Meanwhile European universities rarely have any (neo)gothic building because during projecting of new buildings they usually want to show how modern and open for future they are. Buildings of European universities usually represent the best and most modern architecture styles of times when they have been built.
Nah, in the UK, universities with modern architecture are less desirable. And 90% of these universities are ugly, brutalist or boring block architecture that is dull and unpleasant to be around
I prefer the older styles as almost everything in my town in America is super blocky and minimalist. It gets boring and stale quick, especially when your local farmers market goes that route…
Usually they are neo-classical because that is associated with the ancient, the classics, and education. Until concrete modernist buildings became common of coursw
This isn't just in the US, similar architecture can be seen in University College Cork (UCC) in Ireland which opened in 1849. I do love the historic feel to the place. A popular legend says that if you walk on the grass in the quad, you will fail your exams!
Heya Adam, fellow Corkonian. I'm convinced that the popular legend is the biggest mind game the grounds crew in UCC have played on us all, its easy for grass to be totally unkept if thousands of students trample on it, so why not invent a myth, and then students play it safe, and System wide across a whole campus you don't have to pay out every once in a while like a football stadium for new grass 😂😂
I used to live near Princeton and it was always cool to walk around the "old" buildings. Even the hockey rink is built in the gothic style. Fun place to see a game.
These colleges do refelect their time, revival styles were popular across the late nineteenth century, not just in America but across Europe and across all different building types, e.g. city halls.
I can admit these schools would’ve fooled me into believing their buildings were period correct. So many of them were established in the 18th and 19th centuries that I didn’t think too much about it. Never would’ve guessed that even back then they were copying from a style which was centuries older. Excellent video!
if you at any point lived in any place with older architecture (eg say at least 4-5 centuries) you can tell that while the buildings look oldish, they utilize newer materials and they lack the damage that is usually inflicted by the passage of time. I also recently visited washington dc and had the same experience while seeing the different buildings there. they kinda feel like amusement park buildings, so I do understand where the Hogwards comparison is coming from, since that one is a fake building to begin with :P
Loved seeing City College represented. I do want to point out that currently the main building that is used for like 70% of all classes is the North Academic Center, a hideous, universally hated building that was designed by a prison architect. I wish I could use these American/Collegeiate Gothic buildings more often Edit: I couldn't find any evidence that the architect actually designed prisons, however that's the common myth. And tbh he might as well have.
Another reason to dislike Modern Architecture... It's ALL about function, if it's not about Novelty.😅 I do remember that there is some water to that "Prison" style. If I remember, there's a videos about how college Administrations during the middle of the last century were getting sick of the students forming unions and protesting...so they made the newer buildings less comfortable and inspiring to help deter such things.
Yeah, those "modern" buildings always go out of date quickly and look tacky. These designs are timeless and give some serious gravitas to the university's function as a place of enlightenment.
In the UK at the same time, a number of colleges and seminaries used Gothic Revival style. I trained to become a teacher at an 1850s built college, complete with quadrangle, porter's lodge, and all of the features one would expect at Oxbridge, including the refectory with dais and "top table". I later did a degree at another college totally in the modern style. It never gave me the same feeling as the Gothic Revival college, somehow it lacked the gravitas that I'd come to expect. I understand why the colleges in the US wanted to distance themselves from modernity.
@@jamesrosewell9081 I mean modern architecture can be incredible when they try and stand out and be unique The majority of them seem to cheap out and build bland boxes
Thank God it’s coming back. The University of Toronto has Victorian buildings with aggressively neo-Gothic style and I love it. Modern architecture just can’t compete with that fantasy quality.
I go to uoft and I barely see any neo gothic style buildings, maybe only Vic/trin/uc but that’s about it and the campus is ugly compared to the ones I saw in this video. It needs way more gothic architecture and seperation from the city, especially on the south side of campus too many crazies near camh
These older architectural styles hold up better long term, compared to the most “modern” current popular types, that end up looking incredibly dated in just a few years
@@lukassvitek1432 not to mention that the quality of modern construction is highly suspect. Not only will they look dated in a few years but they will probably look pretty ragged
For me as a German, I don't think of medieval architecture at all when I look at these buildings. They look much newer than others in the colonial style. Maybe it's just because we have so much of both real and fake gothic architecture around.
Same feeling here. We know our cathedrals and churches and to us, that's gothic. They use english tudor gothic as a base, which is already a different style that's not really present in germany, maybe even continental Europe as a whole. For example, the window sets are kinda rectengular if you know what I mean, whereas all gothic windows I've ever seen in continental Europe are arched. We also don't have those small decorative towers you see with the US colleges and in tudor gothic in general. So it makes sense that to us, it looks gothic inspired but not what we'd recognise as properly gothic architecture. On another point, the brick gothic college in California just looked really out of place to me. They have gothic in Italy, but their variant reflects it's surroundings more, it fits with the architecture of southern Europe. The one in the video looked like someone took a hanseatic town hall and planted it in sicily, no offense to whoever designed it.
@@purplebrick131 yes you are right. As a northern German, these buildings look completely ugly. Looks like they wanted to take fake Tudor style, apply it to bricks and put modern roofes on top. They should have visited our cities here in northern Germany and northern Poland to get a feel for that style. It could be so beautiful
@@haisheauspforte1632 They don't all look *completely* terrible (eg, I find that the Duke University chapel feels a bit better than most on that video) - but yeah, most americans just don't have a very good sense of old building styles. They distinctly look 'new' in a lot of ways, and I think lose some of the charm compared to the various European styles they're ultimately drawing from. Unlike the colonial style buildings, which at least do feel distinctly american.
@@mattgopack7395 yes, these older east coast colleges look somewhat OK, I mean also romanticised but at least they tried to reflect the style. I was mainly referring to that Californian one, which looks really off. Venetian Palace with Dutch Tower and hanseatic red bricks. Looks like they looked at three buildings, one in Venice, one in Belgium and one in the US north east, copied some elements, used red bricks for some reason (hanseatic brick architecture looks really different, look at Lübeck Holstentor for example) and put modern roofes at the top because they ran out of money or something. Doesn't look sophisticated, rather a worse version of Disneyland, which itself is a worse version of traditional European architecture. Looks like they assumed gothic was just one generic style, where every element fits every other. But this is not the case. Gothic looks really different depending on place and time, a gothic building in Sicily does not look like a gothic building in the Baltics, you can't just blend every gothic style and add your own flavors of Renaissance and modernism without making the building looking fake
Absolutely worth it. You will spend at least 4 years of your life there and want your environment to be inspirational. Everytime I'm in our library, it encourages me to study hardy because I feel there is a reputation to uphold.
NYC is my hometown, and the architect never really struck me as "old style" when I see them around but rather glamorous. Even in modern day reconstructions projects, the 'shell' of buildings were never knocked down while the rest of the it were completely levelled just to preserve the intricate exterior design. Gotta love European style 👍
Great content Cheddar & Natalia! I went to CCNY and always admired how that part of the campus reflect what I thought was the architecture of its day (civil war era), but now I know they were trying to emulate middle age architecture! But as you move through the campus you can see how the NAC and the science building across from it is 20th century brutalist, the further down the school of architecture is 'modern' (late 20th to early 21st), and the newest advanced science research center on the southernmost parts built just a few years ago are glassy ultramodern. It's kinda like taking a walk through architectural history.
Modern campus architecture is typically tasteful and restrained, but these older styles...the people understood the importance of spectacle. Education isn't simply a serious, introspective pursuit. The campus ought to make a loud expression to the public as well. There's something charming about well heeled people doing something so obviously fake, it's wonderful
I went to Princeton, and the gothic style was very popular with the students there. Students would choose smaller rooms in the gothic dorms, and would prefer to have classes in the gothic buildings. The new gothic college, Whitman, has also been a hit with the students.
As an Oxonian, it's hilarious the lengths these US upstarts went to, to artificially age their buildings. Here at Oxford, the moment any stone sees any pollution or decay on the stone, they hastily put scaffolding up to buff it new. Many of the centuries-old buildings here look like the stone has just been quarried.
So in America, they purposely age their buildings to make them look more like the Universities in Europe. Meanwhile in Europe, they are constantly renovating their buildings to make them look more like the Universities in America
@@ROBYNMARKOW that's entirely true, one shouldn't choose a college entirely based on its campus architecture, but they are beautiful, and depending on how much value you put into aesthetics, absolutely worth the extra money and maintenance.
@@asdkotable yup like Oxford definitely beats harvard in architecture design and layout etc but it could be argued harvard is better academically and so forth
Interesting how Americans think so many things look like Hogwarts when they aren't even similar. I guess when you hardly ever see proper gothic architecture it's hard to tell the different types apart.
I agree, we don’t have any architecture like this in this country because well we aren’t that old, the only time we start with anything is really with colonial and forward. But yeah I agree, everything is referenced as Harry Potter and before those movies were made, everything was mid-evil 🙄🙄 forgive us lol… I do love this gothic style, it’s still my favorite style of history.
I always wonder that, Hogwarts is the go to comparison for anything gothic, Castle like or generally "old". Yet, it's fictional 🤣 America has achieved and changed an incredible amount in its short time of being a country. But it is a very short time, and the architecture is a dead giveaway for this. No wonder Americans are in awe when they walk around the ancient and narrow streets of Old English towns, or European villages.
As a UCLA Bruin and photographer for the Daily Bruin, I love the diversity of ornamental architecture on campus. Royce Hall is Italian to match the Mediterranean look of the Landscape. Kerkoff Hall looks and feels like a Gothic Castle. Some of the modern buildings on south campus have beautiful mosaics with scientific formulas as the art. The whimsy of the upside down fountain is a contrast for the austere Franz Hall. At north campus my favorite place is the Franklin Murphy Sculpture Garden, a favorite place to study, eat lunch or photograph someone. UCLA has had some really bad architecture, the worst being the eatery we called the bomb shelter, which was the most depressing place on campus. The 2nd most depressing was inside Ralph Bunch Tower which as the tallest building feels like a dungeon, even on the top floor (named after a great man and Angeleno). UCLA still is a beautiful campus. The UC system has some other beautiful campus sites. One site I like (camped there before it was built) is UCSD. Overlooking the ocean, I do not like most of its buildings, but there is still a lot of the natural landscape.
I never knew that this was the case. It makes me feel a little cheated but I love the look. For the most part, modern architecture bores me. The way the the walls are so mininal and flat makes the buildings look so cold and soulless.
Princeton has gotta have the most stunning campus in the US. Stanford and UCLA have that Romanesque Spanish Mediterranean look, Harvard has the colonial look and unis such as UCSD have the brutalist look (that library building). They all look good. But if you wanted the Hogwarts-esque look, Princeton has it best. I swear Princeton's campus looks best while its snowing. It feels like a college full of mages learning how to conjure up beasts from oblivion to harness the power of the Wild Hunt.
My vote is Bryn Mawr...very similar architecture, but at least half the trees on campus are cherry trees. Stunning in the spring. And the stone is (I think) primarily Weehawken schist that sparkles in the sun.
@@ariadne0w1 I went to Villanova, which is 1 mile from Bryn Mawr, walking distance, never did I think a small liberal arts college next door me would have so much history and significance to architecture lol
The University of Pittsburgh is so beautifully built. The old gothic style can be found across the university with huge, impressive modern buildings and pops of color all over campus. And the university is heavily invested in its maintenance and upkeep.
I attended The University of Connecticut. Many of those buildings were boxy cheap industrial structures built rapidly to accommodate students on the GI Bill after WWII. When I went to visit UCONN recently most of those plain boxes had received updated renovations with "gothic" facades.
Thoughts in the first half od the video: It's funny to see colleges wanting to age themselves, why not own up to their modernity? Adding arrowslits is ridiculous and backwards! Second half of the video: Ugh the new buildings are much more ugly, nevermind, gimme the medieval themed buildings again! :D
@Natalia Ryzak Whaaa you answered! Great video and yeah, I studied in Europe in actual old buildings but the problem is that some buildings old on the outside are also old on the inside! Hehe you can't always get the best of both worlds! :)
Snorri Thorfinnsson was the first European to be born in the Americas some 500 years before Columbus arrived. Columbus himself never settled in the Americas.
These retro buildings only look old. In 500 or 1000 years, if the buildings survive, the 19th and 20th century construction techniques will be recognized.
In the UK, one of the main dealbreakers for applying for uni was not having modern architecture. It’s always soulless glass buildings or ugly brutalist architecture
Love these buildings… the architecture is simply timeless while most “modern” buildings age very bad and their façades are modified after 10 yrs to look fresher.
i really like how the american ivy league schools were founded on the principles of bullshittery and keen marketing sense. it really kind of sets the stage, you know? for the show, i mean.
I'm pretty sure that "gargoyles" have to be water spouts. Thus the statues and carved faces from 2:30 onward are more correctly described as "grotesques".
@@AntPDC I read somewhere that the word Gargoyle is derived from the gargling sound the water makes as it is spouted from the roof of the buildings, and that the water is aimed to fall away from the footings of the buildings. Just some useless information to add to my collection!
It wasn't just US universities aping the Gothic style at that time. In the UK many large civic buildings were built in that style. The Houses of Parliament is probably the best known of these.
In Montréal, Canada, many English language institutions had the exact same aim, to appear old and prestigious, although being relatively new. However, they used old French Canadian religious buildings, namely convents, to add that special institution look.
Two things I would like to add. 1) The quadrangle was a pretty specifically North American adaptation. The original founders and presidents (many of who were Oxbridge alums) wanted to recreate that somewhat cloistered feel, but early colleges were built with the resources that were readily available to them, which for most of the colleges meant wood from all the forests in the eastern US as opposed to the stone of British universities. They were smart enough to realize that an enclosed courtyard of a wooden building was an absolute deathtrap given how prone the wood buildings were to fire and the lack of anything even resembling a modern fire department. Most of these wood buildings are no longer standing, but the blueprint of separate buildings creating a quad as opposed to a single building courtyard remained. 2) I would also like to add the concept of size of building. While Collegiate Gothic building may seem large on a human scale, they usually aren't actually that large compared to other buildings. Many of the first universities in the US were based in one building with universities almost competing to see who could build the largest building. But that fell off pretty quickly. It goes back to the idea of the quadrangle, where several smaller buildings could be used to create the cloistered feel of some British universities. Collegiate Gothic fits this layout because part of the style is also to emphasize human scale buildings while also being adaptable enough to go somewhat larger. In this way, the style fits the requirements better than other styles which may emphasize even smaller or much larger buildings. But that also creates a type of selection bias because a university with a style of much smaller building may not have enough students to have a large name and image that people would recognize, while a university with much larger buildings may have the enrollment, but by the nature of the larger building will likely have fewer of those identifiable buildings. The medium size style of Collegiate Gothic kind of places it in the sweet spot of being big enough and numerous enough to become synonymous with the idea of a university in our mind. If we had to build in already developed cities as opposed to the blank slates of land many of our universities got, perhaps we would have gone for a much smaller or much larger style, to either fit in or make the most of the space we had. And as for universities having modern buildings, you run into the issue of constantly have different styles as what is considered "modern" changes. Given that it often seems style changes are like a pendulum swinging back, universities which are expected to be around long enough to live through more than one "modern" architectural style could find themselves with an unpleasant clash of competing styles. If you are a campus planner and have no idea what the future might hold, its much safer to just stick with a previous style than worrying about how to fit the new with the old. That's not to say one option is inherently better than the other, just that one has more risk than the other, though it may also have more reward.
It’s definitely the Medieval Revival architecture in the late 1800’s. Romanesque Revival and Gothic Revival styles were very common in Europe, America Continents, Australia, and European colonies across the globe.
I like old architecture. It makes the building look more important than just function. Like the new and old courthouses in my town. The old building has a grand staircase inside with beautiful crown molding, marble floors, huge wooden doors with stained glass transients above them, brass fixtures... It's stunning. The new one is a three stories glass office building built in the 90s with absolutely nothing distinct about it. It doesn't fit in with a town that was mostly built in the early 1900s
We don't need modern architecture that won't stand the test of time. This applies to all educational facilities from grade school to universities. The ability to have buildings that you can open the windows and let in the air are proving their value in the age of Covid-19. Open spaces to study outside, yet protected from city noise free up the mind.
As you will see, my comment is obviously biased but... I attended W&M and prefer the colonial look/feel to the campus (old campus at least) that reflects the time the school was established and the country it was in.
This was very interesting. But I don't think the movement was restricted to just Collegiate Gothic, nor, possibly, was it a coincidence that the two examples in the video were Pennsylvanian colleges (Kenyon and Bryn Mawr). Where I grew up in Pittsburgh, there seems to be a blend of Gothic and Romanesque architecture throughout parts of the city. Yes, the Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh hews close to it and was built later (1930's - at likely the tail end of the movement), but the Allegheny Courthouse was built the same year as Bryn Mawr was founded and has similar leanings. There are a ton of churches in the area also built in the late 1800's with the same style and likely for similar reasons, as well as homes in Shady Side and, of course, the Carnegie Public Library . It's so prevalent in the city that even a modern building like PPG Place looks like a glass version of a gothic one. It stands to reason that that same "use gothic architecture to convey authority" in a lot of churches in Pennsylvania happened in conjunction with the Collegiate Gothic movement. Wouldn't be surprised if the architects or the architectural schools overlapped in some way. (Ironically my high school's architecture seems to mimic colonial structures like Harvard and William & Mary even though it built its campus in the 1920's. The middle school is gothic, but that was the style of the private mansion that was purchased and not planned that way. I wonder if there was a parallel architectural movement among East Coast predatory schools to model themselves after the colleges they hoped their students would matriculate into?)
I love the Gothic architecture of these universities. They just feel so different from the architecture I usually see normally in Chicago and it makes them "feel" more prestigious (yeah, weird stereotype!). And not just Gothic, but other types of architecture that makes universities look unique, like at the University of Virginia, which is gorgeous to me.
All the actual universities in Illinois have an older looking castle in them because the governor at the time said they wouldn't get any funding if the school didn't have one
My high school was built in American Collegiate Goyjic style in 1930-31. The lunchroom looked like a mediaeval dining hall, complete with timber vaulting and a massive fireplace at one end.
I went to USC both as an undergrad and grad while they built all the new "California Gothic" buildings (both the Business School and Communications School got new facilities in that style)... and to be honest the style looks so horribly Disneyland fake.
Because of the neighborhood, going to USC feels like entering a fortresses citadel under siege. Of course my fellow Bruins bombed Tommy Trojan from a helicopter with blue and gold paint, so maybe the paranoia is justified.
Great video as always! It would be interesting to explore how other American colleges reacted against Gothic architecture and adopted different styles altogether (i.e. the classical forms of Thomas Jefferson's University of Virginia, the "Tuscan vernacular" adopted by the University of Colorado at Boulder, etc.) . Or there's a really interesting story behind the Gothic architecture at Duke University, whose architect, Julian F. Abele, was a black man who wouldn't have been allowed to attend the university he designed.
And a lot of them worked! the beautiful campuses and architecture is academically inspiring, and made American colleges the most prestigious in the world, surpassing both oxford and Cambridge. surpassed by Stanford, harvard, Berkeley (despite its architecture being Beaux Arts) , and many more.
I study at the University College London (UCL), though not as old as Oxbridge (though I also got offers from them too), London has some gorgeous Unis of Gothic Style. Still, many are Victorian like Kings, Imperial, Queen Marys, Royal School of Music etc.
Universities are from the Middle Ages so there is that connection and in the 19th C there was the Romantic movement which was obsessed with the medieval period
As someone from Saskatoon who attends the local uni, there is something about my local campus that makes it feel like it is another world: definitely many of the older buildings used the Collegiate Gothic style, while for the newer buildings, literally the only thing in common with the older buildings stylistically is that we use greystone/Tyndall stone cladding (although the Health Sciences rebuild in 2010 or so has added a decent-ish looking Collegiate Style-y replica for part of it).
Gothic architecture is just good design. People instinctively like detail in their buildings. Things shouldn't be flat. If you build a flat, plain wall, it'll be derided as ugly. If you add windows, it'll be serviceable. When you add details and trim, it'll be beautiful.
A bit late here, but the first buildings of the universities of Otago and Auckland in New Zealand did exactly the same thing. They were built at around about the same time, and after seeing this I get the feeling that this was all the rage everywhere in the world at the time. I must have a look at the buildings of, for proof of this, some of the older Australian universities. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see similar things happening. Also, to the question you asked at the end there: I went to Otago and yes, I felt more academic in the older buildings than in the newer buildings on campus. The older buildings were a bit more cramped and more inaccessible (smaller doors, tall steps, etc), but you walked into them and you could feel the passage of time and the spirits of the people who had gone before. That's my opinion, anyhow 😁
Posting this before watching: I’m guessing that it’s because the copied architecture styles from “back home” in Europe. Possibly of known university’s to try and give the impression that they are also on that standard. It’s a wild guess. This may not hold up.
At The Johns Hopkins Homewood campus, most buildings (all built since 1915) have followed the so-called Federal Style of the Homewood House, an 1801 country house located on campus. I think it's very nice.
The University of Glasgow is a fascinating example of the Gothic revival bc on the one hand UofG is 100% an ancient university (created in 1451) but at the same time it moved to a new gothic revival building in 1887.
I like it. There is something about these timeless forms that really transports us. Other styles would be cool as well like middle eastern, Russian, Egypt, East Asian, South Asian, American (Aztec, Mayan, Incan).
I was always feeling sorry seeing old buildings being destroyed. Now I realize that actually they're pretty easy to make! Not a reason to demolish them though but still a pretty relief!
With modern building technology, it is a lot easier to make them, but there is something special about the original gothic buildings where every stone was cut and laid by hand by multiple generations of craftsmen, where those flying buttresses are essential structural components instead of purely decorative and a great treadmill crane had to be built into the building itself to lift the stone for the upper vault and roof. Gothic is my absolute favorite architectural style tho, so I’m happy to see it wherever it pops up, even if it’s just there as a façade to mask how short a place’s history really is.
If you think they are pretty easy to make, you just try and find a contractor who is willing and then cost out how much money you're going to need to get it done. You're going to find out pretty quickly that easy doesn't describe it.
Besides adding time it otherwise does not have, I believe old architecture adds to the ambiance and again, gravitas, of what a university essentially is. Learning is a continuous tradition of humans. We pass knowledge down to the future. It is like we are walking amongst the past contemporaries of the times. For example, modern sciences evolved from the humble beginnings of philosophy and theology iirc. It is simply a relic of our past, and learning helps us link the present to the past. It shows how far learning and knowledge has come. It is also like a monument to learning. It is for these abstract feelings that we mourn for many knowledge that has been lost to unforeseen circumstances, like the burning of the Library of Alexandria, and other places of knowledge and learning. Old architecture makes you feel like you are learning from and with the past. Modern architecture does not emit these same feelings, at least personally, because it feels like you are being mass produced, a part of a cog in an economic system, that you are cheap, produced for a job’s sake, etc. Learning has to be about enlightenment, similar to how the people of the Renaissance felt: they rediscovered the old Roman knowledge (which is why you hear about Dante Alighieri). Knowledge is an invaluable and extremely useful relic for humans at the end of the day.
I am a fan of the USC village. I like how they incorporated not only older styles, but also local ones as well. But still, much more can be done. It never made sense to me that in the South Western parts of the USA attempt to imitate English architecture when our climate is completely unsuitable for such structures. Cities such as, Phoenix, Brownsville, San Diego, and etc, should embrace much more Spanish styles, Spanish colonial and functional architecture, such as windcatchers, skylights, and solar panels.
I live two minutes away from the City College of New York, and my grandfather studied there! I always find it funny that the buildings were designed in this old gothic style, but they were all built in the 20th century! I guess it’s like when I buy 80’s style shirts at Urban Outfitters. During the pandemic, I used to walk around the campus of City College all the time. The central quad is laid out beautifully. It’s definitely a nice architectural style when you want people to hang out and enjoy their surroundings. A few years ago, I made a music video, and I filmed several scenes in that location. Those buildings give the viewer a certain sense of drama. Here’s the video: th-cam.com/video/A8n98B1Qs0s/w-d-xo.html
I mightve first seen the USC village in 2018 and you would have never been able to tell it was one year old. In 20 years you wont be sure if its 100 or 800 years old
Where would you put the Cathedral of Learning, the most prominent building of the University of Pittsburgh, a Tudor Gothic skyscraper built between the 1920s and the 1940s.
A bequest from William Marsh Rice founded Rice Institute in 1912. The original buildings and residential halls are full drag Collegiate Gothic. With gargoyles. Rice has grown and is now a University. Architecture styles have evolved, with varying degrees of success. Located between Houston's Museum District and the huge Texas Medicam Center, the campus offers the city cultural activities, continuing education and pleasant, shady places to walk.
Correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't Westminster Abbey an example of a gothic revival in its own right, largely built well after the major gothic cathedrals of Europe?
I don't think it's a matter of old timey nostalgia. The architecture is very beautiful and humanized. Any human from any society feels at ease in such spaces It's also a stark contrast to suburban US, which is most of the US.
Gothic architecture is the epitome of elegance, good taste and mystery. Until we can do better than that, we should just switch back to this amazing architectural style for most buildings!
I prefer seeing neo gothic or antique style buildings like this. More pleasing to see than a giant ugly square with blocky designs saying its futuristic.
I think the most common arrangement for traditional universities in Brazil is a campus with modernist architecture, but a law and a medical school off campus in downtown built with neoclassic or neocolonial styles.
Where I went to college, Indiana Tech, all the buildings were meant to be modern. Brick, with large building and gray/steel looking trims. There was one building that predated the college by atleast 100 years. That building kept its original style. As an engineering school that had no historical roots (Foumded late 20's) modern and functional are what matters.
Its funny to think we fought a war to be independent and do things differently than Europe because we didn't like the idea of titles and pedigree only to discreetly add it back in once the nation got on its feet.
Great video - another cool one to through in would be Virginia Tech as their campus aesthetic is very much Collegiate Gothic Revival, showcasing the titular architectural style through a slightly more contemporary lens as their building use more glass less drama of the ornamentation
Hello fellow Hokie I find it quite interesting how some of the new buildings on campus combine the gothic collegiate with modern design, showing that it is new while having fitting in with the surrounding Gothic Collegiate architecture. . The new Randolph hall and CID in my opinion does this really well, though I’m not that much of a fan of the exterior design of the Goodwin hall, something about the material choice just bothers me for some reason. Though I am also secretly a sucker for McBryde, I for some reason love it’s design
I go to a small University in Virginia called Christopher Newport University. Over the past 15 years they’ve thrown a lot of money into making very fancy looking buildings, it’s kind of a meme now since the University is unrecognizable from itself 10 or so years ago
Meanwhile European universities rarely have any (neo)gothic building because during projecting of new buildings they usually want to show how modern and open for future they are. Buildings of European universities usually represent the best and most modern architecture styles of times when they have been built.
Nah, in the UK, universities with modern architecture are less desirable. And 90% of these universities are ugly, brutalist or boring block architecture that is dull and unpleasant to be around
I prefer the older styles as almost everything in my town in America is super blocky and minimalist. It gets boring and stale quick, especially when your local farmers market goes that route…
@@user-ei7ed6zy9k DO NOT TALK ABOUT THE BARBICAN THAT WAY!
Usually they are neo-classical because that is associated with the ancient, the classics, and education. Until concrete modernist buildings became common of coursw
A lot were also destroyed during WW2 and have since been rebuilt in the "modern" era and style.
This isn't just in the US, similar architecture can be seen in University College Cork (UCC) in Ireland which opened in 1849. I do love the historic feel to the place. A popular legend says that if you walk on the grass in the quad, you will fail your exams!
Pretty sure it's the grounds keeper who started this since he was fed up of sowing grass yearly.
I failed the moment I was born
Heya Adam, fellow Corkonian. I'm convinced that the popular legend is the biggest mind game the grounds crew in UCC have played on us all, its easy for grass to be totally unkept if thousands of students trample on it, so why not invent a myth, and then students play it safe, and System wide across a whole campus you don't have to pay out every once in a while like a football stadium for new grass 😂😂
I went to QUB Belfast. (1845). Walking on the grass in the quad was a privilege afforded only to graduates.
Same as NUIG!
I used to live near Princeton and it was always cool to walk around the "old" buildings. Even the hockey rink is built in the gothic style. Fun place to see a game.
Honey baker. I played there!
These colleges do refelect their time, revival styles were popular across the late nineteenth century, not just in America but across Europe and across all different building types, e.g. city halls.
You can't revive something that was never there in the first place (talking about the USA here).
Most government building is more of a Roman architecture style of building.
In german we call it "Historismus" Style
@@Onnarashi In architecture, the term "revival" refers to the specific styles regardless of where they are built. But, you already knew that.
@@Onnarashi how ignorant
I can admit these schools would’ve fooled me into believing their buildings were period correct. So many of them were established in the 18th and 19th centuries that I didn’t think too much about it. Never would’ve guessed that even back then they were copying from a style which was centuries older. Excellent video!
if you at any point lived in any place with older architecture (eg say at least 4-5 centuries) you can tell that while the buildings look oldish, they utilize newer materials and they lack the damage that is usually inflicted by the passage of time. I also recently visited washington dc and had the same experience while seeing the different buildings there. they kinda feel like amusement park buildings, so I do understand where the Hogwards comparison is coming from, since that one is a fake building to begin with :P
Loved seeing City College represented. I do want to point out that currently the main building that is used for like 70% of all classes is the North Academic Center, a hideous, universally hated building that was designed by a prison architect. I wish I could use these American/Collegeiate Gothic buildings more often
Edit: I couldn't find any evidence that the architect actually designed prisons, however that's the common myth. And tbh he might as well have.
Another reason to dislike Modern Architecture... It's ALL about function, if it's not about Novelty.😅
I do remember that there is some water to that "Prison" style.
If I remember, there's a videos about how college Administrations during the middle of the last century were getting sick of the students forming unions and protesting...so they made the newer buildings less comfortable and inspiring to help deter such things.
Yeah, those "modern" buildings always go out of date quickly and look tacky. These designs are timeless and give some serious gravitas to the university's function as a place of enlightenment.
In the UK at the same time, a number of colleges and seminaries used Gothic Revival style. I trained to become a teacher at an 1850s built college, complete with quadrangle, porter's lodge, and all of the features one would expect at Oxbridge, including the refectory with dais and "top table". I later did a degree at another college totally in the modern style. It never gave me the same feeling as the Gothic Revival college, somehow it lacked the gravitas that I'd come to expect. I understand why the colleges in the US wanted to distance themselves from modernity.
Exactly, "modern" architecture is a bit soulless and bland. Not to mention that it isn't anywhere as timeless as Neo-Gothic or the like.
@@jamesrosewell9081 I mean modern architecture can be incredible when they try and stand out and be unique
The majority of them seem to cheap out and build bland boxes
Thank God it’s coming back. The University of Toronto has Victorian buildings with aggressively neo-Gothic style and I love it. Modern architecture just can’t compete with that fantasy quality.
I go to uoft and I barely see any neo gothic style buildings, maybe only Vic/trin/uc but that’s about it and the campus is ugly compared to the ones I saw in this video. It needs way more gothic architecture and seperation from the city, especially on the south side of campus too many crazies near camh
Hogwarts is straight out of UofT.
I didn't go to uni for fantasy.
These older architectural styles hold up better long term, compared to the most “modern” current popular types, that end up looking incredibly dated in just a few years
@@lukassvitek1432 not to mention that the quality of modern construction is highly suspect. Not only will they look dated in a few years but they will probably look pretty ragged
For me as a German, I don't think of medieval architecture at all when I look at these buildings. They look much newer than others in the colonial style. Maybe it's just because we have so much of both real and fake gothic architecture around.
Same feeling here.
We know our cathedrals and churches and to us, that's gothic.
They use english tudor gothic as a base, which is already a different style that's not really present in germany, maybe even continental Europe as a whole.
For example, the window sets are kinda rectengular if you know what I mean, whereas all gothic windows I've ever seen in continental Europe are arched.
We also don't have those small decorative towers you see with the US colleges and in tudor gothic in general.
So it makes sense that to us, it looks gothic inspired but not what we'd recognise as properly gothic architecture.
On another point, the brick gothic college in California just looked really out of place to me.
They have gothic in Italy, but their variant reflects it's surroundings more, it fits with the architecture of southern Europe.
The one in the video looked like someone took a hanseatic town hall and planted it in sicily, no offense to whoever designed it.
@@purplebrick131 yes you are right. As a northern German, these buildings look completely ugly. Looks like they wanted to take fake Tudor style, apply it to bricks and put modern roofes on top. They should have visited our cities here in northern Germany and northern Poland to get a feel for that style. It could be so beautiful
@@haisheauspforte1632 They don't all look *completely* terrible (eg, I find that the Duke University chapel feels a bit better than most on that video) - but yeah, most americans just don't have a very good sense of old building styles. They distinctly look 'new' in a lot of ways, and I think lose some of the charm compared to the various European styles they're ultimately drawing from. Unlike the colonial style buildings, which at least do feel distinctly american.
@@mattgopack7395 yes, these older east coast colleges look somewhat OK, I mean also romanticised but at least they tried to reflect the style. I was mainly referring to that Californian one, which looks really off. Venetian Palace with Dutch Tower and hanseatic red bricks. Looks like they looked at three buildings, one in Venice, one in Belgium and one in the US north east, copied some elements, used red bricks for some reason (hanseatic brick architecture looks really different, look at Lübeck Holstentor for example) and put modern roofes at the top because they ran out of money or something. Doesn't look sophisticated, rather a worse version of Disneyland, which itself is a worse version of traditional European architecture. Looks like they assumed gothic was just one generic style, where every element fits every other. But this is not the case. Gothic looks really different depending on place and time, a gothic building in Sicily does not look like a gothic building in the Baltics, you can't just blend every gothic style and add your own flavors of Renaissance and modernism without making the building looking fake
Its funny to see while in the US this gothic style was so popular, german and European universities are mostly constructions out of steel and glass
Absolutely worth it. You will spend at least 4 years of your life there and want your environment to be inspirational. Everytime I'm in our library, it encourages me to study hardy because I feel there is a reputation to uphold.
You are studying bc you want to study to get a good grade and have a great job in the future or uphold the name/reputation of the university ?
That is an unreciprocated sentiment
NYC is my hometown, and the architect never really struck me as "old style" when I see them around but rather glamorous.
Even in modern day reconstructions projects, the 'shell' of buildings were never knocked down while the rest of the it were completely levelled just to preserve the intricate exterior design. Gotta love European style 👍
Great content Cheddar & Natalia! I went to CCNY and always admired how that part of the campus reflect what I thought was the architecture of its day (civil war era), but now I know they were trying to emulate middle age architecture! But as you move through the campus you can see how the NAC and the science building across from it is 20th century brutalist, the further down the school of architecture is 'modern' (late 20th to early 21st), and the newest advanced science research center on the southernmost parts built just a few years ago are glassy ultramodern. It's kinda like taking a walk through architectural history.
Modern campus architecture is typically tasteful and restrained, but these older styles...the people understood the importance of spectacle. Education isn't simply a serious, introspective pursuit. The campus ought to make a loud expression to the public as well. There's something charming about well heeled people doing something so obviously fake, it's wonderful
If you find modernism tasteful and neo gothic «fake» I sure hope you haven’t been admitted into any of those colleges
I went to Princeton, and the gothic style was very popular with the students there. Students would choose smaller rooms in the gothic dorms, and would prefer to have classes in the gothic buildings. The new gothic college, Whitman, has also been a hit with the students.
I can completely understand why.
People prefer beauty to ugliness. As simple as that.
As an Oxonian, it's hilarious the lengths these US upstarts went to, to artificially age their buildings. Here at Oxford, the moment any stone sees any pollution or decay on the stone, they hastily put scaffolding up to buff it new. Many of the centuries-old buildings here look like the stone has just been quarried.
So in America, they purposely age their buildings to make them look more like the Universities in Europe. Meanwhile in Europe, they are constantly renovating their buildings to make them look more like the Universities in America
@@matthewbanta3240 😅
Does it matter? It's the professors that make a college worth going to , not the architecture..
@@ROBYNMARKOW that's entirely true, one shouldn't choose a college entirely based on its campus architecture, but they are beautiful, and depending on how much value you put into aesthetics, absolutely worth the extra money and maintenance.
@@asdkotable yup like Oxford definitely beats harvard in architecture design and layout etc but it could be argued harvard is better academically and so forth
Interesting how Americans think so many things look like Hogwarts when they aren't even similar. I guess when you hardly ever see proper gothic architecture it's hard to tell the different types apart.
@Natalia Ryzak This video was masterfully produced. Thank you for you hardwork, Natalia! Good day!
@@jps0117 degenerat, sicut tu pertinent in crucem
I agree, we don’t have any architecture like this in this country because well we aren’t that old, the only time we start with anything is really with colonial and forward. But yeah I agree, everything is referenced as Harry Potter and before those movies were made, everything was mid-evil 🙄🙄 forgive us lol… I do love this gothic style, it’s still my favorite style of history.
I always wonder that, Hogwarts is the go to comparison for anything gothic, Castle like or generally "old".
Yet, it's fictional 🤣
America has achieved and changed an incredible amount in its short time of being a country.
But it is a very short time, and the architecture is a dead giveaway for this.
No wonder Americans are in awe when they walk around the ancient and narrow streets of Old English towns, or European villages.
Hogwarts isn't a real place.. it's a description of a place in a book. It can be pretty much anything lol
As a UCLA Bruin and photographer for the Daily Bruin, I love the diversity of ornamental architecture on campus. Royce Hall is Italian to match the Mediterranean look of the Landscape. Kerkoff Hall looks and feels like a Gothic Castle. Some of the modern buildings on south campus have beautiful mosaics with scientific formulas as the art. The whimsy of the upside down fountain is a contrast for the austere Franz Hall. At north campus my favorite place is the Franklin Murphy Sculpture Garden, a favorite place to study, eat lunch or photograph someone. UCLA has had some really bad architecture, the worst being the eatery we called the bomb shelter, which was the most depressing place on campus. The 2nd most depressing was inside Ralph Bunch Tower which as the tallest building feels like a dungeon, even on the top floor (named after a great man and Angeleno). UCLA still is a beautiful campus. The UC system has some other beautiful campus sites. One site I like (camped there before it was built) is UCSD. Overlooking the ocean, I do not like most of its buildings, but there is still a lot of the natural landscape.
I never knew that this was the case. It makes me feel a little cheated but I love the look. For the most part, modern architecture bores me. The way the the walls are so mininal and flat makes the buildings look so cold and soulless.
This
My opinion the best modern architecture are the ones that combine both old and new
You thought American colleges were original ?😂
Princeton has gotta have the most stunning campus in the US.
Stanford and UCLA have that Romanesque Spanish Mediterranean look, Harvard has the colonial look and unis such as UCSD have the brutalist look (that library building). They all look good. But if you wanted the Hogwarts-esque look, Princeton has it best.
I swear Princeton's campus looks best while its snowing. It feels like a college full of mages learning how to conjure up beasts from oblivion to harness the power of the Wild Hunt.
My vote is Bryn Mawr...very similar architecture, but at least half the trees on campus are cherry trees. Stunning in the spring. And the stone is (I think) primarily Weehawken schist that sparkles in the sun.
@@ariadne0w1 I took a look at Bryn Mawr in spring and OMG THE TREES ARE PINK IN SPRING WOW.
@@ariadne0w1 I went to Villanova, which is 1 mile from Bryn Mawr, walking distance, never did I think a small liberal arts college next door me would have so much history and significance to architecture lol
The University of Pittsburgh is so beautifully built. The old gothic style can be found across the university with huge, impressive modern buildings and pops of color all over campus. And the university is heavily invested in its maintenance and upkeep.
Faux gothic.
I attended The University of Connecticut. Many of those buildings were boxy cheap industrial structures built rapidly to accommodate students on the GI Bill after WWII. When I went to visit UCONN recently most of those plain boxes had received updated renovations with "gothic" facades.
Thoughts in the first half od the video: It's funny to see colleges wanting to age themselves, why not own up to their modernity? Adding arrowslits is ridiculous and backwards!
Second half of the video: Ugh the new buildings are much more ugly, nevermind, gimme the medieval themed buildings again! :D
@Natalia Ryzak Whaaa you answered! Great video and yeah, I studied in Europe in actual old buildings but the problem is that some buildings old on the outside are also old on the inside! Hehe you can't always get the best of both worlds! :)
People in 500 years: “these buildings are evidence that Europeans were settling in the Americas before Columbus even arrived!” lmao
Snorri Thorfinnsson was the first European to be born in the Americas some 500 years before Columbus arrived. Columbus himself never settled in the Americas.
These retro buildings only look old. In 500 or 1000 years, if the buildings survive, the 19th and 20th century construction techniques will be recognized.
I wish more stuff looked like the architects gave a crap. Too many plain box buildings everywhere that go up, to just be torn down a decade later.
I guess it’s a good look to inspire academic achievement
In the UK, one of the main dealbreakers for applying for uni was not having modern architecture. It’s always soulless glass buildings or ugly brutalist architecture
Perhaps students in the UK are sick of the old gothic architectural style, hahaha
Because it looked good then and still looks good now.
Love these buildings… the architecture is simply timeless while most “modern” buildings age very bad and their façades are modified after 10 yrs to look fresher.
i really like how the american ivy league schools were founded on the principles of bullshittery and keen marketing sense. it really kind of sets the stage, you know? for the show, i mean.
University of Melbourne in Australia also follows this style. To be honest it looks good and feels a bit like living in England.
I'm pretty sure that "gargoyles" have to be water spouts. Thus the statues and carved faces from 2:30 onward are more correctly described as "grotesques".
Exactly!
@@AntPDC I read somewhere that the word Gargoyle is derived from the gargling sound the water makes as it is spouted from the roof of the buildings, and that the water is aimed to fall away from the footings of the buildings. Just some useless information to add to my collection!
One of the perks of my old job was a corner office with a gargoyle outside my window.
It wasn't just US universities aping the Gothic style at that time. In the UK many large civic buildings were built in that style. The Houses of Parliament is probably the best known of these.
In Montréal, Canada, many English language institutions had the exact same aim, to appear old and prestigious, although being relatively new. However, they used old French Canadian religious buildings, namely convents, to add that special institution look.
Timeless design
@Natalia Ryzak yes that’s what timeless means
Two things I would like to add.
1) The quadrangle was a pretty specifically North American adaptation. The original founders and presidents (many of who were Oxbridge alums) wanted to recreate that somewhat cloistered feel, but early colleges were built with the resources that were readily available to them, which for most of the colleges meant wood from all the forests in the eastern US as opposed to the stone of British universities. They were smart enough to realize that an enclosed courtyard of a wooden building was an absolute deathtrap given how prone the wood buildings were to fire and the lack of anything even resembling a modern fire department. Most of these wood buildings are no longer standing, but the blueprint of separate buildings creating a quad as opposed to a single building courtyard remained.
2) I would also like to add the concept of size of building. While Collegiate Gothic building may seem large on a human scale, they usually aren't actually that large compared to other buildings. Many of the first universities in the US were based in one building with universities almost competing to see who could build the largest building. But that fell off pretty quickly. It goes back to the idea of the quadrangle, where several smaller buildings could be used to create the cloistered feel of some British universities. Collegiate Gothic fits this layout because part of the style is also to emphasize human scale buildings while also being adaptable enough to go somewhat larger. In this way, the style fits the requirements better than other styles which may emphasize even smaller or much larger buildings. But that also creates a type of selection bias because a university with a style of much smaller building may not have enough students to have a large name and image that people would recognize, while a university with much larger buildings may have the enrollment, but by the nature of the larger building will likely have fewer of those identifiable buildings. The medium size style of Collegiate Gothic kind of places it in the sweet spot of being big enough and numerous enough to become synonymous with the idea of a university in our mind. If we had to build in already developed cities as opposed to the blank slates of land many of our universities got, perhaps we would have gone for a much smaller or much larger style, to either fit in or make the most of the space we had.
And as for universities having modern buildings, you run into the issue of constantly have different styles as what is considered "modern" changes. Given that it often seems style changes are like a pendulum swinging back, universities which are expected to be around long enough to live through more than one "modern" architectural style could find themselves with an unpleasant clash of competing styles. If you are a campus planner and have no idea what the future might hold, its much safer to just stick with a previous style than worrying about how to fit the new with the old. That's not to say one option is inherently better than the other, just that one has more risk than the other, though it may also have more reward.
It’s definitely the Medieval Revival architecture in the late 1800’s. Romanesque Revival and Gothic Revival styles were very common in Europe, America Continents, Australia, and European colonies across the globe.
I like old architecture. It makes the building look more important than just function. Like the new and old courthouses in my town. The old building has a grand staircase inside with beautiful crown molding, marble floors, huge wooden doors with stained glass transients above them, brass fixtures... It's stunning. The new one is a three stories glass office building built in the 90s with absolutely nothing distinct about it. It doesn't fit in with a town that was mostly built in the early 1900s
We don't need modern architecture that won't stand the test of time. This applies to all educational facilities from grade school to universities. The ability to have buildings that you can open the windows and let in the air are proving their value in the age of Covid-19. Open spaces to study outside, yet protected from city noise free up the mind.
As you will see, my comment is obviously biased but...
I attended W&M and prefer the colonial look/feel to the campus (old campus at least) that reflects the time the school was established and the country it was in.
This was very interesting. But I don't think the movement was restricted to just Collegiate Gothic, nor, possibly, was it a coincidence that the two examples in the video were Pennsylvanian colleges (Kenyon and Bryn Mawr). Where I grew up in Pittsburgh, there seems to be a blend of Gothic and Romanesque architecture throughout parts of the city. Yes, the Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh hews close to it and was built later (1930's - at likely the tail end of the movement), but the Allegheny Courthouse was built the same year as Bryn Mawr was founded and has similar leanings. There are a ton of churches in the area also built in the late 1800's with the same style and likely for similar reasons, as well as homes in Shady Side and, of course, the Carnegie Public Library . It's so prevalent in the city that even a modern building like PPG Place looks like a glass version of a gothic one.
It stands to reason that that same "use gothic architecture to convey authority" in a lot of churches in Pennsylvania happened in conjunction with the Collegiate Gothic movement. Wouldn't be surprised if the architects or the architectural schools overlapped in some way.
(Ironically my high school's architecture seems to mimic colonial structures like Harvard and William & Mary even though it built its campus in the 1920's. The middle school is gothic, but that was the style of the private mansion that was purchased and not planned that way. I wonder if there was a parallel architectural movement among East Coast predatory schools to model themselves after the colleges they hoped their students would matriculate into?)
the CCNY dean was too cute! loved her enthusiasm for the school and the history!
I love the Gothic architecture of these universities. They just feel so different from the architecture I usually see normally in Chicago and it makes them "feel" more prestigious (yeah, weird stereotype!). And not just Gothic, but other types of architecture that makes universities look unique, like at the University of Virginia, which is gorgeous to me.
They just look so much better than modern style buildings.
New Zealand's south island did this a lot too, especially Christchurch and Otago universities.
All the actual universities in Illinois have an older looking castle in them because the governor at the time said they wouldn't get any funding if the school didn't have one
My high school was built in American Collegiate Goyjic style in 1930-31. The lunchroom looked like a mediaeval dining hall, complete with timber vaulting and a massive fireplace at one end.
I went to USC both as an undergrad and grad while they built all the new "California Gothic" buildings (both the Business School and Communications School got new facilities in that style)... and to be honest the style looks so horribly Disneyland fake.
so it is not me thinking they over did it
Because of the neighborhood, going to USC feels like entering a fortresses citadel under siege. Of course my fellow Bruins bombed Tommy Trojan from a helicopter with blue and gold paint, so maybe the paranoia is justified.
Still better than modern architecture
Great video as always! It would be interesting to explore how other American colleges reacted against Gothic architecture and adopted different styles altogether (i.e. the classical forms of Thomas Jefferson's University of Virginia, the "Tuscan vernacular" adopted by the University of Colorado at Boulder, etc.) . Or there's a really interesting story behind the Gothic architecture at Duke University, whose architect, Julian F. Abele, was a black man who wouldn't have been allowed to attend the university he designed.
I was hoping that they would have showed that too , but unfortunately they didn't.
Those aren't gargoyles, they're grotesques. A gargoyle actually moves water, grotesques are just statues.
And a lot of them worked! the beautiful campuses and architecture is academically inspiring, and made American colleges the most prestigious in the world, surpassing both oxford and Cambridge. surpassed by Stanford, harvard, Berkeley (despite its architecture being Beaux Arts) , and many more.
I study at the University College London (UCL), though not as old as Oxbridge (though I also got offers from them too), London has some gorgeous Unis of Gothic Style. Still, many are Victorian like Kings, Imperial, Queen Marys, Royal School of Music etc.
Universities are from the Middle Ages so there is that connection and in the 19th C there was the Romantic movement which was obsessed with the medieval period
As someone from Saskatoon who attends the local uni, there is something about my local campus that makes it feel like it is another world: definitely many of the older buildings used the Collegiate Gothic style, while for the newer buildings, literally the only thing in common with the older buildings stylistically is that we use greystone/Tyndall stone cladding (although the Health Sciences rebuild in 2010 or so has added a decent-ish looking Collegiate Style-y replica for part of it).
Gothic architecture is just good design. People instinctively like detail in their buildings. Things shouldn't be flat. If you build a flat, plain wall, it'll be derided as ugly. If you add windows, it'll be serviceable. When you add details and trim, it'll be beautiful.
A bit late here, but the first buildings of the universities of Otago and Auckland in New Zealand did exactly the same thing. They were built at around about the same time, and after seeing this I get the feeling that this was all the rage everywhere in the world at the time. I must have a look at the buildings of, for proof of this, some of the older Australian universities. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see similar things happening.
Also, to the question you asked at the end there: I went to Otago and yes, I felt more academic in the older buildings than in the newer buildings on campus. The older buildings were a bit more cramped and more inaccessible (smaller doors, tall steps, etc), but you walked into them and you could feel the passage of time and the spirits of the people who had gone before.
That's my opinion, anyhow 😁
Ngl as much as I love certain modern architectural styles, gothic will always look better in my eye
Posting this before watching: I’m guessing that it’s because the copied architecture styles from “back home” in Europe. Possibly of known university’s to try and give the impression that they are also on that standard. It’s a wild guess. This may not hold up.
Ok so there’s more too it… but this is a part of it 🙆🏻♂️
Another great example is Kerckoff Hall at UCLA; doesn't really fit in with the rest of campus but absolutely gorgeous.
At The Johns Hopkins Homewood campus, most buildings (all built since 1915) have followed the so-called Federal Style of the Homewood House, an 1801 country house located on campus. I think it's very nice.
Just like luxury brands releasing $700 dirty shoes.
I prefer the more modern style of Pepperdine University in Malibu, CA. I usually hate old styles and architecture.
I love the Welsh history of the beginning of this video!! Btw it's properly pronounced Brin Ma werrr means big hill
Villanova just put up a whole expansion over the last five years. All Collegiate Gothic. Good times.
The University of Glasgow is a fascinating example of the Gothic revival bc on the one hand UofG is 100% an ancient university (created in 1451) but at the same time it moved to a new gothic revival building in 1887.
I like it. There is something about these timeless forms that really transports us.
Other styles would be cool as well like middle eastern, Russian, Egypt, East Asian, South Asian, American (Aztec, Mayan, Incan).
The oldest universities are the Cairo and Fez ones. Then come Bologna, Oxford, Paris, Cambridge.
Gonna be honest, I was more surprised to hear that America has a college named after Brynmawr, right next to where I live
The content we didn't ask but we deserved.
I’ve been pretty impressed by Cheddar’s content recently
I was always feeling sorry seeing old buildings being destroyed. Now I realize that actually they're pretty easy to make! Not a reason to demolish them though but still a pretty relief!
With modern building technology, it is a lot easier to make them, but there is something special about the original gothic buildings where every stone was cut and laid by hand by multiple generations of craftsmen, where those flying buttresses are essential structural components instead of purely decorative and a great treadmill crane had to be built into the building itself to lift the stone for the upper vault and roof.
Gothic is my absolute favorite architectural style tho, so I’m happy to see it wherever it pops up, even if it’s just there as a façade to mask how short a place’s history really is.
If you think they are pretty easy to make, you just try and find a contractor who is willing and then cost out how much money you're going to need to get it done. You're going to find out pretty quickly that easy doesn't describe it.
Regaurdless of the occupant, these are beautiful buildings.
basically, its about money and prestige, right?
My highschool straight up looks like a castle (Baltimore CIty College - built in 1839) -its a college prep school hence the "College" at the end
Besides adding time it otherwise does not have, I believe old architecture adds to the ambiance and again, gravitas, of what a university essentially is. Learning is a continuous tradition of humans. We pass knowledge down to the future. It is like we are walking amongst the past contemporaries of the times. For example, modern sciences evolved from the humble beginnings of philosophy and theology iirc. It is simply a relic of our past, and learning helps us link the present to the past. It shows how far learning and knowledge has come. It is also like a monument to learning. It is for these abstract feelings that we mourn for many knowledge that has been lost to unforeseen circumstances, like the burning of the Library of Alexandria, and other places of knowledge and learning. Old architecture makes you feel like you are learning from and with the past.
Modern architecture does not emit these same feelings, at least personally, because it feels like you are being mass produced, a part of a cog in an economic system, that you are cheap, produced for a job’s sake, etc. Learning has to be about enlightenment, similar to how the people of the Renaissance felt: they rediscovered the old Roman knowledge (which is why you hear about Dante Alighieri).
Knowledge is an invaluable and extremely useful relic for humans at the end of the day.
I am a fan of the USC village. I like how they incorporated not only older styles, but also local ones as well.
But still, much more can be done. It never made sense to me that in the South Western parts of the USA attempt to imitate English architecture when our climate is completely unsuitable for such structures.
Cities such as, Phoenix, Brownsville, San Diego, and etc, should embrace much more Spanish styles, Spanish colonial and functional architecture, such as windcatchers, skylights, and solar panels.
I can't say much. My alma mater's gothic revival main building burned down over 50 years ago.
I live two minutes away from the City College of New York, and my grandfather studied there! I always find it funny that the buildings were designed in this old gothic style, but they were all built in the 20th century! I guess it’s like when I buy 80’s style shirts at Urban Outfitters.
During the pandemic, I used to walk around the campus of City College all the time. The central quad is laid out beautifully. It’s definitely a nice architectural style when you want people to hang out and enjoy their surroundings. A few years ago, I made a music video, and I filmed several scenes in that location. Those buildings give the viewer a certain sense of drama. Here’s the video:
th-cam.com/video/A8n98B1Qs0s/w-d-xo.html
Got rejected from WashU ED this week lol. This is bittersweet
Another benefit is the style lasts longer. In 100 years current modern buildings might look like garbage
Many won't even last that long.
they don't exactly look great while being modern
"in a 100 years..."? Try less than ten.
The english made copy-paste with the architecture and styles that came from continental Europe and then americaans did the same. Smart :D
I mightve first seen the USC village in 2018 and you would have never been able to tell it was one year old. In 20 years you wont be sure if its 100 or 800 years old
all these colleges are prettier than anything that is built today. make everything this pretty please
Where would you put the Cathedral of Learning, the most prominent building of the University of Pittsburgh, a Tudor Gothic skyscraper built between the 1920s and the 1940s.
A bequest from William Marsh Rice founded Rice Institute in 1912. The original buildings and residential halls are full drag Collegiate Gothic. With gargoyles.
Rice has grown and is now a University. Architecture styles have evolved, with varying degrees of success.
Located between Houston's Museum District and the huge Texas Medicam Center, the campus offers the city cultural activities, continuing education and pleasant, shady places to walk.
those architects really said, "dark academia aesthetic" 🤪
Correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't Westminster Abbey an example of a gothic revival in its own right, largely built well after the major gothic cathedrals of Europe?
I don't think it's a matter of old timey nostalgia. The architecture is very beautiful and humanized. Any human from any society feels at ease in such spaces It's also a stark contrast to suburban US, which is most of the US.
Gothic architecture is the epitome of elegance, good taste and mystery.
Until we can do better than that, we should just switch back to this amazing architectural style for most buildings!
Nice content, as always
Thanks for watching, Julio!
Yeah, thanks Julio
@@cheddar 1:18 RIP
I prefer seeing neo gothic or antique style buildings like this. More pleasing to see than a giant ugly square with blocky designs saying its futuristic.
The Long Walk (Seabury and Jarvis Halls) were completed at Trinity College (CT) almost 10 years before Bryn Mawr in 1878
I am like number 812.
I'm so glad i took the chance on the this channel which i first saw on a gas station pump, a long time ago.
I think the most common arrangement for traditional universities in Brazil is a campus with modernist architecture, but a law and a medical school off campus in downtown built with neoclassic or neocolonial styles.
5:50. That’s Washington and Lee University on the right. It really is a beautiful campus
while in the uk some universities are almost a thousand years old
oxford is older than the mayans - by more than 200 years
… some continental ones even older.
@Natalia Ryzak the Oldest University is the University of Bologna in Italy, it has been around since 1100AD!!
Yet Harvard is still the best in the world.
@@seanthe100 Oxford and mit are better
So apparently Canadian universities were simultaneously doing the same thing too!
Trinity College (UofT) perhaps, but the exterior of University College lacks any Pseudo-Gothic grace.
Where I went to college, Indiana Tech, all the buildings were meant to be modern. Brick, with large building and gray/steel looking trims. There was one building that predated the college by atleast 100 years. That building kept its original style. As an engineering school that had no historical roots (Foumded late 20's) modern and functional are what matters.
Its funny to think we fought a war to be independent and do things differently than Europe because we didn't like the idea of titles and pedigree only to discreetly add it back in once the nation got on its feet.
Great video - another cool one to through in would be Virginia Tech as their campus aesthetic is very much Collegiate Gothic Revival, showcasing the titular architectural style through a slightly more contemporary lens as their building use more glass less drama of the ornamentation
Hello fellow Hokie
I find it quite interesting how some of the new buildings on campus combine the gothic collegiate with modern design, showing that it is new while having fitting in with the surrounding Gothic Collegiate architecture. . The new Randolph hall and CID in my opinion does this really well, though I’m not that much of a fan of the exterior design of the Goodwin hall, something about the material choice just bothers me for some reason.
Though I am also secretly a sucker for McBryde, I for some reason love it’s design
I go to a small University in Virginia called Christopher Newport University. Over the past 15 years they’ve thrown a lot of money into making very fancy looking buildings, it’s kind of a meme now since the University is unrecognizable from itself 10 or so years ago
Actually, the Duomo of Milan is a stile mix.