User:Xtreambar/Cornell Campus

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This page is an attempt to rewrite the Cornell University "Campus" section. It is not a published article and should not be thought of as such. Please consult Cornell University#Campuses for the time being.

[edit] Campuses

[edit] Main Campus

Cornell's main campus is located on East Hill in Ithaca, New York, overlooking the town and Cayuga Lake. When the University began in 1865, the campus consisted of 209.5 acres of Ezra Cornell's roughly 300 acre farm.^[1] Since then, it has swelled to over 21,000 acres^[2] encompassing both the Hill and much of the surrounding areas.

The University's roughly 750 buildings^[3] are primarily divided among Central and North Campuses on the plateau, West Campus on the slope of the Hill, and Collegetown, adjacent to Central Campus. Central Campus contains laboratories, administrative buildings, almost all academic buildings, athletic facilities, auditoriums, and museums. The only residential facility currently located on Central Campus is the Law School's residential college, Hughes Hall. North Campus, a 1911 donation, contains freshman and graduate student housing and themed "program houses." West Campus contains upperclass residential colleges. Collegetown contains a performing arts center and two upperclass dormitories.

The Main Campus is well known for its eclectic architectural styles and irregular layout. While many buildings are Gothic, Victorian, and Neoclassical, there are also many in the International, and Modernist styles. The more ornate buildings were generally built during the pre-World War II period according to the wishes of Andrew Dickson White. However, as the student population doubled from 7,000 in 1950 to 15,000 by 1970, grandiosity was neglected in favor of more affordable, more rapidly constructed styles in order to meet the needs of the expanding population.^[4] Also, while some buildings are neatly arranged into quadrangles, others are densely and haphazardly packed. In a large way, these eccentricities arose from the Campus's numerous, ever changing master plans. For example, in one of the earliest plans, Frederick Law Olmsted, the designer of Central Park, outlined a "grand terrance" overlooking Cayuga.^[5] As the terrace plan was later dropped, McGraw Hall appears to face the wrong direction, facing The Slope rather than the Arts Quad.

THE REST OF CAMPUS -- Plantations Gorges Etc...

1. ^ "Facilities Costs", checked March 13, 2005
2. ^ ibid
3. ^ ibid
4. ^ Margulis, Daniel; Schroeder, John (1980). A Century at Cornell, The Cornell Daily Sun, Inc.. ISBN 0-938304-00-3. pg 110-111
5. ^ Parsons, Kermit C. The Cornell Campus: A History of its Planning and Development. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1968., Chp. 3 "A Quadrangle of Stone"