I looked at the linked piece and I have to say that it’s not an unattractive place. Some of the designs and defined spaces are actually pretty cool. Being on a mountain top in Vancouver BC doesn’t hurt either.
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I am from the East Coast so maybe something different just resonates with me, but when touring with my older son, I thought UCLA was the nicest campus I have seen.
I also liked Stanford quite a bit, and I went to a small but pretty college, but when I saw UCLA, man.
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If we are going to consider universities outside of the USA, then the University of British Columbia also has a beautiful campus. However in its case it is not the buildings that stand out to me. UBC is in the middle of a forest on the western edge of Vancouver. There are lots of hiking trails through the forest. There is a botanical garden, and separately a Japanese Garden (Nitobe Memorial Garden). There is a beach on three sides (the fourth side is Vancouver). Large logs wash up on the beach. You can sit on the logs and look out at the water and in some locations look out at the mountains. There is a museum of Anthropology that Americans might call a “Native American” museum complete with totem poles (and lots of other things). There also happens to be the largest cyclotron in the world and a small farm. In the winter there will be a lot of clouds and rain, but occasionally the clouds clear and you look up and there is a mountain staring at you (or at least you are staring at it).
And I agree that the view from the Simon Fraser University mountain top is quite impressive.
Of course “most attractive campus” can be a tough competition, and a matter of opinion.
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I really love Pitzer college’s campus in Claremont CA because it does such an incredible job of feeling like it is of that particular place. Xeroscape landscaping with plants native to the California desert. Architecture from the mid-century to a contemporary feel that both embrace indoor/outdoor living and take into account environmental impact. The physical campus aligns so well with its environment, the history and culture of Southern California desert (with Palm Springs resort inspired vibes for the freshman quad and pool looking out to the San Gabriel mountains), and the curriculum and ethos of the institution. I find the synergy to be absolutely fantastic design. It is beautiful and inspiring.
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No kidding. That’s basically my favorite part of North America, both sides of the border, from a purely aesthetic perspective.
And then the level of commitment Simon Fraser had to this style of architecture, courtesy of Arthur Erickson and George Massey, is really quite impressive.
That article was fun, and this part really struck me:
The new school’s first chancellor, Dr. Gordon M. Shrum, had provided a few informal guidelines to give the contestants an idea of what he was looking for in a successful design. Among his recommendations were that students should be able to move from one part of the university to another without going outside, and that the large lecture theaters should be grouped together rather than scattered over the whole campus. But he also wanted a campus that would project a view to the future, and would look just as modern in 1995 as it did in 1965. Erickson and Massey’s brutalist modernist vision was just the thing (which is somewhat ironic, considering most people’s view of brutalist modernism today).
Again, just me, but I really do like it when I can see that sort of fantastical element–in this case of the “school of the future” variety–carried through so boldly into college architecture.
Also a great passage about Erickson:
He was a devout modernist, and strongly disliked post-modernism. In a speech he gave to his alma mater, McGill University, in 2000, he said“… after 1980, you never heard reference to space again. Surface, the most convincing evidence of the descent into materialism, has become the focus of design. Space - the essence of architectural expression at its highest level - has disappeared." I couldn’t agree more.
Again, agree or disagree, I do like architecture with a strong point of view. And when I look again at pictures of that campus with his commitment to space as the primary mode of expression in mind, I can see many things to appreciate.
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I assumed this didn’t need saying out loud, but we should just stipulate that opinions on all things aesthetic are subjective and that these rankings are stupid. Yes, of course, beauty, or the perception of it, is going to vary by person (sorry Plato). But do you know anyone who thinks the Alps are ugly?
Subjective, sure, but we still try to impose some basic level of objectivity to inherently subjective things. We do this all the time in different and sometimes subtle ways, such as by employing the logical fallacy of appealing to authority, or sometimes by being intellectual about a particular subject where we try and “prove” a thing’s beauty by reference to this or that quality of the thing (think about the architectural egg heads who purport to tell you why some building is or is not beautiful or significant somehow), and then of course we tend to do it by consensus.
So, sure, there will be always be greater and lesser degrees of agreement about whether some things are or are not beautiful, and yes, there is always some curious person out there who thinks the Alps are ugly. But I wouldn’t trust that person to pick out a white collared dress shirt out of my closet or to prepare my taco; they’re too far removed from the forms of good taste.
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I agree. UCLA has a beautiful campus. The kind of place from which you hate to ever have to graduate because you have to leave. I also think UC Berkeley has pockets of real beauty, and the history of that campus is amazing. When you’re walking by the building (that least fits architecturally btw) and the tour guide points out that some huge percentage of the elements on the periodic table were discovered there, you know you’re walking by something with serious historical heft. I think the white-ish federal style buildings there with the terra cotta roof tiles are just awesome. And the Sather Gate. I love it. Housing is a nightmare and the surrounding area can be a little much for me. But it’s a beautiful and historically significant place.
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Just got back from Georgetown, the Jesuit cemetery is a small plot of land in between buildings in the center of campus. Looks quaint. SUNY-Cortland may have it the worst. Cemetery splits the campus into two sections.
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My husband is a Clemson grad; I am a UCLA grad. He always talked smack about how Clemson has the most beautiful campus he had ever seen…even more so than Duke or UVA…until we were in LA and we went to visit my alma mater. As we walked around campus, he got really quiet…and eventually had to admit (because he is an honest and upstanding man) that UCLA has a
truly stunning campus, much more so than any college in the southeast…including Clemson.
There is something to the combination of light and landscaping and architecture in Westwood that is truly magical. I first saw that campus when I was a freshman in high school, decided I would go there, and I did. Last year someone on here wrote that there was so much traffic around LA that their student refused to even tour UCLA, which seemed a shame to me.
Whether or not UCLA’s magic beats out the cherry trees at UDub is, of course, up to the French judge. 
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Hmmm Clemson isn’t that nice (it’s nice but not bonkers nice) but the people are. UVA has a historical charm but it’s not top shelf nice like Va Tech or even JMU. UCLA is very nice. But it’s not Va Tech nice - so there are colleges in the SE as nice 
Maybe he gave in because happy wife = happy life
Niche agrees with you btw having UCLA #1. Va Tech #4. JMU #8.
Hate when I’m wrong !!! Ha ha.
Interesting 4 SEC schools in the top 12 - Bama (agreed…it’s so clean), UGA - very nice and how they integrate the football stadium is cool but top 12 - not close. Auburn - very nice, organized but wouldn’t think top 12. And Ole Miss.
For kids who get into UCLA and UCB, why would anyone choose UCB ?
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First of all, because Cal is a better school.
Also, the Cal campus is nice too! (More to my taste than UCLA’s campus, but that might be because southern CA as a whole is not as much to my taste.)
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This quote reminds me of D26s and my visit to Northwestern. She HATED it. There were too many different styles going on. Why is there a building with Spanish tiles here?
Had to look it up, and apparently Northwestern’s eclectic style is a thing from way back.
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It has been a minute, but I remember liking Northwestern’s campus, including the setting.
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IMO, the best part of Northwestern’s campus is the setting on Lake Michigan.
I also think it’s too much of a mishmash of styles. And I hate brutalist architecture mixed with college gothic. Pick one ; ).
I felt this same way at Cornell.
Man, we are different. Are you sure you don’t put ketchup on your tacos?
vs.
Their locations are polar opposites so I can see people having a clear preference of one over the other. But while there are some nice elements at Virginia Tech - and yes, my choice of photographs is intended to be complimentary of each as every campus in the country has ugly buildings - I would chose UCLA over Va. Tech … EASILY. Each campus plays on a theme and certainly someone could say each has too much of this or that. Fine. But for me, the monotone of grey stone wears thin pretty quickly. UCLA has a lot of red brick but the buildings bring a lot of classic architectural interest to the table that I don’t think is as present in the Va Tech campus. That’s a big difference between the two IMO. There are many campus buildings around the country that look like the Va Tech grey limestone “Collegiate Gothic-Light” collection. But when you flash one of the core UCLA buildings, everyone knows where you are.
We let weather into these conversations even though that’s not really about the campus, although it affects campus life. To that extent, UCLA has some of the best weather in the United States. There’s a reason there are so many people there.
We do agree on one thing: Clemson is nice but not spectacularly nice. It’s clean and well put together but entirely forgettable IMO. Certainly not in UCLA’s league. Maybe Va Tech’s.
Neither tacos nor fries. And when it’s on my table, i move it to another. It’s NASTY
PS - we haven’t even spoken about Syracuse yet Maybe that’ beats them all!!
Niche gives a B - for BS. But many don’t like walking up the 100+ steps multiple times a day to Flint and Day Hall (dorms).
Berkeley is definitely not ugly. While I’d give the nod to UCLA on overall campus beauty, Cal has the views and the Camponile, or Sather Tower, which is an icon.
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Of course this is also a matter of taste! My kids and I prefer the Pacific Northwest rainy cloudy mossy ferny biome. Fortunately our beloved planet has something for everyone.
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Plato hates everyone in this thread except for me!
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Never been to UCLA (although I worked in Westwood briefly) or VA Tech, so I have no idea which photos belong to which university (except the one that has the flag that says UCLA), but I like the last one the best with the trees. I suspect that’s VA Tech, but not sure. I am for sure not bowled over by that photo with the UCLA flag. That building doesn’t do a lot for me.
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