NYC Art Tours goes to NC

NYC Art Tours doesn’t just stay in NYC! Wherever I travel, viewing art and architecture surely makes its way into my itinerary. Over Memorial Day weekend I headed down south to North Carolina. There, I saw many charming sites, including local antique stores and art galleries. I also had the opportunity to visit the campus of Duke University.

Having studied architectural history extensively as an undergraduate at Brandeis University, I wanted to blog about Duke’s neo-Gothic architecture (also known as the Gothic Revival style). I see this as a two- part post. Here, I will talk about the architecture at Duke. Next week, I will be returning to my alma mater for my five year reunion. Since I last spent time on the Brandeis campus, its architectural landscape has evolved enormously. I am excited to record these changes and discuss its structures in my second architecture post.

Whether large or intimate, rural or urban, all colleges and universities possess the commonality of practical elements such as residence halls, classroom buildings, and cafeterias, as well as such entities as a student center(s), a gymnasium, a chapel(s) and a gallery or museum. These features are presented in various architectural styles according to the desires of the specific campus in which they are placed. Duke and Brandeis, for instance, could not be more architecturally different from one another, yet they are both examples of college campuses that possess strong architectural identities.

Duke is perhaps most well known for its Chapel, which, according to the school’s website, is known as the “university’s iconic center.” As I learned from reading about the Chapel’s history, it was constructed between 1930 and 1935 by architect Julian Abele of the Philadelphia firm Horace Trumbauer. The site mentions that Abele was America’s first notable black architect, who went on to have an illustrious career; however, it was not his hand alone that executed the elaborate project. The stone and wood carving, statues, ironwork and stained glass were completed by various skilled artisans, many of whom were based out of New York and traveled to Durham to work on site. While the Chapel pays homage to English cathedrals as well as American examples, it is its own unique form. When one approaches the Chapel, it is clear that you are in the presence of architectural greatness. It possesses key Gothic elements, such as a pointed arch, intricate stonework and stained glass. From afar and up close, it is strikingly majestic and detailed. My pictures do not do it justice. The Gothic style can be seen across American universities. In fact, it was so popular that the term Collegiate Gothic has since been coined. In addition to Duke University, one can see Gothic architectural examples on the campus of Yale University, Boston College, Cornell University and the University of Chicago, to name only a few.

In addition to the Duke Chapel, I was able to see the campus art museum, which I will contrast with the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis in my next post. I also wanted to point out one additional building, whose function I am unsure of (if I had to guess, it looked like a classroom building). I noticed it immediately, because it lent itself well to am interesting architectural debate that my late and renown architectural history professor Gerald Bernstein frequently addressed in his lectures. According to Professor Bernstein, when an architect is faced with a new commission on an existing architectural site, he or she can choose to go one of three ways. One- the architect may decide to recreate the original style using modern materials. Professor Bernstein always argued that this idea was foolish, because the copy would never appear authentic and it would not stand up to the original. Two- the architect may decide to create a link between the old and the new styles, acknowledging the past style while embracing the technology of the present. I would place this unknown classroom building into this category. It clearly borrows the iconic features of the Gothic style but does not attempt to recreate them verbatim. The third option is the most controversial- the architect decides to create something radically different from his original, thus creating an entirely new rhetoric in the existing space. This can be very successful if the building is well received. But it is often criticized for breaking up the overall flow and harmony of the existing area. Below are a few more shots of the Chapel.