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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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