Resting, Seeing, Enjoying

Here in the Northeast, as the snows melt in the early Spring sun, the great lawns emerge from their winter dormancy, turn greener, and carpet the open spaces as a visual icon declaring the campus presence.

The greenswards connect new and old institutions symbolically to their medieval ancestors. The lawns serve as backdrop and setting for adjacent architecture. When configured and engaged geometrically, the site composition displays its monastic precedents, especially closed quadrangles. In other instances, the arrangement of ground plane and buildings may be less rigid - i.e., the "open plan" concept seen by architectural historian Paul V. Turner as particularly American in origin.

Whether open or closed precincts, the opportunities for creating seating areas along the edge of the lawns should be given major attention in planning and designing the campus. Weather permitting, here are logical venues for resting, seeing, and enjoying informally campus life. High density locales should take into consideration the wear and tear on the landscape, thus paving beneath the seating becomes an essential design element.

Richard P. Dober