Extending from Sage Chapel to Cascadilla Gorge, South Campus was first developed in the 1870s with the construction of Sage College for Women and Sage Chapel. Over 150 years, this landscape has been filled with buildings and spaces housing diverse academic programs and student services. Because South Campus was built incrementally and for varied purposes, it serves as an open-air textbook of architectural styles. Style as a category of formal analysis has limitations, operating independently of a building’s meanings and uses. But we will use style differently, viewing structures and placing them within the university’s history and landscape as well as within their stylistic category. For example, South Campus is home to two waves of Gothic architecture, separated by 50 years. We will consider the roots of Gothic architecture, as well as the meanings and materials that shape different expressions of this style.

In a short half-mile walk, we will review Gothic, Romanesque, Modern and Postmodern as architectural styles/movements and observe how they were employed to house the academic programs and stated mission of Cornell.