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04 · Classical & Gothic Revivals

Collegiate Gothic

c. 1890–1940

Stone quadrangles with pointed-arch gateways, Tudor arches, tall towers, oriel windows and mullioned windows on university campuses.

Look for

Pointed arch Oriel window Bell tower Courtyard
Harkness Tower, New Haven, Connecticut: an example of Collegiate Gothic architecture
Harkness Tower, New Haven, Connecticut. Photo: Sage Ross, CC BY-SA 3.0
Duke Chapel, Durham, North Carolina
Duke Chapel Durham, North Carolina · unknown, Public domain
Cathedral of Learning, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Cathedral of Learning Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania · Pjah73 at English Wikipedia, Public domain
Brookings Hall, St. Louis, Missouri
Brookings Hall St. Louis, Missouri · unknown, Public domain
Suzzallo Library, Seattle, Washington
Suzzallo Library Seattle, Washington · Martin Kraft, CC BY-SA 3.0

what it is

Collegiate Gothic is English Gothic adapted for university campuses, built mostly between the 1890s and 1940. Buildings are faced in stone, or in brick with stone trim, and are grouped around quadrangles (enclosed courtyards) in imitation of Oxford and Cambridge colleges. Typical features are pointed-arch gateways, Tudor arches (flattened pointed arches), tall towers, oriel windows (bay windows projecting from an upper floor) and windows divided by stone mullions (vertical bars).

Examples include Cope & Stewardson's Brookings Hall in St. Louis (1900-1902), James Gamble Rogers's Harkness Tower in New Haven (1917-1921), Julian Abele and Horace Trumbauer's Duke Chapel in Durham (1930-1935), and Charles Klauder's Cathedral of Learning in Pittsburgh (1926-1937). Gothic Revival began about 1740 and was used for churches, houses and government buildings, such as the Palace of Westminster in London. Collegiate Gothic is the campus form of it, and its tall buildings, such as the 42-story Cathedral of Learning, hide a steel frame behind limestone.

how to spot one

Pointed arch An arch whose two curved sides meet at a point, called the apex. It is the standard arch of Gothic and Gothic Revival buildings and pushes outward less than a round arch. Oriel window A bay window that projects from an upper floor without reaching the ground, carried on brackets or a corbel (a stepped stone support). It is common on Gothic Revival, Tudor Revival and Chicago School buildings. Bell tower A tall tower that holds bells or a clock, rising from or beside a church or public building. The open stage near the top where the bells hang is the belfry, and a freestanding bell tower is called a campanile. Courtyard An open-air space enclosed by the walls of a building or group of buildings. It brings light and air to inner rooms in Roman, Islamic, Chinese and Spanish Colonial houses.

Also look for

Tracery windowCrenellationSteep gableButtress

history

Gothic Revival buildings went up on American campuses from 1829, beginning with Old Kenyon at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. Harvard's Gore Hall followed in 1837-1841. The Philadelphia firm Cope & Stewardson, founded by Walter Cope (1860-1902) and John Stewardson (1858-1896), became the leading exponent in the 1890s, with Radnor Hall at Bryn Mawr College (1887), the Quadrangle Dormitories at the University of Pennsylvania (1895) and Blair Hall at Princeton (1896). After Stewardson's 1894 trip to England, the Pennsylvania buildings were changed from stone to brick with stone trim.

Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge planned the University of Chicago campus in 1901-1916, Ralph Adams Cram designed Princeton's Graduate College (1911-1917), and James Gamble Rogers built the Memorial Quadrangle (1917-1921) and Sterling Memorial Library (1927-1930) at Yale. The style peaked between about 1900 and 1940, with Duke Chapel finished in 1935 and the Cathedral of Learning dedicated in 1937. Modernist architecture replaced it on campuses after World War II. Princeton and Yale commissioned new Collegiate Gothic buildings again in 2014-2017.

where to find it

University campuses in the eastern and midwestern United States: Yale's Harkness Tower in New Haven, Duke Chapel in Durham, Brookings Hall in St. Louis, and the Cathedral of Learning in Pittsburgh.

easy to confuse with

Palace of Westminster, an example of Gothic Revival Gothic Revival Medieval drama revived: pointed arches, steep gables, patterned stone window bars, and strong vertical lines. Liberty London, an example of Tudor Revival Tudor Revival Storybook medieval English: decorative dark timber over stucco, steep gables, and massive patterned chimneys. King's College Chapel, an example of Perpendicular Gothic Perpendicular Gothic English late Gothic: thin stone bars running floor to ceiling, enormous gridded windows, and fan vaulted ceilings. Keble College, Oxford, an example of High Victorian Gothic High Victorian Gothic Pointed arches and steep roofs on walls banded in contrasting red brick and light or dark stone, with heavy towers.