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colleges aim to match the old Just how different will Yale's 13th and 14th residential colleges be from the neo-Gothic colleges that are so intimately associated with Yale? As little as possible, preliminary drawings suggest. The two colleges will be arranged around courtyards of various sizes, will feature towers as landmarks, and will be dressed in the buttresses, pointed arches, leaded-glass windows, and limestone trim associated with the Gothic style. As a concession to cost, the exterior will be mostly built of red brick, with less of the sandstone that is seen in abundance on the oldest colleges. Architect Robert A. M. Stern '65MArch says Jonathan Edwards College -- also mostly brick -- is "a good representation" of what the new colleges will look like. Plans and a model of the new colleges were shown to the public for the first time on May 28 and displayed at reunions over the following two weekends. In a slide presentation, Stern emphasized the pragmatic and aesthetic care that has gone into shaping the plans. The largest courtyard in each college (for now, they're called simply "North College" and "South College") is sized to accommodate a tent large enough for commencement ceremonies. Each courtyard has lower buildings on its south side to bring in more daylight. And the corner of Prospect and Sachem streets -- opposite Ingalls Rink -- is set aside for a future undergraduate theater building to help insure the area is busy at night. With 425 beds apiece, the new colleges will be about as large as Silliman -- the largest existing college. And as in Silliman and Timothy Dwight, the new colleges will house freshmen. The plans call for the demolition of every building currently on the site, a triangle bounded by Canal, Prospect, and Sachem streets just north of the Grove Street Cemetery. There had been suggestions early on that the Seeley Mudd Library, a storage library built in 1982, might be reused as part of the plan. But University Planner Laura Cruickshank says that "getting further into site planning, we realized we couldn't fit the colleges around the library." The choice of Stern -- who is dean of the School of Architecture and is known for his facility with historical styles -- as architect meant it was likely that the colleges would be traditional in design, but until now many speculated that they would be Georgian, like four of Yale's existing colleges. But Stern said at the presentation that "Georgian is not as central to our DNA as Gothic." New Yorker architecture critic Paul Goldberger '72 says he is of two minds about whether a traditional approach is appropriate for twenty-first-century Yale. He also warns that Gothic "is difficult to do on a tight budget." But, he says, "what's very clear is that Stern has decided to go head to head with the master" of Yale Gothic architecture -- referring to James Gamble Rogers, Class of 1889, who designed eight Yale colleges, Sterling Memorial Library, and the Law School, among other buildings. And "if anybody can pull off James Gamble Rogers in the twenty-first century, it's Bob Stern." The
new colleges are part of a plan to expand enrollment in Yale College by 15
percent. They were originally scheduled to open in the fall of 2013, but
construction has been postponed due to the economy. Although gift funding has
been secured to allow the design process to continue, the university is still
looking for donors to fund construction. Yale vice president Bruce Alexander
'65 says the earliest possible date for completion would be 2014.
I was disappointed and saddened to read about Yale's plans to build a large new complex of pseudo-Gothic buildings. When I attended the Yale School of Art, I was very proud of the university for its philosophy of hiring the best of contemporary architects to design new buildings. With modern works by innovators such as Saarinen and Kahn and Rudolph, I felt the campus was an architectural gallery for the work of the best and brightest. I was very pleased and proud that Yale too saw this as an essential part of the mission for a great institution of higher learning. The world certainly does not need another building paying homage to an age gone by when we have many forward thinking, contemporary architects who can design buildings that inspire students and faculty alike. Yale has the means, and I believe strongly that along with the means comes the responsibility -- even in these difficult economic times -- to show the world that it has confidence about and faith in the future by looking forward rather backward. Looking backward shows nothing of interest to anyone. However, hiring great contemporary architects to design spectacular new buildings for Yale generates interest, respect, and excitement around the world.
Don't go backward The choice of half-baked medieval design for the new colleges is ludicrous. When I was at Yale in the late 1940s, Frank Lloyd Wright, Eero Saarinen, and many other fine architects lectured. They exhibited an understanding of how modern architecture was functional and custom-fit the era. At that time, the school was just leaving the Beaux Arts tradition. I even worked with Louis Kahn on a mural for a pavilion in the United Nations. To go backward is not even interesting. It shows to the world a reactionary, completely static, world view from a great institution. There are many kinds of architecture on the Yale campus. One sees medieval, Georgian, early modern, and such. Whoever chose a medieval style for the new structures lives in a strange world, certainly not a contemporary one. There are a lot of fine architects who can solve this problem without eclectic reasoning.
Colleges should be in the present Why not make Prince Charles a visiting professor to the Yale School of Architecture, where Robert Stern is dean? Robert Stern's design for the freshman colleges will relate to the James Gamble Rogers' neo-gothic buildings already on the Yale campus. Stern will design good spaces. He's talented. Thank God Chartres's Norman tower was not matched 400 years later. Thank God history is reflected there. Mr. Stern could use the Prince's support because the Prince prefers past styles over contemporary. The Prince is available. He just resigned from his design review role, reviewing public buildings in the UK. His fellow curators and UK architects thought him out of touch. The challenge, of course, is to lurch into the 21st century, to respond to context. Counterpoint can be good. I don't think Mr. Stern should resign as Prince Charles has. He is talented and a damned good dean. His students and peers would agree. But, please, Mr. Stern, encourage your students to be in the present. Challenge them. I bet you do.
No exhausted idioms What shall we call the style of the proposed two new residential colleges -- Legos-Gothic? So an exhausted architectural idiom is be rolled out again since "Georgian is not as central to our DNA as Gothic." Um, wouldn't Yale architectural DNA be encoded in Connecticut Hall? And to accomplish this, historical and otherwise handsome, useful buildings are to be razed to clear the site. Oh, just like 1950s-70s knock 'em down, doze 'em out Urban Renewal. That worked out well, as we know. Maybe this buttress just shouldn't fly.
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