This is the City College of New York.
These old buildings really provide a scholarly backdrop.
Or they kind of look like they’re Hogwarts
It’s the same here, at Princeton, the University of Chicago, Yale annnnd a
whole bunch of other american universities But...this architectural style was most
popular between the 12th and 16th centuries - before any of these schools even existed!
So if these universities aren't as old...why
is their architecture? CHEDDAR NEWS
Many of America’s oldest colleges -- like Harvard or William & Mary-- don't really look that old.
Instead, they mostly resemble the colonial style -- reflective of the centuries they were built in
But others look straight out of the middle ages…
Why? Two words: Collegiate Gothic
This was a revival of gothic architecture that swept across American colleges...
It took heavy inspiration from original gothic, which is recognizable by its pointed arches,
Flying buttresses, Rib vaults, and the occasional stained glass window.
You know, like the Notre Dame, the Cathedral of Milan, Westminster Abbey..
Though the origins of the Gothic Revival movement in the US aren't super clear..
..Kenyon College's 'Old Kenyon' residence hall built in 1829 is usually regarded as the first
instance in which we see elements of the style on a college campus...
But it was what happened at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania
a few decades later that really started the movement,
See, In the late 1880’s, Bryn Mawr hired the architectural firm Cope & Stewardson to design
their campus...which later included this beauty: Pembroke Hall. (1894)
After seeing the building, other colleges hired the same firm.
Thus the collegiate gothic movement was born In fact, the more money a college got,
the more they intentionally made their new buildings look older
See, Universities in the US wanted more “street cred”…
New universities were springing up across the country throughout the 19th century...
all competing to attract the best students and solidify a prestigious reputation.
So, how to sell that idea? Look like the ones that were: Cambridge & Oxford
Cambridge and Oxford are both peak Gothic, built just as the movement gained popularity in Europe
And these were [and are] world-class institutions - distinguished. Prestigious.
So american universities essentially said “copy paste”
“They also came to believe that English collegiate architecture best facilitated this sort of
serious scholarship; its enclosed courtyards and cloistered seclusion were ideal for the life of
focus they desired for their students. “ For one Adding these quadrangles or
‘quads’, gave the campuses “the epitome of a scholarly academic retreat. ‘(UChicago)
By constructing these ‘academic retreats’ in bustling cities,
architects, like Henry Ives Cobb at University of Chicago, wanted to “remove the mind of the student
from the busy mercantile conditions of Chicago.”” Woodrow Wilson, Princeton alum and future
president of both the school and these United States, had this to say:
by the very simple device of building our new buildings in the Tudor Gothic Style,
we seem to have added to Princeton the age of Oxford and Cambridge;
we have added a thousand years to Princeton by merely putting those lines in our buildings”
And the architects they commissioned brought their visions to life.
Like Architect James Gamble Rogers who introduced an American Gothic style on Yale’s campus
To this day.. A myth circulates that Rogers threw
acid across Harkness Tower to make it look older ...probably thanks to overzealous
student tour guides. And at bryn mawr….
Still, the American collegiate gothic style did include some new elements
Like using “rough fieldstone walls with white limestone moldings for entrances,
window surrounds, buttress caps, and parapets.”
Also, many american collegiate gothic buildings
had more of an open campus feel, as opposed to the OxBridges, closed courtyard
But, overall these universities took some serious inspiration from OxBridge’s old appeal
And as the architecture solidified the status’’ of Yale and Princeton, other public colleges
took note, like the City College of new york designed by George Post,
here... the collegiate gothic architecture was also aspirational...
But the hype of this style began to die down in the mid 20th century
Universities started embracing other architectural styles like
modernism ...and even critics would show their displeasure for the collegiate gothic movement
By end of the 1960s , Princeton had added 26 new buildings -- none were Gothic
But while the heyday of the collegiate gothic movement
is over, -- it might be making a comeback.
In 2004, Princeton began construction on its Whitman College -- a gothic structure...
...and more recently, in 2017, the University of Southern California debuted its U-S-C village,
which resembles “Hogwarts” from the Harry Potter series
Though...No word on whether chucking acid on the new buildings was part of the protocol.
Former USC president CL Max Nikias said that the Collegiate Gothic style “would provide “1,000
years of history we don’t have.” ‘(LA Times) ...echoing a similar sentiment from Wilson,
decades earlier... Because while you can’t add time,
you can build buildings that say otherwise...