Professors, students and graduate students are collaborating for a project that will document the campus’s architectural and landscape history for future generations. Michael Desmond, architecture associate professor, received a $180,000 grant from the Getty Foundation to fund the Preservation Plan and a public exhibit that will be revealed in fall 2008. The Getty Foundation, which supports the promotion and preservation of art, provided the grant through its Campus Heritage Grants program. “This program was established by the Getty several years ago to help universities stabilize and preserve their campus buildings and grounds,” Desmond said. The Preservation Plan is on a two-year schedule. The group plans to conduct research in the fall and spring and analyze the findings in the summer. It plans to write the report on their findings in 2008. Sadik Artunc, landscape architecture professor, will document the landscape portion of the campus for the Preservation Plan. He said the University’s campus is beautiful and historic, so the plan will help the University enhance the campus. “We need to be sure we document that and bring it back,” he said. Paul Hoffman, history distinguished professor, will provide his coworkers with information about the campus’s historical development. He said the University’s 150th anniversary is in 2010, so the Preservation Plan will reflect on the vision of the campus’s first layout and its growth. “It just has a certain beauty and value to it,” he said. Desmond said the campus’s layout was based on a plan prepared by Theo C. Link, architect from St. Louis, in 1921. Link’s plan was inspired by a layout by the Olmsted Brothers of Brookline, Mass., one of the first planning firms in the nation. Desmond said the Olmsted Brothers had been invited to create a layout for the University that would accommodate 3,000 students. “When it was presented, the board decided it should be reduced in size to handle only 1,500 students,” said Desmond. “That is what prompted hiring Link.” Desmond said the campus plan that resulted from this process is “a very special one, unique in the campus planning traditions in the U.S.” The Preservation Plan will focus on 19 of the original buildings in the Quad in the 1920s and 1930s. “Our focus will be primarily to inventory the types of surface damage that exists to the building exteriors and make suggestions for repair,” Desmond said. “This will include the surface cracks, the windows and the doors.” Desmond said the University has not adequately cared for the campus. “Today, we have a very large deferred maintenance backlog,” he said. Desmond said the public exhibit will add an educational component to the Preservation Plan. He said the exhibit will feature a few architectural models of buildings on campus, display boards and photographs of the campus during its various stages of growth and development. Desmond said the Hill Memorial Library and the Union are interested in housing the exhibit, but its location is not yet determined.
—–Contact Angelle Barbazon at [email protected]