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On a more pleasant note: A most beautiful college campus list
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Replies to: On a more pleasant note: A most beautiful college campus list
Miami U (Ohio) was definitely gorgeous--green and pretty buildings. I liked the campus itself a LOT but D said it creeped her out because all the buildings looked the same and they all looked so perfect.
To each his own!
http://csnbbs.com/thread-564078.html
Central part of the UVa grounds, designed by Thomas Jefferson.
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Some colleges are mainly beautiful because of their architecture. However, some people get obsessed with uniformity of architecture, which is not always good. Many other campuses are well know for a beautiful setting (such as lakes and mountains or ocean views), but their individual buildings are nothing special. Other campuses are mainly known for their great canopy of mature trees.
Also the video posted above confirms my memory that we didn't find UVA to be all that pretty. It seemed barren and muddy. To each his own as the poster above said.
Those lists are horrendous. One building does not make a beautiful campus, it is the entire campus. Plus, some of us think most of those iconic buildings are ugly, could be anywhere, etc. Old architecture- so many of the buildings are interchangeable. So many flat, boring campuses make the list. I see very little architecture that fits the surroundings. I also see many depressing buildings that were built to impress but not my style.
They need to look at overall campuses, not have a most beautiful building to make the list. When you look at the photos they are just a bunch of period architecture that is usually fairly boring or ugly.
It's interesting how they chose rural campuses- they are more likely to have more beauty due to the proximity of nature. There are some more urban campuses that are more beautiful- sometimes an oasis in the midst of a city, or like UW, an oasis in a city lucky to have good natural topography.
Just goes to show how subjective things are. Kudos to those who go for the people part of a campus, not external appearances. Most of those old buildings lack the creature comforts that make for a more pleasant experience- think heating and air conditioning for one.
http://engberganderson.com/project/hiram-smith-hall/
U of Colorado is not known for its old buildings but for all the modern ones built of the same stone and roofs. My daughter really likes it because it is uniform. She liked the USAFA. She wasn't crazy about Florida Southern because some of the buildings are Frank Lloyd Wright and some are old southern buildings with columns. Messy.
Larger (to midsize) schools: Cambridge (UK), Oxford (UK), Princeton, Yale, William and Mary, Colorado, West Point, Indiana University, Chicago, Berkeley, Stanford, UVA, Dartmouth, Duke.
Smaller schools: Richmond, Swarthmore, Washington and Lee, Sewanee, Vassar, Kenyon, Mount Holyoke, Sweet Briar, Colgate, Union, Bryn Mawr (I haven't seen some that get noted such as Bucknell, Furman, etc.)
I like to visit campuses, but it is difficult to evaluate them when the weather, time of year, and time elapsed since the visit may play a factor. I broke it into larger and smaller schools since it is tough to compare them. Larger schools often some more impressive buildings and spaces, but sometimes have areas that are not nearly as nice (e.g. medical centers, etc.)
Kenyon, Swarthmore, Darthmouth and UVa have some of the most gorgeous campuses I've ever seen, but one university hasn't been mentioned..
Where's the love for Vanderbilt, guys? ;;) The campus, the area, the students. They're all just too damn good looking, how is this so?!