The Campus Guide: Yale University, an Architectural Tour

by Patrick Pinnell

Yale College, founded in 1701, is one of America's most revered historic campuses. Three centuries of Yale architecture cover a dynamic history of design, education, and national leadership. The conservative Yale of early colonial and Gothic buildings evolved to become a mecca for modern architects in the 1950s and the site of such notable works as Louis I. Kahn's Art Gallery and Yale Center for British Art, Paul Rudolph's Yale Art + Architecture Building, and Eero Saarinen's Ingalls Rink. Author and photographer Patrick L. Pinnell beautifully captures Yale's and New Haven's architecture and urbanism across 300 years. The guide also reveals much about the academic aspirations and educational philosophy that helped shape the buildings of Yale. The visitor will be guided on an insider's tour of the campus, and alumni will delight in new insights about their alma mater. This beautifully photographed guide reveals the stories behind more than 85 buildings, historic gardens, art galleries, theaters, athletic facilities, and works of sculpture on the Yale University campus. qExquisitely painted three-dimensional maps locate featured buildings on the campus and eight sub-districts-Old Campus; Arts Area; Memorial Quadrangle; Cross Campus and North Green; Law School, Graduate School, and Saarinen Colleges; Beinecke Library to Timothy Dwight College; Hillhouse Avenue and Lower Prospect Streets; Science Hill and Divinity School; Oak Street and Medical Campus; and Yale Bowl and the Athletic Fields. Archival photographs and drawings recapture fragments of "lost" buildings and recall notable historic moments. In all, this guide is for anyone familiar (or who wants to be) with the treasures of the Yale campus, whether student, alum, prospective student, or architecture buff.

Genres: Architecture

191 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1999

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

This and the Harvard version are engaging reads as they weave into the essays many general historical backgrounds and anecdotes of the campus in addition to discussions regarding the buildings themselves, thus removing this from the realm of the "guidebook" check-list format seen in so many AIA Guides. My biggest complaint is the general dismal level of the (frequently thumbnail) photographs, typically just one per building.