Chapter two case Studies

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY

The campus does not rely on any one extraordinary individual building for this spirit; its charm arises from the surprises of its vistas or the contrasts between open space and enclosure that are products of the planning approaches taken in its 250 year history. Amongst its buildings, a network of large and small open spaces interweaves. Humanized in scale, they provide edifying environments for relaxing, studying or merely passing through en route to other destinations. The importance of landscape has long been recognized by the university.

Harold Shapiro, president from 1988 to 2001, acknowledged,

One of the university’s most valuable resources is the beauty of the campus landscape. The landscape is similar to a work of art in the powerful responses to beauty it is capable of eliciting from us, and the pleasure it gives us.⁵³

Historically, the psychological heart of the campus is Canon Green, the open expanse between Nassau Hall and Clio and Whig Halls, but carefully planned and maintained landscapes are dotted throughout the grounds. McCosh Walk, for instance, is a pedestrian path creating an east–west axis across central campus to the Engineering Quadrangle, shaded by a colonnade of soaring elms and beeches. The college courtyards, Scudder Plaza before Robertson Hall, and McCosh Court beside the University Chapel provide places of tranquillity and calm.

The precinct around the Chapel was designed by Beatrix Jones Farrand, and no discussion of Princeton’s campus could go without mention of the landscape gardener whose work is as defining a part of Princeton’s environment as is Collegiate Gothic. From 1912, Farrand spent 30 years shaping the campus, and established the rules which continue to guide landscape design at Princeton. She instituted systematic guidelines for its landscaping to provide uninterrupted views and circulation and to emphasize the architectural lines of buildings, through climbing plants and creepers. Farrand cleared shrubs and low branching conifers that hindered movement and views; chose plants that bloomed in spring or autumn to coincide with the school’s calendar; and used creepers and wall plants within quadrangles to keep them uncluttered. Whitman College’s espaliered hydrangeas and climbing Boston ivy continues patterns established by Farrand. This perpetuation of landscaping traditions positively contributes to the unity of campus.⁵⁴

The thoughtful planning and stewardship of Princeton’s physical environment has produced one of America’s most impressive scholastic settings. This setting is the product of the campus’s gradual evolution, shaped by a series of distinct chapters of growth and several master plans. Since its earliest incarnation as a large single structure set in open green land which pioneered the use of the word campus, Princeton has been a trailblazer in campus organization. From its geometric and symmetrical neo-classicism of the 1830s, to the informality of the picturesque nature phase of the 1870s, to the distinctive silhouettes and quadrangular planning of Collegiate Gothic, and the appearance of modernism and post-modernism in the second half of the twentieth century, Princeton’s campus epitomizes many of the collegiate planning trends of the last 250 years. It has succeeded in uniting these by utilizing the constant themes of human-scale building and enclosed landscapes. An intimate network of outdoor spaces framed by richly decorated architecture, Princeton has carefully carved for itself an identity that powerfully proclaims its values, history and ambitions.