“In laying the foundations of an institution which is to last through coming ages and to affect all future generations, we have need to plan wisely. We must not expose ourselves needlessly to the inconveniences of changes nor to suspicions of caprice.” — Board of Trustees of the Illinois Industrial University, March 1867

Since receiving its charter as a land-grant institution in 1867, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has grown steadily in stature and in size. In its first 150 years, the campus included over 650 permanent buildings, totaling 14,944,000 net assignable square feet (NASF) and gross square feet (GSF). Seventeen percent of those structures are over 75 years old, 44 percent are 50-74 years old, and 24 percent are 25-49 years old. Several historic resources are listed in the National Register of Historic Places and as National Historic Landmarks.

Approximately 400 buildings and 36 sites are eligible for listing on the campus preservation index, which includes those structures built before 1970 and sites deemed important to the campus fabric.

A State University in Illinois

Two federal acts provided aid for higher education in the early years of the state: the College Fund and the Seminary Fund. The College Fund contained a percentage of funds from the sale of public lands in Illinois for building roads, and the Seminary Fund was derived from the sale of two townships. The state borrowed from these funds on an annual basis from 1829 until 1857 to cover general expenses. Despite the depletion of these funds, one futile attempt was made to establish a state university in Illinois between 1830 and 1850. Disputes over the location of the state capital, rivalries among sectarian colleges, the priority to fund primary and secondary education, and the general belief that a state university, like the sectarian colleges, would foster the growth of a class of aristocratic young men prevented serious consideration of a state-funded university.

In November 1851 at an agricultural convention in Granville, Illinois, a farmer and former professor of literature from Jacksonville, Illinois, Jonathan Baldwin Turner, outlined a plan to set aside public lands to support a system of industrial universities, particularly agricultural and mechanical colleges, in each state. This was the first of many speeches that Turner would give that advocated the need to pass on the advantages of science to the men engaged in industrial and agricultural pursuits. Until this time, the benefits of higher education were reserved for the professional man who generally studied literature, languages, or philosophy at a classical-sectarian college. Turner’s novel idea roused diverse reactions from farmers, educators, politicians, journalists, and the general public: all took sides in a battle which alternately raged and subsided until July 2, 1862, when the College Land Grant Act was signed by the president from Illinois, Abraham Lincoln. Passed during the darkest period of the Civil War, the College Land Grant Act served as a declaration of confidence in the American union, already considered dissolved by many.

The College Land Grant Act

The College Land Grant Act, also called the Morrill Act, was introduced into Congress in December 1857 by a Vermont senator, Justin S. Morrill, and provided for land grants to each state to endow at least one college where “the leading object shall be, without excluding other scientific and classical studies, and including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions of life.” The states and territories had two years to accept these benefits and obligations from the federal government, at which time the applicants were provided with 30,000 acres of land scrip for each senator or representative in Congress. Illinois accepted the land grant in 1863 and received 480,000 acres of public land with a value of $600,000.

Though the state of Illinois accepted the land grant in 1863, it took four years of political struggle — much of the debate centering on the location of the new institution — for the legislature to create the Illinois Industrial University. After intense lobbying in the state capital by Representative Clark Robinson Griggs of Urbana, the twin cities of Urbana and Champaign were awarded the university. Griggs agreed to dedicate the seminary building from the defunct Urbana-Champaign Institute, surrounded by 10 acres; 405 acres, known as the Busey Farm, located south of Roselawn Cemetery; 400 acres, known as the Griggs farm, nine miles southeast of Urbana; 160 acres north of the cemetery, a tract now bounded on the east by Lincoln Avenue, on the west by Fourth Street, and on the north by a line immediately south of the Foellinger Auditorium; $100,000 in bonds; a $50,000 freight allowance on the Illinois Central Railroad; and $2,000 worth of trees and shrubs to the development of the university.

Establishment of the Illinois Industrial University

The Griggs Bill, signed by Governor Richard J. Oglesby on February 28, 1867, officially established the location of the Illinois Industrial University in Urbana-Champaign and gave authority to the Board of Trustees to formulate plans for the development of the new institution. The original Board of Trustees, appointed by the governor, hired John Milton Gregory as regent to head the new university. These leaders had one year to assess university holdings, prepare courses of study, and hire educators before the enrollment of the first class on March 2, 1868.

The resources with which the new Board of Trustees had to work were not ideal. The only structure on campus, the seminary building of the former Urbana-Champaign Institute, stood on the north end of what was originally called Illinois Field, now the site of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology.

Dubbed the “Elephant,” perhaps for its unattractive exterior and huge proportions on an uncompromisingly flat landscape devoid of trees, shrubs, or grass, the seminary building was the largest structure in the twin cities and served a variety of purposes. Its five stories included a kitchen, a dining room, recitation rooms, a power plant, and dormitory rooms for up to 130 students. Though the building (destroyed in 1881) was said to be “ready to receive students” in Champaign County’s bid for the industrial university, the Building and Grounds Committee recommended in its first report an expenditure of $7,850 to modify the exterior and increase the usefulness of the building. In this same report, the committee also recommended that the university acquire the land between the 10-acre tract surrounding the main building and the 160-acre tract beginning just south of the present site of Foellinger Auditorium.

The Board of Trustees realized the need to consolidate land holdings to ensure the university’s orderly growth. With this purchase, the grounds formed an inverted T-shaped area, extending from University Avenue on the north to Mount Hope Cemetery on the south, with an additional 410 acres south of the cemetery. This T-shaped section forms the nucleus of the campus within which a majority of the University of Illinois’s historic buildings are located today.

The early years of the university under Regent John Milton Gregory were difficult because public industrial universities were largely without precedent. Gregory and the Board of Trustees struggled with the major problems of curriculum and funding. Financial problems were acute in the early years since there were few appropriations from the legislature. Over the first 25 years, the university received only slightly more than a total of $750,000 from the state, an amount far too small for the university’s purposes and aspirations. By selling bonds, lowering salaries, and abolishing positions, the university survived this financially dangerous period.

Some amenities, however, were retained. In November 1867 a horticultural committee recommended that an experienced landscape gardener oversee the orderly development of the grounds and that provisions be made for an arboretum of ornamental, forest, and fruit trees. By the time the first students arrived in 1868, the grounds around the main building had been graded and fenced. During that same year, the Board of Trustees set aside land north of Green Street for the proposed arboretum. The grounds continued to be improved through mandatory student labor.

As early as 1870, increasing enrollments led the university to recognize the inadequacies of the original seminary building. The state legislature appropriated $125,000, partially for the construction of a new main hall (later known as University Hall) and the Mechanical Building and Drill Hall in 1871; it would be 20 years before the legislature would approve another appropriation of this magnitude.

The First Plans

The placement of University Hall, the most important building on the campus, would have a significant impact on the location of future university buildings. Regent Gregory suggested that University Hall (demolished in 1938) be situated away from what had been the campus center, on a rise just south of Green Street near the present location of the Illini Union. Designed in the Second Empire style by Chicago architect John Mills Van Osdel, the new University Hall served a wide variety of purposes, much like its predecessor, the “Elephant.”

In 1871, soon after the location of the new main hall had been decided, Harold Hansen, an architecture instructor, designed the first plan of the Illinois Industrial University grounds. Hansen’s plan included only those land holdings directly north and south of Green Street and featured winding walks and drives, Green Street as a wide boulevard, and a central site designated for a new campus structure.

The Chemistry Laboratory, a state-of-the-art facility in 1878, was the next building, located south of Green Street and to the east of University Hall. Like the main building, the laboratory is in the Second Empire style with a raised main floor and a mansard roof. Nathan Clifford Ricker, who became one of the most influential architects in campus history, designed the Chemistry Laboratory. Now known as Harker Hall, the building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Ricker was the first person to receive a degree in architecture in the nation (from the Illinois Industrial University in 1873), and he remained on the campus of his alma mater as a professor of architecture, head of the Department of Architecture, dean of the College of Engineering, and university architect. The Chemistry Laboratory, along with his later works — the Drill Hall, the Natural History Building, the Metal Shop, and Library Hall — were placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.

Ricker’s Works on Campus

Throughout Nathan Clifford Ricker’s entire career, he was involved in the development of modern technology and materials, actively incorporating them into his teaching and campus designs. Initially used for military instruction, the Drill Hall (later called Kenney Gym Annex), which was built in 1890 to replace the Mechanical Building and Drill Hall (razed in 1899), contained a large, unified space. Ricker’s progressive use of a wood- and metal-trussed framework left the interior free of support structures. The construction of the eclectically-styled Natural History Building (1892) in the American High Victorian Gothic style brought a change of architecture to the campus. Additions in 1909, 1910, and 1923 complement Ricker’s original design and open onto the quadrangle, which was a campus feature by 1905.

The Metal Shop (1895, Aeronautical Lab B, razed in 1993), a utilitarian structure with a steel-truss support system, was originally used for shop practice. Less than a year later Ricker worked with James McLaren White to design Library Hall (1896), later named Altgeld Hall after John Peter Altgeld, a governor of Illinois. The last and finest of Ricker’s designs, this Richardsonian Romanesque structure remains an important landmark and is the only structure on campus to receive a perfect 5.0 preservation index rating from the Chancellor’s Design Advisory Committee.

Though not designed by Ricker, the Men’s Gymnasium (1901, Kenney Gym) is also included as part of the listing in the National Register of Historic Places. A former student of Ricker, Nelson Strong Spencer designed the Men’s Gymnasium, closely imitating the exterior style of the nearby Drill Hall. Together these buildings exemplify Ricker’s application of the then current architectural engineering techniques.

Laying the Foundation

During the mid-1880s the newly organized and powerful Alumni Association urged the University Board of Trustees and the Illinois General Assembly to change the name of the Illinois Industrial University to one more representative of the university’s functions. Despite resistance from the agricultural community, the institution became the University of Illinois in June 1885. It is, perhaps, significant that the university experienced a notable increase in enrollment after 1885.

The College of Agriculture received a much-needed boost in March 1887 with the approval of the Hatch Act, which provided for an appropriation of $15,000 per annum to each state for the purpose of establishing and maintaining agricultural experiment stations in connection with the colleges founded under the College Land Grant Act of 1862.

Physical evidence of the College of Agriculture’s early development is a continuing reminder of one of the university’s original objectives. Mumford House (1871), the oldest surviving structure on campus, served as a model farm house. Now located in the heart of the south campus, just northeast of Temple Hoyne Buell Hall, the Italianate style house stood well within the limits of the experimental farm grounds at the time of its construction. Northeast of Mumford House are the Morrow Plots, the oldest experimental fields in continuous rotation in the United States, with some plots developed as early as 1876. In recognition of the Morrow Plots’ historical importance, the university constructed the Undergraduate Library underground in 1969 to prevent shading of the nearby plots. The South Farms include barns, silos, outbuildings, and farm houses that also contribute to the university’s collection of historic assets and to the story of scientific progress. For example, the Round Dairy Barns, built between 1902 and 1913, functioned as a model dairy farm and were part of the agricultural experiment station.

Other academic areas were allowed to expand three years after the passage of the Hatch Act, when Congress passed a second Morrill Act (1890), which appropriated for each of the land-grant colleges the sum of $15,000 per year, steadily increasing to an annual sum of $25,000 by 1900. The expenditure of these funds was restricted to agriculture, mechanic arts, the English language, and branches of mathematical, physical, natural, and economic science. The subsidy gave the new regent, Selim H. Peabody, the opportunity to increase the amount of funding to other sciences and the liberal arts as well, marking a decisive turning point in the university’s financial history.

John Peter Altgeld’s election to the governorship in 1892 further improved the university’s situation. The Democratic governor was sympathetic to the university’s instructional needs and helped to secure much-needed appropriations for faculty salaries and buildings. Finally, the World’s Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893 provided an excellent opportunity to promote the university as an important institution of higher learning. Impressive exhibits won the university widespread recognition, a cardinal reason for the university’s subsequent increase in enrollments and legislative appropriations over the next several years.

Burrill’s Study of Building Needs

From 1891 to 1894, Acting Regent Thomas J. Burrill was attentive to the institution’s building needs and sensitive to the physical appearance of the campus. In fact, even before assuming the regency, Burrill directed tree plantings along a north-south axial drive extending from the original Institute building on the north to Mumford House on the experimental farm to the south. This formal drive constituted the first important landscape feature on the campus and is still evident today as the boardwalk of the Quad. Early in the Burrill administration, the faculty conducted the first serious study of building needs, as recent high enrollments were causing severe overcrowding of campus facilities. Although the findings outlined an immediate need for an engineering building, a library building, and a museum, only the engineering building, or Engineering Hall, received an appropriation, $160,000, from the state legislature. Like University Hall and several buildings to follow, the location of the new building was the subject of considerable debate.

At this time campus land uses consisted of a military parade ground and athletic field north of Springfield Avenue, an arboretum between Springfield and Green Street, an academic campus south of Green Street, and the experimental farm to the south. Burrill Avenue served as a north-south axis and helped to tie these uses together both visually and functionally. But, Green Street, a principal traffic thoroughfare, emerged as the true functional axis of the campus. Five major buildings stood on campus, including the Drill Hall (Kenney Gym Annex), the Mechanical Building, the original portion of the Natural History Building, the Chemistry Laboratory (Harker Hall), and University Hall, the long-time centerpiece of the campus. The last three structures faced an informal lawn to the north and formed a half oval along the south side of Green Street. While several building sites for Engineering Hall were possible, the majority of the Building and Grounds Committee recommended that the new building be located at the edge of the arboretum facing Green Street, a site which would eventually become the core of the campus of the College of Engineering.

Growing Pains

Problems associated with the substantial growth of the university became increasingly complex during the Draper administration. On August 1, 1894, Andrew S. Draper took office and the next day his title was changed from “regent” to “president.” Enrollments and construction were at an all-time high. The building boom, in fact, ended at the beginning of World War I. Ad hoc decision-making was no longer adequate for managing campus development, and it became apparent that the university required a more systematic method. Recognizing the urgency of the situation, President Draper recommended that the Board of Trustees establish the Office of Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds; the office was duly created in 1895. The present organized state of the campus is due, in part, to Draper’s foresight at a relatively early stage of the university’s physical development.

Although the new administration was making an effort to improve the direction of overall campus growth, the development of the north campus continued to be driven by practicality and necessity. A new power plant and several engineering-related structures were constructed along the east side of Burrill Avenue in proximity to Boneyard Creek, the railroad, and Engineering Hall. These utilitarian structures crowded the area between Burrill Avenue and the eastern boundary of the university’s land holdings, a line running midway between Burrill and Mathews avenues. Expansion to the west was undesirable because of the presence of the arboretum, an original landscape feature of the university, which contained the President’s House (1896) and Green House (1898). The area north of Springfield Avenue, called Illinois Field, was reserved for athletic and military activity. The College of Engineering developed in a disorderly manner until expansion outside of these confines became inevitable.

The Development of Central Campus

While the north campus evolved, the central campus was also beginning to take shape. The Astronomical Observatory (1896) was the first building of permanence located south of University Hall and near the Morrow Plots. An important site in the development of the science of astronomical photoelectric photometry, the observatory was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1986. Three years after the construction of the observatory, the legislature made an appropriation for a new agriculture building (1899, Davenport Hall), which was to be a monumental structure and “the finest of its kind.” The Green Street cluster had been completed with the erection of Library Hall (Altgeld Hall) so the members of the Board of Trustees found themselves again without a determined site. At the suggestion of President Draper, the Neo Classical style building (Davenport Hall) was located to the southeast of University Hall near the orchards and farms. Apparently, Draper was unaware that his suggestion would have a profound effect on all future building sites south of Green Street.

The new Chemistry Laboratory (1902, Noyes Lab), the next major campus building, designed in a Romanesque Revival style, was constructed directly north of the Agriculture Building. Side by side the new Agriculture Building and the Chemistry Laboratory, equally prominent structures, faced a broad lawn that extended to tree-lined Burrill Avenue. The Women’s Building (1905, now the English Building) joined chemistry and agriculture on the south side of University Hall. The renowned architectural firm of McKim, Mead and White designed this Georgian Revival style building. The 1913 “Quad” addition to the English Building was designed by William Carbys Zimmerman in a Beaux-Arts style. Situated to the west of Burrill Avenue, the Women’s Building was the last major campus structure located solely on the basis of need and without a plan for future growth. Near the end of President Draper’s tenure, the Board of Trustees rejected a motion to authorize a survey and report on university buildings and grounds. The next administration, however, solidified vague aspirations for campus development and set the standard for all future planning efforts.

Financial Success

Edmund J. James took up his presidential duties in November 1904, beginning a period of remarkable academic, financial, and physical progress. Under James’ leadership, the University of Illinois attained a position among the nation’s leading educational institutions. Perhaps the administration’s greatest talent lay in its ability to procure funds from the General Assembly, an effort lavishly rewarded by the passing of the Mill-Tax Law in 1911 giving the school a tax of one mill on each dollar of the assessed value of the taxable property of the state. In its first biennial appropriation after the bill’s passage in 1913, the university received $4,500,000, over $1 million more than the legislative appropriation of 1911. The Mill-Tax Law not only provided funds for immediate needs, but more importantly it assured stable financial assistance over the long term, allowing administrators to plan with greater accuracy for future development.

Planning of the campus physical environment began early in the James administration with the authorization of a new auditorium (1905, Foellinger Auditorium). At the suggestion of President James, a commission was appointed to recommend a plan for the location of the monumental structure. Members of the commission included Ricker; James White, professor of architecture; Lorado Taft, sculptor; and Clarence Blackall, who was later selected as architect of the building. Blackall in particular was instrumental in the final recommendation put forth by the commission in 1906. After drawing up preliminary plans, Blackall consulted with landscape architect John Olmsted on what would become the first plan for the growth of the university. The final proposals included the auditorium site at the southern terminus of a large quadrangle and on the center line (extended) of Nevada Street; a new tree-lined avenue on the east side of the quadrangle approximately parallel with Burrill Avenue; a central site on the northern terminus of the quadrangle for a future, monumental structure to replace University Hall; and a gateway to future campus expansion southward into the experimental farms. The Board accepted these proposals, and construction began on the auditorium, designed in the Beaux-Arts Classical style.

The style of the new auditorium and the formality of the Blackall-Olmsted plan were strongly influenced by the City Beautiful movement. Designs from the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris and the planning of D.H. Burnham at the World’s Columbian Exposition at Chicago led to a revival of classical planning and architecture. The university’s institutional environment, with monumental structures and expansive grounds, successfully embraces the fundamental elements of the movement.

The Birth of Campus Planning at the University of Illinois

Classical planning and architecture marked a decisive change from previous campus development. The heart of the campus shifted from the informal, oval formation of the Green Street group to a formal rectilinear space featuring vistas, symmetry, and alignments. Architectural styles changed from Romanesque and Second Empire to Neo-Classical and Georgian Revival. The Blackall-Olmsted plan directly influenced campus development for approximately 15 years, providing sites for the Commerce Building (1912, Henry Administration Building), Lincoln Hall (1911), an addition to the Women’s (English) Building, and Smith Memorial (Music) Hall (1920). The basic planning techniques and spatial principles introduced by this plan remain a salient feature of the campus planning tradition at the university.

In sharp contrast to the development of the central campus and plans for the south campus, the north campus continued to follow a pattern of dense utilitarian growth. The arboretum west of Burrill Avenue was preserved while land acquisitions eastward from 1900 to 1920 extended university holdings to Goodwin Avenue, allowing for the construction of several major buildings and a number of minor service structures. The main architects for the engineering campus, university architect James White and state architect W. C. Zimmerman, generally followed the design precedent set by Engineering Hall, and used brick accented by limestone banding, lending a pleasing element of continuity. Located directly east of Engineering Hall, the Physics Building (1908, Metallurgy and Mining Building) is in the Renaissance Revival style. Zimmerman’s Railway Engineering Building (1912, Transportation Building), and White’s Ceramics Engineering Building (1915), located between Mathews and Goodwin Avenues, are also in the Renaissance Revival style.

Campus Growth

Unlike the engineering campus, the south campus provided ample land for monumental buildings and formal landscapes. Planning efforts after 1908 focused on this area, which extended from the new auditorium on the north and gradually expanded south and east into the experimental farms. In anticipation of large appropriations from the legislature, the Board of Trustees appointed an advisory commission in 1909 to evaluate the possibilities for campus growth. The appointees included several influential architects and planners of the university campus: state architect W. C. Zimmerman, credited with the design for the Armory (1914, completed 1926), the Stock Pavilion (1914), the Transportation Building (1912), and the Henry Administration Building (1912), among others; D. H. Burnham, the World’s Columbian Exposition’s director of works; Clarence Blackall, a university alumnus and major contributor to the quadrangle conceptualization; and James White, a professor of architecture, campus supervising architect, and designer of more than 25 major campus buildings during his lifelong service to the university.

The commission’s first problem was to find an appropriate location for a new Armory, which, at the suggestion of White, was located to the west of Wright Street on the south campus. Over the next year, the commission outlined primary land uses, sited several major buildings, and delineated general landscape elements upon which campus plans would be based. The plans called for new military and athletic grounds, a quadrangle for the agricultural college, and a library and museum complex — all to be located on the south campus. Besides the new Armory, the commission established locations for the Stock Pavilion (1914), several horticultural greenhouses (1913), and the planned library (built 1926) (see appendices 11-17). The principles of the Beaux-Arts in Blackall’s 1905 plan carried over to these new plans for the south campus, as exemplified by an extension of a north-south campus axis from Green Street on the north to Pennsylvania Avenue on the south and the creation of two new cross-axes. Upon completion of its duties, the commission dissolved in 1912, leaving the supervising architect White with the comparatively simple task of placing new buildings in their respective groups. Though biennial appropriations from the legislature continued to increase steadily after the passage of the Mill-Tax Law in 1911 until the advent of World War I, the recommendations of the Burnham Campus Plan Commission, as it came to be called, made a gradually deeper impression on the actual development of the south campus between 1920 and 1940.

Military History

The United States’ involvement in World War I brought the physical growth of the campus to a halt between 1917 and 1922. Enrollments were down, as were appropriations. The university was completely engaged in wartime activities during this turbulent period. A military presence was not new to the university, but had always been an integral part of campus life. One objective of the College Land Grant Act of 1862 was the teaching of military tactics, and the first structure erected by the university, the Mechanical Building and Drill Hall, accommodated student military training.

Early maps of university holdings label the area north of the Mechanical Building and Drill Hall as the parade ground, reserved for military exercises. When that building was lost to fire, Professor Ricker designed a new Drill Hall (1890, Kenney Gym Annex) to replace it. Presidents Draper and James gave military affairs a prominent place in university life, resulting in a proportional increase in the number of students involved in military organizations.

By 1912 the University of Illinois had more than 1,500 student cadets on campus and two years later created the first college brigade in the nation. Because of the lack of space, military activities were removed from the north campus to the more expansive grounds of the south campus. The Student Army Training Corps used the new Armory (1914, completed 1926) as a dormitory and cafeteria during World War I. Approximately 10,000 Illini served during the war. Memorial Stadium (1924) honors alumni slain in the war: their names are inscribed on the east and west facade columns. Built from funds donated by alumni and friends, this monumental and imposing structure determined that the western portion of the south campus would be the site of several athletic facilities.

The Campus Plan Commission

With the armistice came a new administration and a rejuvenated interest in campus planning. David Kinley assumed his presidential duties in 1919 at a time of rapidly increasing enrollments, pressing needs, and limited funds. A general sense of uncertainty prevailed on the campus and at the state legislature during this post-war period. The administration, however, was taking every possible step to prepare for growth. In 1920 the Board of Trustees president appointed a Campus Plan Commission to act as an advisory body to the professional architects who prepared campus plans for the commission’s approval — a marked change from the makeup of the 1909 Burnham Campus Plan Commission. Though the commission made no radical changes from previous campus plans, such suggestions as moving the engineering college to the south campus and developing the area surrounding the once far-removed Mount Hope Cemetery revealed the commission’s visionary approach to planning, an outlook which would continue throughout the greatest period of development in the university’s history.

In December 1919 the director of the state Department of Finance requested that each state institution prepare a statement of building needs over the next decade. President Kinley’s request consisted of building projects that the Board of Trustees had approved over the years, including 14 new structures with fixed equipment, 12 substantial building additions, and 16 new residence halls. This building program led Kinley to ask the legislature to appropriate $10,500,000 over the next 10 years, but the governor’s veto of $1,500,000 for buildings during the first biennium hindered the immediate realization of the program. Kinley submitted the same proposal again in 1923 and met with success, owing in large part to the organized and comprehensive nature of the 10-year plan. The university had achieved the financial means to embark upon an extensive building program and to fulfill many of its campus planning goals.

The 1920s: A Decade of Exceptional Growth

Over the years, architectural eclecticism had left the university without a uniform style. Fluctuating appropriations, a lack of a uniform building style, and frequent personnel changes prevented the adoption of a standard architectural style on campus. As buildings were placed closer and closer together, this stylistic diversity became an increasing problem. As the first major structure on the planned quadrangle south of the auditorium, the new agriculture building (1924, Mumford Hall) provided university officials with the opportunity to establish a distinctive and appropriate architectural treatment for future campus structures. After careful deliberation, the university hired architect Charles A. Platt in January 1922 to design this important new building and to reevaluate the campus master plan.

Although McKim, Mead and White were the first to introduce the Georgian Revival style to the campus with the construction of the Women’s Building (1905, English Building), Platt applied this style to a wide variety of building types in a way which he felt expressed the university’s purposes and aspirations. Typically, these simple, yet refined red-brick buildings are three and one-half stories high with visible roof lines, dormers, and chimneys. According to Platt’s plan, the buildings were to be arranged in groups of two, three, and four to form small interior courtyards. These structural masses provided spatial enclosure for the major axial and quadrangular landscape spaces, namely the main quadrangle, the south quad, and the military axis and mall (the parade grounds). Platt designed 11 campus buildings, most of which are in the Georgian Revival style. University architect James White and several subsequent architects adhered to the basic elements of Platt’s design formula, giving the campus, especially the area to the south, a strong sense of cohesiveness and order.

Georgian Revival Style

The new agriculture building, Mumford Hall (1924), the first of Platt’s Georgian structures, provided the eastern boundary of the planned south quad. The long-awaited Library (1926) was constructed at the intersection of Armory Avenue and Wright Street, a site recommended by the Senate Library Committee as early as 1921. The new Commerce Building (1924, David Kinley Hall) was located directly south of the Library and across from the agriculture building. These three structures contribute to today’s south quadrangle, terminated on the north by Foellinger Auditorium and on the south by the Stock Pavilion.

Platt applied the Georgian Revival style not only to these academic structures, but to a variety of other building types as well. The Armory addition was completed in 1926. A year later the McKinley Health Center, Huff Hall (formerly the Men’s Gymnasium), and Evans Hall (a dormitory) were also constructed in the same style. The building of Architecture and Kindred Subjects (1926) was located on the south campus just west of what was then known as the Commerce Building (and presently known as David Kinley Hall) and was the first building to face south on the open mall. James White designed the Materials Testing Laboratory (1929, Talbot Laboratory), the only major building erected on the north campus during Kinley’s 10-year building program. This large, modern Georgian structure conclusively anchored the College of Engineering to the north campus and quelled suggestions that the college move to the south. Funds for three more buildings — the Chemistry Annex, Freer Hall, and the President’s House — had been allocated before the onset of the Depression, which abruptly ended the most prosperous period of development in university history. The Chemistry Annex is designed with a Deco Revival flair while Freer Hall and the President’s House are Georgian Revival.

Depression Years

After the completion of the Chemistry Annex (1930), Freer Hall (1931), and the President’s House (1931), campus construction came to a halt until 1939. Throughout the Depression the university’s operating income declined sharply, leading to faculty and salary cuts, but the campus’ physical condition was relatively stable. A combination of lower enrollments and the products of the Kinley building program left room for growth within modern, well-built structures.

By 1934, however, enrollment figures showed an average yearly gain of 1,000 students, leveling off in 1938 with 18,000 students. The strain on finances and facilities brought about by these enormous enrollment increases was compounded by the demolition of University Hall in 1938. To alleviate the severe shortage of classroom space, the federal government contributed Public Works Administration funds for the construction of Gregory Hall in 1939. Following the Platt and White campus plans of the 1920s, the memorial for the former regent was located directly west of the auditorium and designed in the Georgian style typical of the south campus’ architectural character. The major building site on the north terminus of the quadrangle left open by the destruction of University Hall was filled by an elaborate new building, the Illini Union (completed 1941). Again using funds from the Public Works Administration and supplemented by alumni donations and student subscription, the union was built in the location recommended by Blackall and Olmsted in 1911. Designed by Howard Cheney, the structure completed the quadrangle in the Georgian style reminiscent of the architecture of Colonial Williamsburg.

The 1930s ended with the construction of a third major structure, the Natural Resources Building (1939), located on Pennsylvania Avenue in alignment with the south facade of the Architecture Building. Natural Resources was constructed by the State Department of Registration to house the State Geological and Natural History Surveys. Although the building’s interior follows the modernism of the Art Deco style, the exterior continues the traditional Georgian style of the south campus. The dormitories, once known as the Triad Residence Halls (1940, Clark, Barton and Lundgren), are some of the more architecturally successful built on campus. Taken together, this complex of post-Platt Georgian Revival Buildings makes a strong visual impression at the west edge of campus. After this short building spurt, construction on campus again came to a standstill with the bombing of Pearl Harbor and did not recommence until after the war.

Post-War Building Program

During the post-war period of rapid change, the university faced a sharp increase in enrollments (due in part to the GI Bill), outdated laboratory facilities, insufficient housing facilities, an increase in automobile use and a need for parking spaces, and a tight budget. Campus planning during this era posed challenging problems for university officials. Based on the Platt plan of 1927 (see appendix 20), the 1944 Post-War Building Program recommended campus expansion to the east and west and established site locations for electrical and mechanical engineering buildings (1949, 1950), Animal Sciences (1950), the College of Veterinary Medicine (1952, Environmental and Agricultural Sciences Building), and a home economics building (1955, Bevier Hall). A severe housing shortage led to the construction of a wide variety of both permanent and temporary structures for men (1954, Flagg Hall and Noble Hall), women (1949, Lincoln Avenue Residence Hall), married students, graduate students, and staff.

Except for Lincoln Avenue Residence Hall, which retained the Georgian treatment, styles of this period diverged from the Georgian Revival architectural tradition established by Charles Platt. Generally, these new structures took on a more modern appearance, abandoning steeply pitched roofs and projecting chimneys. Moreover, the building program was no longer dominated by a single architect as had been the case in the past: a number of different firms designed in various styles, reintroducing architectural eclecticism into the campus landscape.

In 1950 the architecture firm of Gregg and Briggs addressed the problems of development and vehicular transportation in the first comprehensive campus study since the Platt era. Their recommendations included the development of the south campus as opposed to costly land acquisitions to the east and west, a campus transit system, and parking lots for any new development. Dealing with general planning issues rather than building specifications, the study left campus officials with the task of choosing sites for future structures on a building-by-building basis.

During the 1960s, the University of Illinois Ten Year Development Plan, 1959-1969, by the firm of Richardson, Severns, Scheeler and Associates restored site planning control to the campus. The 10-year plan was comprehensive in scope, including thorough analyses of directions of growth, space and land needs, housing, and transportation. Development of the plan required extensive land acquisitions to the east (of Mathews Avenue) and west (of Wright Street) of the central campus area. One of the university’s more notable land acquisitions occurred in the late 1960s when the area between Goodwin Avenue and Gregory Street was purchased for the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts (1969). In a return to more formal planning techniques, the building was situated on a centerline axis aligning with California Avenue and Daniels Street. The Assembly Hall (1963), the world’s largest free-span dome structure at the time, had received similar formal treatment with a location on axis with and to the south of Memorial Stadium. Both the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts and the Assembly Hall were designed by the architectural firm of Harrison and Abramovitz.

In the early 1960s hundreds of mature elm trees were lost to an epidemic of Dutch Elm disease, thus dramatically altering the appearance of the campus. The firm of Sasaki Associates, Inc. was hired to reinforce the style of the academic campus with formal landscape plantings and street trees. Although the 1969 plan included no architectural controls and elaborate land acquisition recommendations were never fully realized, the plan was successful at guiding campus development throughout the decade.

Campus development stagnated during the economic recession in the early to mid-1970s. Planning efforts focused on needs analysis rather than building sites and architectural styles. Though most construction took place on peripheral campus areas, the Foreign Language Building (1971) and the Physical Education Intramural Complex (1971, IMPE) penetrated the campus core. Designed by Holabird and Root, the Foreign Language Building completed the central quadrangle by filling the site directly south of Davenport Hall. The Physical Education building, located on axis with Memorial Stadium and the Assembly Hall, accents the role of the south campus in athletics.

New Growth on Old Ground

In 1985, a $40 million donation from Arnold and Mabel Beckman for a multidisciplinary research institute led to a resurgence in campus planning efforts. The site chosen for the new Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, the northern edge of Illinois Field along University Avenue, was the former site of the university’s original seminary building. The largely undeveloped area north of Springfield Avenue provided an opportunity for a formal quadrangle in alignment with the university’s central axis. Realizing the need for a comprehensive plan, the university once again hired the firm of Sasaki Associates, Inc. to create a long-range plan for the north campus, and later for the central, south, and south farms areas. Although the master plans for the areas south of Green Street propose to maintain or refine historical ideas for development, resulting in the location of the Edward R. Madigan Laboratory (1991, Plant and Animal Biotechnology Laboratory), the north campus plan strives to rectify more than a century of relatively unplanned growth.

The athletic grounds of Illinois Field were transformed into a research complex and a new quad with the construction of Microelectronics Laboratory (1989), an addition to the Digital Computer Laboratory (1990), and the Computer and Systems Research Laboratory (1992). The quad is closed on the north by the Beckman Institute (1988). The demolition of several turn-of-the-century structures (Aeronautical Laboratory B, Electrical Engineering Research Laboratory, Electrical Engineering Annex, Woodshop and Foundry Laboratory, and Filtration Plant) between Springfield Avenue and Green Street has allowed for the creation of a second quadrangle north of the Illini Union on the university’s central axis. This quad is anchored on the north by the Grainger Engineering Library and Information Center (1994).

The Sasaki master plans of 1986, 1989, and 1990, with aesthetic values firmly rooted in university traditions of the past, will thoughtfully lead campus development well into the 21st century.