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Carolina architecture
August 25, 1975 Section D The Dally Tar Heel 3
by John Watson
DTH Contributor
A handy rule of thumb to
remember when considering the
architecture of UNC, or that of any
of our neighboring universities, is
that a university's architecture
must inevitably reflect something of
the character of the institution that
operates on its campus. Consider
N.C. State's red sunbaked brickyard
that matches so well the student
body, or Duke's pretentious and
gaudy neo-Gothic cloisters that
suggest nothing so much as a
second-rate Princeton or Yale.
UNCs architecture, an eclectic
hodgepodge of the excellent, the
competent and the miserable, is
equally indicative of the character of
the nation's first state university.
From the stately group of Old East,
South Building and Old West, that
have aged so gracefully and
handsomely since their construction
nearly two hundred years ago, to the
utterly reprehensible I960's South
Campus highrises, whose design
never should have left the architect's
drawing board, there is an
exceptional variety of buildings here
at UNC. Some of these buildings are
to be admired, others to be accepted,
and many, I fear, are to be deplored.
The incoming freshman may come
to find that his reaction to the
Carolina classroom may resemble
strongly this reaction to Carolina
architecture.
Much of the twentieth century
construction on campus is done in a
brick Neo-Georgian style, that was
obviously chosen by a staid and
conservative administration as a
suitably serene, and tranquil style
for a staid and conservative
university. The effect, as on the grass
between Manning and Carroll
Halls, can be pleasing and
harmonious, although hardly
exciting. Splendid work by the
grounds crew has made the area
around Manning, Saunders and
M urphy perhaps the most
aesthetically .pleasing - spot on
campus, particularly at cherry
blossom season in the spring, and
this has improved the effect of the
buildings tremendously. The newer
buildings across the way, Gardner,
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The Corinthian columns of the
Playmakers Theatre (above) are topped,
not with the anticipated acanthus leaves,
but with fresh ears of corn: husks, cobs,
silks and all.
Carroll and Hanes may with time
acquire a similar beauty. On the
whole the Neo-Georgian heart of the
campus is quite satisfactory.
Unfortunately some of the Neo
Georgian buildings on the fringes of
the campus do not merit such praise.
I would call Coker Hall, perched on
the hill, across from Kenan
Chemistry Labs on Highway 54, an
unhappy building, with its ludicrous
stone entrance that might have been
punched into a banal exterior by a
most insensitive automatic stamping
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The area around Manning, Saunders and
Murphy (right) is, thanks to the UNC
grounds crew, one of the most aesthetically
pleasing spots on campus.
machine. .
I cannot pass so lightly over the
Ackland Art Museum on the corner
of Franklin and Columbia streets.
The building is the first on the UNC
campus that the visitor coming from
Interstate 85 is likely to see, and a
more: discouraging introduction to
our university can hardly be
imagined. The Ackland is a
remarkable combination of the
boring and the hilarious. The
monotonous banality of its long low
exterior is broken only by the
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outlandish Renaissance dummy
windows pasted on each end, that go
with the building about as well as
flying buttresses would go with the
Parthenon. The interior of the
teaching wing is even worse: a
cramped rabbit warren, either
blazing hot, or freezing cold, and lit
so poorly that the studio art people
couldn't see what they were doing
and had to flee to Lenoir Hail. How
the art history department,
supposedly steeped in the traditions
of the West's finest architecture, can
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bear its quarters in the Ackland,
which is the worst Neo-Georgian
building at UNC, and maybe in the
entire world, is beyond me.
There are two particularly fine
modern structures on campus. Both
Kenan Stadium and the UNC Law
School are distinguished enough to
make one forget at least
temporarily, those two monuments
to the worst in modern architecture,
Greenlaw and Hamilton Halls.
I think Kenan Stadium is
especially good, nestled
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unobtrusively in the'pines between
civilization and South Campus. The
architect utilized his site perfectly,
creating a strong and impressive
concrete sculpture that dominates
neither the individual nor the
landscape, and yet holds 50,000
people for football games. It is a
brilliant achievement.
I am not as familiar with the Law
School, that hugs the hill rising
above the Astro-turf lacrosse field
on the east side of campus, but it also
appears to be an excellent building.
Like the architect of Kenan, this
architect has designed a structure
that conforms with the landscape.
He has incorporated the slope of the
hill into the design of the building, so
that the interior space flows
naturally from the entrance at the
top of the hill down into a snack bar,
offices, TV room and library stack
space at the bottom of the hill. Back
in 1909, Frank Lloyd Wright
showed with the Robie House in
Chicago how a building could
conform to its natural setting. The
architects of Kenan and the Law
School, working with entirely
different structures, have both
learned well from the old master.
The most amusing architectural
touch at UNC is to be found at the
Playmaker's Theater, a nondescript
little Greek Revival building from
the early nineteenth century that is
flanked by South and Steele
Buildings. Everything appears
normal until you run your eyes up
the Corinthian columns on the
porch of the east entrance. At the
top of each column is not the
anticipated bunch of acanthus
leaves, but an exquisitely carved
group of fresh ears of corn; husks,
cobs, silks and all. It seems that the
Americans built the structure in the
Greek Revival style to honor
Athenian genius, but to add a
homegrown touch replaced the
acanthus leaves with a symbol of
Southern agricultural bounty, ears
of. corn. These columns are
strikingly . visual evidence that
Americans were nouveaux riche as
early as the 1830's. Even in the year
of the Bicentennial, you are not
likely to find a more genuine
example of nineteenth century
Americana anywhere.