Princeton's Architectural Legacy

By Patrick Wilson

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A column-free structure supported by three interlocking shells with Buckminster Fuller–influenced geodesic trusses, the Jadwin Gymnasium is a spacious facility that can host many events simultaneously.

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Detail of the interior of Rafael Viñoly’s elegantly suspended bleachers inside Princeton University Stadium.

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Cantilevered canopies at Princeton University Stadium.

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A temporary installation by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei stands guard in front of Minoru Yamasaki’s 1960s Robertson Hall, home of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Yamasaki is often referred to as a modern Romantic.

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Interior of Robertson Hall by Minoru Yamasaki, who is better known for having designed Manhattan's original World Trade Center. In the ceiling treatment shown, one can see influences of classicism as well as Japanese origami techniques.

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Jadwin Gymnasium, designed by architect Walker O. Cain & Assoc. and opened in 1969, is a 250,000-square-foot facility spread over five levels. Its desconstructed swooping roof is a precursor of things to come, especially in the work of Frank Gehry.

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Fisher and Bendheim Halls, designed by Venturi, Scott Brown and Assoc. and completed in 1990.

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Rafael Viñoly’s colosseum-like Princeton University Stadium, which seats nearly 30,000 fans, replaced Palmer Field in 1998.

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In keeping with the scale and friendliness of existing buildings on campus, Venturi, Scott Brown and Assoc. used patterned bricks, broken pediments, and bowed apses for the exterior of Lewis Thomas Laboratory for Molecular Biology, completed in 1986.

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Gordon Wu Hall, designed by Venturi, Rauch, and Scott Brown and opened in 1983, is one of postmodernism’s great buildings. The architects referred to classical graphics to highlight the entry façade.

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The two-story, wood-framed neo-Gothic entry to Gordon Wu Hall echoes characteristics of earlier period buildings on campus.

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Michael Graves and Assoc. completed a renovation in 2009 of the Wilcox Hall façade and interior, which also served to unite the building to Gordon Wu Hall’s dining facility.

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Scully Hall, designed by Machado and Silvetti Assoc. and located near the Carl Icahn Laboratory building by Rafael Viñoly, functions as the main gate to the ellipse containing the playing fields.

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Rafael Viñoly’s Carl Icahn Laboratory of the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, completed in 2003, has an automated brise-soleil (shading device) that embraces the playing fields.

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After a 1969 fire destroyed much of the 1895 classical Whig Hall, Gwathmey Siegel Kaufman Architects added a symmetrical twin sister to Clio Hall. The 1971 modernist intervention is housed within the remains of the structure, clearly articulating new and old.

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With his design for the Lewis Library, which opened in 2008, Frank Gehry continued the tradition of other campus architects of carefully responding to the surrounding buildings while simultaneously creating something entirely original.

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Designed by Henry Cobb of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners and opened in 2009, the Butler College dorms feature a warm-colored red brick that harmonizes with brick on surrounding buildings.