of grouping campuses, this time by state, including Williams and Bowdoin (Massachusetts); the University of Vermont, Middlebury, and Norwich (Vermont); Amherst, Holy Cross, and Tufts (Massachusetts, again); Trinity and Wesleyan (Connecticut); and Colby and Bates (Maine). The benefit of this approach is that it identifies key precedents during the Colonial period that provide a starting point for later campus discussions. The facts surrounding each building's history and role in campus development make up the heart of each chapter. For instance, University Hall (1815-15) at Harvard is a typically well-organized example. The author first characterizes the building in a general way as of Harvard's most famous and architecturally meritorious structures (p. 18) and documents Charles Bulfinch's planning and design intentions (including Bulfinch's early campus layout diagram). There is a detailed description of the building's striking architectural features (a three-unit composition, Federal-style character, Ionic capitals, fully articulated entablature); the building's multipurpose functions (president's office, six classrooms, chapel, dining hall); its materials (Chelmsford granite); and its cost at the time ($65,000). The expert use of building terminology supports a well-reasoned architectural critique, a method the author applies to other campus buildings and one that yields a complete portrait of the early campus. The persistent use of this approach in other campus profiles helps the author identify shared interests and information exchanges, a primary focus of the book. As the author notes in a key introduction, Throughout the entire region, colleges and universities participated in active cultural transfer, sharing evolving concepts of living and learning within continually changing physical environments (p. 9). A featured example of this exchange is Yale's admirable Old Brick Row, which the author champions time and again as an inspiration to campuses in the region. He traces the spread of its influence to a surprising number of the campuses in the book. …
Publication Year: 2012
Publication Date: 2012-10-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 2
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