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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 21, 1997)
laniisiiuMnimv^PAltTOHE The Legacy of Lawrence The architect and visionary Ellis E Lawrence designed many of the core campus buildings and continued to guide University planning until his death By Dennis Bolt Oregon Daily Emerald Ever wonder who is respon sible for planning any pos sible parking garages? The people who would help design a campus garage are also the ones who are planning a new law school and a new indoor prac tice facility. They are the archi tects and the committees that make campus planning deci sions. The idea of a “campus” is em bodied in the collection of his toric buildings, quadrangles and open spaces that make up the University’s 280-plus acres. A Jive-part series chronicling historic campus buildings ■ TODAY: Campus Punning ■ TUESDAY: Deady Hall ■ WEDNESDAY: The EMU ■ THURSDAY: Knight Library ■ FRIDAY: Hayward Field What be gan as a bar ren wheat field, blocks from down town Eugene, grew from one lone building to dozens of classrooms, residence balls, offices and sports fa cilities. The unify ing feature is a formal grouping of older build ings original ly developed by preemi n on t Oro<ir»n architect and planner Ellis F. Lawrence. The earliest formal plan for the University was drawn by Lawrence in 1914. The quad between Deady and Johnson halls was already in place, and Lawrence took this as a precedent when he created the quad that runs from the library to Franklin Boulevard. Gates near the current law school were built to form a “proper and dig nified” entrance, according to historian Michael Shellenbarg er. After becoming the campus planner and architect, Lawrence founded the second school of ar chitecture on the West Coast in what is now fittingly called Lawrence Hall. He would go on to design 17 existing campus buildings and develop several plans that would guide Univer sity planning until his death in 1946. Lawrence’s most successful buildings are grouped around the library and Gerlinger Hall. His Museum of Art and Knight Library are two of the best exam ples of Depression-era integra tion of art and architecture and are listed as National Historic Places. The Pioneer Mother statue graces his other complete quad rangle between Gerlinger and Johnson halls. Campus experienced a large increase in its student popula tion after World War II, and as sociates of Lawrence built the Erb Memorial Union in 1950, while huge-scale residential buildings were rising east of the EMU. This unplanned growth after the war culminated in the Lawrence Lackey Plan of 1962, which included buildings on top of the Pioneer Cemetery. This was the era of buildings such as Prince Lucien Campbell Hall, Onyx Bridge and the ma DENNIS BOLT/Emerald The “Pioneer” statue sits in the oldest quadrangle on campus. He is symbolic of the few rugged individuals who helped forge a university out of a barren Eugene wheat field in 1876. jority of the older science com plex, as well as Walton, Hamil ton and Bean residence halls. The 1970s brought a more re strained view of campus growth. Officials began to real ize that the formal but stylish ideas of Lawrence were being ig nored. Because of a greater interest in a specific direction for growth, the Center for Environmental Structure was asked to prepare some guiding principles for growth in 1973. The result was The Oregon Experiment, published by archi tect Christopher Alexander. To this day, this document is the background for expansion on campus. It does not specify a map for campus, but instead it quantifies what good campus growth should be like. The policy encourages stu dents, faculty and other users to be directly involved in the plan ning of any buildings. Along with organic growth, transportation was considered important to any future plans for campus. The current Long Range Campus Development Plan calls for the creation of a "local transport area” around the University. This plan at tempts to discourage the use of private vehicles by encouraging pedestrians, bikes and public transport. During the 1980s, many parts of campus were changed. The late 1990s has been another era of great changes. The law school will be moving to a new build ing near Hayward Field, while an indoor recreation center will be built next to Esslinger. An in door practice facility broke ground earlier this month next to Autzen stadium. The EMU will be renovated, and Allen Hall is being altered as well. Ac cording to the Planning Office, the current renovation on cam pus will cost a total of roughly $60 million. The new science buildings, the 1994 Knight Library wing and the new law school are ma jor structures built since Alexan der was brought in to consult. All these buildings have some thing else in common — the “Percent for Art” program, which mandates that a portion of the budget be included for public art. However, Chris Ramey, cur rent director of University Plan ning, stresses that the modern viewpoint on campus is to "re pair and enhance the older buildings” while “looking out for leftover space. ” Each building on campus is supposed to work with the oth ers, and they share the legacy of Ellis Lawrence’s design. In his own words, Lawrence said he designed the campus to be “not monumental or institutional, but homelike, inviting, quiet.” (•Except small cones and tinies. 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