The Campus
Campus Buildings
The oldest structure on campus is the Stockbridge House of 1728. The “Homestead” of 1735 was moved to the adjoining plot in 1973 to form the Faculty (now University) Club. Few of the early buildings retain their original form, notable exceptions being the East and West Experiment Stations, and Old Chapel—all built in the 1880s. South College (1885) was built on the site of its fire-ravaged predecessor.
Various architectural styles are represented in the buildings completed in the first half of the 20th century, perhaps the most admired being Memorial Hall (1920-21) with its Italian Renaissance features. A 1961 campus master plan sited arts and humanities buildings to the south and science facilities to the north—groupings that have survived, with some modifications, to the present day.
To prepare for the projected expansion of the campus in the 1960s and ’70s, the trustees deliberately opted for internationally recognized modernist architects—a decision that has led to stylistic eclecticism. Some of the notable products are Herter Hall (1969), Murray D. Lincoln Campus Center (1970), the W.E.B. Du Bois Library (1971-73), and the Fine Arts Center (1975). Major recent additions include Knowles Engineering Research Building (1991), the William D. Mullins Memorial Center (1991-93), and the Silvio O. Conte National Center for Polymer Research (1996).
Infrastructure
The Amherst campus consists of 350 buildings, with an additional 70 structures at satellite locations, totaling almost 9.7 million square feet. Classrooms number 585 and teaching auditoriums, 24. Total acreage in active use is 1,430, with 412 acres of lawns, 94 acres of parking lots, and 45.5 acres of roofs. Campus roads total 16 miles; steam lines, 28 miles; and water lines, 30 miles. Electrical lines total 20 miles for ducts, 120 miles for conduits, and 350 miles for conductors. Paved sidewalks total 58 miles.
The current value of campus assets in Amherst and Hadley, including infrastructure, is approximately $2.2 billion.
Besides its Amherst/Hadley holdings, the campus has facilities in Belchertown, Concord, East Wareham, Gloucester, New Salem, Pelham, Shutesbury, South Deerfield, Sunderland, and Waltham.
New Construction and Renovation
The campus is witnessing a boom in new construction and renovation projects of all sizes, funded primarily through bonds, and also with private donations and revenue trust funds. Completed by late summer were the Harold Alfond Management Center at the Isenberg School of Management, and a new soccer field. Extensive renovations to Bezanson Recital Hall continued. A $26-million, three-story lab for chemical engineering and civil and environmental engineering is scheduled for completion in October 2003. Renovations to residence halls, laboratories, and the physical plant building have also been made, along with structural repairs to McGuirk Alumni Stadium and major roofing and resurfacing on and around several large buildings.
Campus Pond
In 1892, the unsightly central area of campus was transformed into a pond by the damming of an existing brook. Created to supply ice to refrigerate fruit and dairy products, the three-acre pond instead became the site of an annual rope pull, winter skating and snow sculpting, and quiet recreation. Since the opening of the Fine Arts Center in 1975, the pond has seldom frozen solid. Dredging and unobtrusive landscaping have greatly improved its modern appearance and the abundance of its fish, bird, and insect life. Its one island, now a sculptured environment titled “Isle of View,” is linked to the banks by walkways.
Waugh Arboretum
The campus trees form the Waugh Arboretum and include a number of rare specimens, such as the stately Japanese elm outside South College, the first of its species in the United States. Many trees also meet the Commonwealth’s ‘heritage’ definition in terms of size, rarity, and interest. Founded in 1944, the arboretum commemorates Frank A. Waugh, the first head of what is now the University’s Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning who for many years also designed and maintained the campus grounds. Significant 19th-century contributors to the arboretum were Waugh’s predecessor, Professor Samuel T. Maynard, and President William Smith Clark, who brought back specimens from Japan.
Durfee Conservatory
The present Durfee Conservatory dates from 1954, when a metal-and-glass structure with automatic ventilation and steam heat replaced an older complex created from repairs to the graceful Victorian planthouse that had been one of the first buildings on campus. New specimens from around the world updated a collection formed in the Conservatory era. Today, Durfee continues its teaching and public education roles, with new emphasis on stress management for students and horticultural therapy for the campus community. The immediately surrounding arboretum, formed in the 1870s, has also been revitalized, in part with an awardwinning garden reminiscent of Japanese design.
