# The most aesthetically pleasing university campus **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 27, 2005, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-aesthetically-pleasing-university-campus/292184 "2005-02-27T21:10:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2005, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-aesthetically-pleasing-university-campus/292184/61 "2005-03-02T13:45:31Z")
> [@CBCD](#): > > Look at these pictures of [Bard College](http://www.bard.edu/about/location/) > > The Bard campus and views of the Hudson River and the Catskills are jaw-dropping, eye-popping gorgeous. Very nice. And **kniz** , I started to mention the University of the South as a possible candidate, but I haven’t actually been there (only heard about its beauty from friends who are alumni). Can you link some pictures? ---
**Author:** ![DaphneBlack](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daphneblack/32/5389_2.png) [@DaphneBlack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaphneBlack)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2005, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-aesthetically-pleasing-university-campus/292184/62 "2005-03-02T14:19:57Z")
> [@bump](#): > > Which one’s that? I’m at Corpus Christi College (Oxford). The virtual tour does not really do it justice, but [here it is](http://www.ccc.ox.ac.uk/TOUR/index.htm). It’s on the oldest continuously-inhabited street in England, or so they say. Cheers, Daphne ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2005, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-aesthetically-pleasing-university-campus/292184/63 "2005-03-02T16:07:53Z")
I figured **kniz** would be in here touting our alma mater when I saw this thread. **spoke-** asked for pictures. [Have a look.](http://admission.sewanee.edu/tour/777.html) ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2005, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-aesthetically-pleasing-university-campus/292184/64 "2005-03-02T16:54:03Z")
Nobody mentioned University of Toronto? OK, some buildings are admittedly hideous, but the stonework on Hart House and University College is gorgeous, and there are a lot of Victorian-era buildings that are really stately and elegant. I love me my university. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Motorgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@Motorgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motorgirl)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2005, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-aesthetically-pleasing-university-campus/292184/65 "2005-03-02T16:57:54Z")
> [@DaphneBlack](#): > > But I am surprised no one has mentioned Cornell University. > > The gorges are the single most stunning natural feature I have ever seen - and I got to live 20 feet from one for two years, lucky me. > > Some of the buildings are not the best (Uris Library, aka ‘Rustbucket’), > [snip] Silly! The rustbucket is Uris _Hall._ Uris Library is the buidling with the bell tower. 😃 Not surprisingly, I couldn’t find any photos of Uris Hall online. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2005, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-aesthetically-pleasing-university-campus/292184/66 "2005-03-02T19:41:13Z")
I too thought Wellesley was the most beautiful, and Swarthmore was very pretty too. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2005, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-aesthetically-pleasing-university-campus/292184/67 "2005-03-02T19:44:09Z")
Swarthmore? Or was it Bryn Mawr? The whole college tour thing was too many years ago! I respect U of Chicago architecture but the gray stone blended into the gray sky and was something of a downer. ---
**Author:** ![CBCD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@CBCD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CBCD)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2005, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-aesthetically-pleasing-university-campus/292184/68 "2005-03-02T19:50:11Z")
> [@Labdad](#): > > I figured **kniz** would be in here touting our alma mater when I saw this thread. > > **spoke-** asked for pictures. [Have a look.](http://admission.sewanee.edu/tour/777.html) Whoa! Sewanee looks _ **very nice!** _ And coming from a Bard graduate, that’s saying a lot. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2005, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-aesthetically-pleasing-university-campus/292184/69 "2005-03-02T20:35:14Z")
If you discount everything south of the train tracks and west of the Brickyard (inclusive), **NC State** is a very beautiful campus. The older section has a lot of very nice gardens tucked away. You just have to know where to look. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2005, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-aesthetically-pleasing-university-campus/292184/70 "2005-03-02T22:25:15Z")
> [@Motorgirl](#): > > Silly! The rustbucket is Uris _Hall._ > Uris Library is the buidling with the bell tower. 😃 > > Not surprisingly, I couldn’t find any photos of Uris Hall online. You can see a picture of Uris Hall at the end of [this series of pictures](http://pine.psych.cornell.edu/personal/misc/walk_to_work/). It doesn’t look too bad in that picture, but it is indeed considered to be one of the uglier buildings on the Cornell campus. I guess that means Cornell does have pretty campus. If you just do a Google image search on [Cornell University](http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&lr=&c2coff=1&q=cornell+university&btnG=Search), you’ll get some great pictures. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2005, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-aesthetically-pleasing-university-campus/292184/71 "2005-03-02T22:46:22Z")
I’m not gonna do any links–you can look for pics on your own, but: CalTech is a really attractive campus, though very tiny (about the size of a _large_ high school). I live about a mile away and run through there all the time. It’s a great place to have a quiet afternoon or snap some pictures. I like seeing the kids having a lot more fun and being more creative in their wanton vandalism than the school I went to. Cornell is beautiful and Ithica is a lovely little town in the middle of absolutely nowhere. Stanford and UC Berkeley battle it out for most attractive in the Bay area, and perhaps, the West Coast. Princeton is nice but is definitely down near the bottom of the Top Ten list. I like Madison, WI, and the UW Student Union sundeck is a great place to have a beer in the summer, but most beautiful campus? It’s rates a solid “Meh” in my book. Worst campuses? (Excluding those cookie-cutter community colleges): The second-tier engineering schools have it hands down: it’s a toss up which is uglier: Texas Tech, Michigan Tech, UM-Rolla, Colorado School of Mines, or Milwaukee School of Engineering (or as they call it, “Mosie”. How do you get that out of MSOE?). I’m sure more can add to the list, but there’s a start. MIT is a strange mixture of really impressive, fairly blah, and architectural nightmare. But not even the worst on that Cambridge campus can compete with the unholy awfulness that is the Harvard School of Design. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![partlycloudy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/partlycloudy/32/3114_2.png) [@partlycloudy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/partlycloudy)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2005, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-aesthetically-pleasing-university-campus/292184/72 "2005-03-02T23:02:27Z")
> [@Bambi Hassenpfeffer](#): > > We got some of those here at the Univ of South Florida, which will win no design awards ever. Yup, I transferred from USF to the much more aesthetically pleasing Louisiana State University. Here is our [French house](http://www.lsu.edu/campus/locations/FREN.html), and [Atkinson Hall](http://www.lsu.edu/campus/locations/ATKN.html). [Here](http://www.lsu.edu/student_organizations/bangla/LSU.htm) are some pics of the Law Center, the quad, and the Alumni Memorial Tower. Our [Union](http://www.lsu.edu/campus/locations/UNIO.html) is less impressive. I was going to mention University of Tampa also, but **Carm6773** beat me to it. 🙂 And I should mention the [Universita per Stranieri](http://www.unistrapg.it/homepage.htm)in Perugia, Italy, where I spent a summer. **Kythereia** , U of Toronto, eh? You stole one of my favorite Italian teachers. ☹ (sigh) Paolo, we miss you. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2005, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-aesthetically-pleasing-university-campus/292184/73 "2005-03-03T00:36:42Z")
Nobody’s mentioned UC Santa Cruz? It’s really quite beautiful, with the redwoods and the nice view of Monterey Bay. ---
**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2005, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-aesthetically-pleasing-university-campus/292184/74 "2005-03-03T01:18:23Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > I can’t go without mentioning my alma mater, the University of California, Santa Cruz…The campus is _gigantic_ and huge amounts of it are totally undeveloped. You can go off hiking in the forest and never leave school. For the record, Sewanee has the second largest domain of any college/university in the US. However the redwoods and views of the ocean are definitely a factor to consider. I also looked at **Bards** and it is impressive. The view past the gardens looks similar to many such views at Sewanee. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2005, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-aesthetically-pleasing-university-campus/292184/75 "2005-03-03T01:24:12Z")
> [@minor7flat5](#): > > Some have already mentioned Princeton. > > It is my wife’s favorite town – if we were rich, we would live there (and I would have a shorter commute), but we aren’t and it is impossibly expensive to buy a house in Princeton these days. > > A few years ago I took my wife along on a week-long business trip to Cambridge, UK. While I was working, she was shopping and walking about the various colleges. It was quite obvious to us that Princeton is just a pale imitation of the spendor of Cambridge or Oxford. > > Nevertheless, we still want to live there. I lived there after I got my PhD - rental, not owned. It is a great place to live. We lived on Harrison Street, in easy walking distance of Palmer Square. But I agree with your comment about it copying Oxford. We had visited Oxford, and were amused to find a slab of stone from Oxford in the library (it was 25 years ago, so my memory is fuzzy.) We didn’t notice anything at Oxford copying Princeton. 🙂 Though overall, Princeton is a pretty nice campus. ---
**Author:** ![anu-la1979](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/47e85d/32.png) [@anu-la1979](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anu-la1979)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2005, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-aesthetically-pleasing-university-campus/292184/76 "2005-03-03T01:27:05Z")
I was there about ten years ago now for a highschool debate competition-but Wake Forest is very beautiful and full of very polite people who will not only direct you across their beautiful campus but will help you haul tubs of evidence around as well. Two thumbs up. I’ll give props to my alma mater McGill for having a beautiful setting and location in terms of a downtown campus and then mucking it up with a few of the ugliest buildings I have ever had the misfortune to encounter. The Leacock Building-I can almost see the pitch for that one. “What we want to build is a modern 70s style brick horror with all the small slitty windows of medieval architecture.” ---
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2005, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-aesthetically-pleasing-university-campus/292184/77 "2005-03-03T02:00:18Z")
I haven’t been to UC Santa Cruz, but I do have to put in a word for UC Santa Barbara-- at the beach, with a lovely lagoon, great birdwatching, surfing on campus, trees and flowers, thin athletic and attractive underdressed drunk greek-system kids, handsome marine-science grad students running around in wetsuits, etc. It’s like Baywatch goes to college. Can’t say much for the buildings, though. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2005, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-aesthetically-pleasing-university-campus/292184/78 "2005-03-03T03:33:18Z")
> [@Anne Neville](#): > > Nobody’s mentioned UC Santa Cruz? It’s really quite beautiful, with the redwoods and the nice view of Monterey Bay. :: sniffle :: Fine, ignore me. (Post #59) ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2005, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-aesthetically-pleasing-university-campus/292184/79 "2005-03-03T04:21:10Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > :: sniffle :: Fine, ignore me. > > (Post #59) Sorry… I have a bad cold right now, and clearly it’s affected my reading comprehension ☹ ---
**Author:** ![CBCD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@CBCD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CBCD)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2005, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-aesthetically-pleasing-university-campus/292184/80 "2005-03-03T12:17:04Z")
For extra credit, Bard College has [this](http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/arts/architecture/reviews/n_8661/) performing arts center designed by architectural wonder boy Frank Gehry. It opened in 2003. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-aesthetically-pleasing-university-campus/292184.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-aesthetically-pleasing-university-campus/292184.md?page=5)