Architectural responses to academic development

Construction, Architecture, and Renovation as a Means of Advancing Campus Life

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Argument

The construction, architecture, and renovation of buildings has helped IU succeed and grow as a university by locating certain areas of study (colleges, schools, and majors) in buildings whose architecture and design appropriately represent the values of the certain field (history, business, journalism, etc.) to students and prospective students, as well as locating similar areas of study in buildings that are close in proximity to each other. As colleges and universities around the nation grew and evolved over time, IU had to grow and evolve in order to be a competitive institution. IU did this by expanding their programs and designating special buildings for certain areas of study. As more and more students started to enroll at IU, the university also had to build enough academic buildings to hold the growing population. Most of the buildings constructed from the 1880’s-1960’s followed the popular architectural theme of the time, and more or less many buildings could have housed different areas of study because their design was not focused towards a specific area. After that, mostly in the last 15 years, IU has started to construct and renovate buildings with a specific area of study in mind so as to better suit the students and teachers who would be utilizing that space. Common areas also start to take on a bigger role in the new buildings. The timeframe I will be looking at takes place from 1884-present, the start of IU moving from Seminary Square to its current campus.

Object

The main object I have picked for this project is a painting of the IU campus that is hanging in the archives in Wells library. It is a picture depicting a part of campus from 1949. It shows all the buildings comprising the Old Crescent, as well as Dunn Woods. The secondary object I have chosen is the scale model of campus that can be found in the IMU. This shows a more complete representation of IU’s current campus. I like looking at both of these objects because it shows how the IUB campus has changed and stayed the same over the years. On the IU Building Information website you can see which buildings (academic buildings for this project) specifically were around in the painting and which buildings have been added or removed from the scale model (IU Building Information). It also shows when each building was built, its location, its primary use, and the architect. On the IU Chronology website you can see what big events were happening around campus and the state when each building was being built (IU Chronology).

Analysis

According to University Institutional Research and Reporting, when IU moved to the present-day campus in 1884 it had a student population of 156. By 1938 the population had grown to over 5,000. Population went down during World War II, but soon regained it’s population shortly after the war in 1945. By 1948 though, the population had more than doubled to over 11,000. By 1965 it had doubled again to over 23,000. By 1975 the population had grown to over 32,000 when in which the population roughly stayed the same until 2005. From 2005 to now the population has increased to almost 50,000 (University Institutional Research an Reporting). All of these statistics are important because it shows how in the beginning IU had to construct buildings to deal with the increasing population, and now IU constructs and renovates buildings in order to increase its population. Herman B Wells even set the locations of Wells Library, the Auditorium, and the Art Museum in anticipation of a new center of campus (IU Campus History). From 1884-1938 IU built around 20 buildings for academics to deal with the increase from 156 students to over 5,000 (IU Chronology). Then from 1939-1948 the university built approximately five more buildings to cope with a double in population, and from 1949-1965 approximately eight more buildings were constructed in response to another double in population. Since 1966 though only about 15 buildings have been constructed. Around this time, IU focused on renovating its existing buildings to fit the purpose that it needed. Since 2007 there have been roughly 40 renovations and additions to buildings on the campus (Construction.iu.edu).

As IU grew and evolved different areas of studies got placed in specific buildings. Initially this was to make sure that buildings located near each other probably housed similar areas of study. As time went on, design and architecture became a more important aspect of the construction of buildings. Not only were buildings just supposed to hold students while they learned, but the buildings themselves were supposed to help the students learn. “Educators considered the power of architecture as powerful as the content of their teachings … The design of schoolrooms often favored various theories of pedagogy in handling interactions between students and teachers” (Shah & Kesan, 354). This is when design and architecture became really important, “Architecture is instrumental and as well as ornamental and symbolic; it serves a function; it is subject to the laws of physics; and it is also an art form,” (Whyte, 154).

The IU Campus History PDF says the early buildings comprising the Old Crescent were built with Victorian and Romanesque designs. Franklin and Rawles Hall, as well as Bryan Hall and Myers hall, were designed with Gothic features that set the tone for future buildings being constructed. Starting in the late 1950’s, buildings were starting to be designed with a Brutalism style, like Ballantine Hall (IU Campus History). Hodge Hall is designed to represent a corporate setting for those studying business, Global and International Studies building has stones from around the world built into it, the newly renovated Franklin Hall is designed with technology to foster a world of media that is becoming more digital, and the Fine Arts museum stands out among all the other buildings since itself is supposed to represent art and its many forms. Even Luddy Hall, which is still being built, somewhat resembles a computer to house the Informatics program. Architecture is now being used to symbolize certain values based on what area of study the building houses. For example, “a number of newer federal courthouses are in a modern style akin to corporate headquarters. This modern corporate exterior provides a perception of the law as efficient, predictable, and stable, while masking people’s preconceived negative perceptions about the legal system’s lack of efficiency and legitimacy” (Shah & Kesan, 352). While not courthouses, the academic buildings are now being planned to project certain attitudes and values. IU has shifted from building to hold people to building to attract people.

Digital Component

For this project I would like to do mapping over the timeline that I said above, 1884-present, in order to show which buildings were built first and what followed after that. It will also help show how certain areas of study have grown or moved around campus. The metadata I would use for the mapping would be the building name, address/location, primary use/function/area of study, year built and renovated, and the architect and the style it was designed in. The mapping would be useful because it would be interactive in a way, you can click on a building and see the info that comes with it and from that you can see what building are close by, built around the same time, house similar areas of study, and designed in a similar fashion or by the same architect. An assistant would be helpful for this portion because he/she could walk all around campus and take pictures of every academic building. After all the buildings have been photographed the assistant could then classify each building based on the architectural style it represents. The assistant also could enter the building name, longitude and latitude, area of study, year built, and possible architectural style into a spreadsheet since that would take up a ton of time. They then could enter the spreadsheet of the buildings into Carto for mapping purposes. But there is not much written about the architecture here at IU, and not all of the styles of buildings are readily available so there could be some holes in the project in relation to this aspect. Carto would show a map of IU’s campus with dots representing all the academic buildings, and if you click on each dot it would show all of the building information.

Results

Once I entered all of my data into Carto to make the map, the map revealed that change happened in stages. Campus started on the southwest side of the current campus and most of the buildings were built in Victorian and Romanesque styles (1880’s-1910’s). Then campus expanded eastward on 3rd street and northward towards 7th street. A lot of these buildings were designed with a Collegiate-Gothic style since it was popular during the time (1920’s-40’s). After that, campus started to expand north to 10th street and east to Jordan Ave. The buildings during this time were mostly built in a Brutalism design (1950’s-70’s). Once these three stages passed, the general shape of campus resembles what it does now. The university started to renovate already built buildings to suit the needs of the students. Only quite recently, with Hodge Hall, Luddy Hall, SPEA, Jacobs School of Music, and Global & International Studies building has the university started to build to suit the needs of the specific area of study, with the exception of Chemistry and the sciences. So initially, buildings were constructed in the general style that was popular at the time and areas of study were not dead set in a particular building. But recently, buildings have been constructed with the area of study it will house in mind. This points to a trend going forward that IU will continue to construct and customize buildings based on what area of study they will house, instead of just constructing buildings to house classrooms that could be used for any area of study. Also, most buildings constructed during the earlier periods were uniform in their classrooms configurations and only had classrooms. Buildings now at IU have various forms of classrooms including computers labs, traditional classrooms, workshop rooms, and conference style rooms. These different rooms help students make the most of their learning experience. The new buildings also have bigger and accentuated common areas to foster relations and group communication. Some general study buildings are necessary and fiscally responsible, but the specialization of buildings points to IU advancing as an institution of higher learning and greater preparing its students for the real world. For more information on IU’s recent and future building projects, you can visit the Vice President for Capital Planning & Facilites website and construction.iu.edu.

Bibliography

  • “Campus History.” Campus Evolution. http://masterplan.indiana.edu/iub/evolution.pdf.
  • “Indiana University Bloomington.” IU Building Information. Accessed March 27, 2017. http://buildinginfo.indiana.edu/.
  • “Indiana University.” Construction.iu.edu. Accessed March 27, 2017. http://construction.iu.edu/#!?location=IU%20Bloomington&status=Complete&title=.
  • “IU Chronology.” Indiana University Libraries. February 28, 2017. Accessed March 27, 2017. https://libraries.indiana.edu/iu-chronology.
  • “University Institutional Research and Reporting.” University Institutional Research and Reporting. Accessed March 27, 2017. https://uirr.iu.edu/#.
  • Shah, Rajiv C., and Jay P. Kesan. “How Architecture Regulates.” Journal of Architectural and Planning Research 24, no. 4 (2007): 350-59.
  • Whyte, William. “How Do Buildings Mean? Some Issues of Interpretation in the History of Architecture.” History and Theory 45, no. 2 (2006): 153-77. http://www.jstor.org.proxyiub.uits.iu.edu/stable/3874104.