The Campus Guides: More than a Local Resource [Reviews]

The Campus Guides: More than a Local Resource David Moffat Later this spring Princeton Architec- tural Press will release the Campus Guide to Illinois Institute of Technol- ogy (IIT), the latest in a series that is fast becoming an essential resource for understanding the role of campus in North America today. At some twenty volumes and grow- ing, the series is primarily aimed at local audiences: alumni seeking to recall the source of their affections, students exploring new environ- ments, faculty and staff wandering on unstructured lunch hours. In service of such readers, the books record the stories behind important buildings, open spaces, monuments and artwork. But they are further distinguished for a general readership by essays that discuss the campuses as important ensembles of buildings. It is here that the Campus Guides provide the most valuable insight into the ideals of American college life as it has evolved over the last several centuries. Continuing Themes In the introduction to the Campus Guide for Princeton, Raymond Rhinehart notes how Le Corbusier once likened the American university to a “green city.” In this regard, Princ- eton “is… the ideal city — a market- place for ideas set in a garden.” While partisans of other alma maters might dispute this claim, few would disagree that American campus design sets up such expectations. More than just an infrastructure of pipes and wires and walkways, a campus provides a physical record of how a university has seen itself through time. Further, writes Rhinehart, campus design is often not simply meant as an “expression of value,” but may be “enlisted to shape values.” Reading across a range of the Guides, one soon becomes aware of other important themes, especially an ongoing tension between overall orga- nizing ideas and the siting and design of individual buildings. While cam- puses are often conceived as perfect ensembles, they are never realized that way. Indeed, as different administrative and aesthetic regimes come and go, fundamental ideas may be challenged, replaced, forgotten — and reborn. In other words, a constant cycling Moffat / The Campus Guides