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Monday, January 28,1974
University Daily Kansan
Kansas Staff Photos By CARL DAVAZ
Campus Architecture Criticized
By JACQUE WHITE
Kapan Staff Reporter
Campus architecture at the University of Kansas spans eight decades. Variety in design and material is great, as apparent from the contrast between Spooner Museum, the oldest building, and Wescoe Hall, completed this month.
But, according to Charles Kahn, dean of the School of Architecture and Urban Design, the new buildings haven't met the requirements of quality design exhibited by the old ones.
"I don't think there are many successful
"FIVE OF THE new buildings on campus have been an addition to the quality of the environment," he said. "This is a beautiful building." He has done as many architects has improved it."
contemporary buildings on the University of Kangas campus," said Kahn.
Kahn said that Nunemaker was a possible cause because it was responsive to its site. Because it was responsive to its site,
"It is spacially exciting," he said.
Nunemaker was designed by a private architectural firm instead of the state architecture firm.
to build Nunemaker, which made it possible to circumvent the state architect
He said he thought Wesco Hall was undistinguished as a building.
"YOU GO INTO those rabbit-warrants call offices, and see whether you like to be a part of that."
One of the building's greatest fallings, he said, that the facade that faces the building was broken.
"Wesco ignores the demographic importance of Jayhawk Boulevard as a major people place," Kahn said. "It has turned its back on you."
Dyce nai vieweu rrom Spooner Museum
"They sit on opposite sides of the street and acknowledge each other."
"In scale and detail, Wescow isn't responsive to the character of the campus at the time of our visit."
According to Behinger, Spooner is Richardson-Romanesque. This style was popular in the United States when Spooner was born and was characterized by stone and red trim.
"Spooner was quite competently designed," Besigner said. "In the process of trying to make it over into a museum, though, it lost some of its qualities."
KAHN AND CURTIS BESINGER,
professor of architecture, agreed that Spooner Museum, built in 1893, was one of the best-designed buildings on campus.
"It has proportion, graciousness, attention to detail and style," said Kahn. "Somehow, it seems to be in harmony with its site."
Besinger he also liked Dyce Hall, which was built in 1901. The front entrance of Dyce was copied after that of a church in Arles, France, he said.
"DYCHE AND SPONDER relate strongly to each other," Besinger said. "They sit on opposite sides of the street and acknowledge each other. Their doors are on the same side. The materials, colors, roof configurations and surfaces are similar, though the details aren't."
According to Robert Taft "At the Years on M. Ordread," the 1923s was a great decade for building at KU. Nearly $5 million were built and a number of buildings on campus greatly expended.
The Kansas Union, Watson Library,
Corbion Hall, Memorial Hall and Hoch
School.
Besinger said the Union was an example of a style called Collegiate Gothic and was designed by Chicago architect Irvine K. Pond. He said the present building consisted of the original building and three later additions.
OTHER EXAMPLES OF Collegiate
Auditorium,
Snow Hail and Wakenberg Light
"Watson Library is like the buildings built at Princeton and Yale at that time, with great, high walls and many windows". Besinger said. "Collegiate Gothic originally went back to the style of buildings at the universities in England.
Strong Hall, said Besinger, was an example of the classical style. Although it axels columns, he said, it has the mass and axial development of a classical building.
He said there wasn't any truth to the hat. Walt was built backwards. Originally.
Nunemaker College
Green Hall
were made to build Strong facing the other direction. This was in line with a plan, he said, to build a gymnasium and a stadium in the valley that Strong overlooked. He said there would also have been a long, straight path that would be to Strong, in keeping with the classical contours.
Besinger said that since the 19th century, an architect could design a building in just any style he pleased. He said, however, economics were often a consideration.
Kahn said architects couldn't be blamed completely for failing to achieve a high level of quality in the architecture on the KU campus. A great deal of the response was addressed with the system by which architectural communications are handled in Kansas.
STRONG HALL WAS built in three sections. The east wing was completed in 1912, the west wing in 1917 and the central portion in 1923.
Bessinger said these plans were probably abandoned because of lack of space.
He said that in the 19th century, campus buildings were usually built with Oread limestone, which could be quarried northwest of the present stadium.
By law, Kahn said, the state architect was the architect of record for all buildings in the state government. He said, however, he never really performed the actual design tasks for major projects. This is done, he said, by associate architects chosen by the state government.
Kahn said the second architect had to accept an unreasonable time schedule for completion of the design to keep the University from losing a federal grant that would help finance the building. The problem with the time schedule, he said, was partially responsible for the lack of success in the final desig
However, when Lindley Hall was built in 1942, craftsmen had lost the skills for cutting Ourea limestone. Instead, the builders used stone from Junction City, which was easier to cut and shape and was therefore cheaper.
Wescoe Hall, he said, was an example of a structure built with both pre-cast and cast-in-place concrete. This was done partly for economic reasons, and partly for economic reasons, he said.
WESCOE HALL HAS a particularly unfortunate history, Kahn said. According to Kahn, when the bid on the original design came in, it was substantially over the budget. The decision was made to retain another architect for a second desim.
"The possibility of political intrusion into what should be a professional arena, when coupled with an unrealistic fee schedule, can lead to a failure in architecture quite remote." Kahn said.
Dyche Hall
"in cases like the library, Hoch and Snow,
it was very fashionable to build with Indiana limestone. I assume that it was fairly economical at论时." Besmier said
"It costs less than to lay up native stone," he said.
"This system not only doesn't encourage excellence, it doesn't encourage a modest attitude."
F
The School port meet Dyk
Strong Hall
Wescoe Hall