Goodbye black brick quad

Alumni at a forum on new architecture at Princeton universally excoriated Butler College. "A failure," said one panelist. "A failed experiment," said another. University Architect Jon Hlafter '61 said that black brick walls and waffle ceilings do not appeal to students, especially those who get stuck on a top bunk (the photo above shows my interim housing in 1941 Hall). Panelists neglected to mention the bathrooms that serve as hallways.


Hlafter led a well-received tour of campus after the forum. With evident enthusiasm, he told the stories behind dorms, arches, courtyards, and landscapes. Along the way, Hlafter revealed some of his personal preferences, despite diplomatically praising the virtues of a "diversity" of architectural styles.

He loves the seamless addition to Clio Hall; the cylindrical elevator behind Whig, not so much. Whitman: beautiful, though expensive. For all its detractors, the Gehry-designed science library is closer to budget than Whitman. It's harder to find skilled masons and suitable stone quarries than it was in the 1930s, Hlafter explained. As for the new buildings cupping Poe Field, Hlafter is very pleased with Bloomberg, thinks the Scully architect failed to make his vision "resonate," and would like the Carl Icahn lab more if it produces a Nobel laureate.

Pausing before 1942 Hall in Butler College, a member of the Class of 1942 asked Hlafter, "What will be done to memorialize our class — the money we poured into that building?"

Hlafter said the donor classes, Mr. Love and Mr. Lourie will be duly recognized in a courtyard or garden in the new New New Quad. Unlike bicycle-rack rooftops and waffle ceilings, trees never go out of style.

-- Ross Liemer '08, Princetonian senior writer