Looking through some of William Ward Watkin’s things I became fascinated with photos of construction work being done on the quad side of the Administration Building in 1911. They look to me almost like ruins, more like something falling down than something going up. This one is my favorite–Entrance 1 on May 25, 1911:
And here it is last fall:
Bonus:
Administration Building was built to last! Good design and good construction.
I wonder if the faux tower on Anderson Hall will look as good at 100+ years…
Stephen Fox’s 2001 Architectural Tour/Campus guide (https://books.google.com/books?id=qtQdYSyH6g8C&pg=PA56&lpg=PA56&dq=“Stirling”) said the “conical aluminum and glass skylight above the cloister entrance door” created during the late 1970s/early 1980s’ Anderson hall addition was the architects’ (James Stirling & Michael Wilford) “salute to the Venetian Gothic pinnacles atop the Physics Building.
Praise for the Anderson Hall addition in Coulson, Roberts & Taylor’s 2011 book, “University Planning and Architecture: Search for Perfection” (https://books.google.com/books?id=kdyhAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA97&lpg=PA97&dq=“Stirling”+”skylights”), noted that “only the asymmetrically placed circular window of the west end and the two conical metal and glass skylights suggest its modern provenance.”
A couple of exterior architectural sketches can be viewed here: https://scholarship.rice.edu/handle/1911/71210
Sterling was trying real hard to be contextual in a contemporary manner.
Noticing the steps in the first photo are not “dished”. I remember working under one of the stairways somewhere in the ’70s and seeing that the steps had been flipped at some point to put a new tread surface on top. I now wonder how many have had to be replaced due to being too worn on both sides. Before they started putting the no slip strips on them, some of them were deadly when wet.
I wonder why extra step was subsequently added…
It appears that an extra step was subsequently added; I wonder why…
I know the guy who bulit it and Anderson Hall was also built to last!