Lake Forest College

Lake Forest College, Lake Forest, Illinois

Lake Forest College report to the Getty (PDF) 16.3MB

Located some 30 miles north of Chicago on the bluffs overlooking Lake Michigan, Lake Forest College was designed to take scenic advantage of the site's unique features. The 107-acre campus still preserves much of its original spacious landscape design of rolling oak savanna, and the North and Middle campus are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Funding will help Lake Forest to develop a comprehensive preservation plan to complement a recently completed campus master plan, which will guide it in making informed decisions about its historic buildings and landscapes.

Lake Forest College received a Getty grant in 2004 for $150,000 to support campus heritage planning.

Historic Designation(s): Lake Forest Historic District (National Register of Historic Places).

Report Summary

Purpose: Funding will help Lake Forest develop a comprehensive preservation plan, to complement a recently completed campus master plan, that will guide and inform treatment decisions about the college’s historic buildings and landscapes.

Enable the college to build on its legacy of handsome buildings well-distributed within a park-like setting.

Historic Designation: The North and Middle campus are listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Lake Forest National Register Historic District and the Lake Forest Historic District.

The 107-acre campus still preserves much of its original spacious landscape design of rolling oak savanna some 30 miles north of Chicago. Located on the bluffs overlooking Lake Michigan, Lake Forest College was designed to take scenic advantage of the site's unique features and to function both as educational institution and as cultural center for the surrounding community. Campus features informal/natural English, Beaux Arts, and modernist styles.

Architects include Leon O. Welch, Henry Ives Cobb, Pond & Pond, Frost & Granger, Howard Van Doren Shaw, Stanley Anderson, Puckey & Jenkins, Perkins & Will, Naess & Murphy, Orput Associates, Brown and Associates, Solomon Cordley Buenz, Shepley/Bullfinch, Chicago Associates Architects and Planners. Landscaping designs by Almerin Hotchkiss, Ossian C. Simonds, Warren Manning, Benjamin Masters or Benjamin Wistar Morris, Naess & Murphy, Marshall & Johnson.

Site list:

• Ravine Lodge (caretaker’s cottage, placement office / interfaith center) (1860-80’s, Colonial Revival)
• Lake Forest College established (1876)
• Young Hall aka College Hall aka University Hall (Middle Campus) (1878, yellow brick Second Empire; designed by Leon O. Welch; renovated 1981-82 by Chicago Associates Architects and Planners)
• North Hall aka Lake Forest Academy (academics, residences, administration) (1879-80, yellow brick Italianate/Second Empire; designed by Leon O. Welch; renovated 1898 by Frost and Granger)
• Patterson Lodge (president’s house, residences, administration) (1880, yellow brick Second Empire; possibly designed by Leon O. Welch; renovated 1993)
• Hotchkiss Hall aka Gymnasium (1891, Richardsonian Romanesque, designed by Henry Ives Cobb; 1969 fire damage; renovated 1988 by Wicklund & Pigozzi)
• Durand Art Institute (North Campus) (1891-92, Romanesque Richardsonian, designed by Henry Ives Cobb; renovated 1980 under Chicago Associates Architects and Planners)
• Moore Hall (South Campus) (1893, designed by Pond & Pond; 1922 renovation; landscaping designed by Ossian C. Simonds)
• Alice Home Hospital (North Campus) (1898, no longer exists)
• Lois Durand Hall (women’s residences) (North Campus) (1899, designed by Frost & Granger)
• Reid Memorial Library (1899-1900)
• Lily Reid Holt Memorial Chapel, linked by a cloister to Reid Hall (1899-1900, grey limestone Collegiate Gothic, designed by Frost & Granger)
• Blackstone Hall (1907-08, Collegiate Gothic / Tudor, designed by Frost & Granger; landscaping per City Beautiful Movement)
• Harlan Hall (1907-08, Collegiate Gothic / Tudor, Frost & Granger; landscaping per City Beautiful Movement style)
• Blackstone-Harlan Gateway (1907-08, Collegiate Gothic, designed by Frost & Granger; landscaping per City Beautiful Movement)
• Carnegie Hall aka Science Department (1908, Collegiate Gothic, designed by Frost & Granger)
• Durand Commons (men’s dining hall) (1908, Collegiate Gothic, designed by Howard Van Doren Shaw; extended 1962 with Stuart Commons)
• Glen Rowan House (estate house, meeting center/guesthouse) (1908, red brick Tudor Revival, designed by Howard Van Doren Shaw)
• Alan Carr Theater aka Hixon Hall aka Finley Barrett estate garage / servants’ quarters (South Campus) (1912 , English Arts and Crafts; designed by Howard Van Doren Shaw; renovated and converted 1970’s)
• Campus Circle Houses (1916, English Arts and Crafts, designed by Howard Van Doren Shaw)
• Campus Circle Houses (1927, Cotswold Cottage / Domestic English Gothic, designed by Stanley Anderson)
• Cleveland Young International Center aka Bradley Lodge aka Nurses’ Residence (North Campus) (1927, stucco and half-frame Tudor, designed by Stanley Anderson; 1998 renovation by Brown & Associates)
• Lake Forest Graduate School of Management aka Lake Forest Academy residence (South Campus) (1927, 1980 expansion by Orput Associates)
• Campus Circle Houses (1938, Georgian, designed by Puckey and Jenkins)
• Johnson Science Center aka Ernest Johnson Memorial Science Building (1960, contemporary brick and glass, designed by Perkins & Will)
• Stuart Commons (1962, International/Organic Wright style, designed by Perkins & Will)
• South Campus acquired, along with buildings of former Lake Forest Academy (1940)
• Deerpath Hall (North Campus) (1956, red brick contemporary, designed by Naess and Murphy; 1999 redesigned/expanded by Solomon Cordwell Buenz)
• South Campus Faculty Housing (1962, Prairie Modern, designed by Perkins & Will)
• Donnelly and Lee Library aka Donnelly Library (1964, contemporary brick and limestone, designed by Perkins & Will; renovated 1982-83 under Chicago Associates Planners and Architects; renovated 2003-04 under Shepley, Bulfinch)
• South Campus Residence Halls (1965, rectilinear brick, designed by Perkins & Will): Gregory Hall, McClure Hall, Nollen Hall, Roberts Hall
• Sports Center (South Campus) (1968, contemporary brick, designed by Edward Dart)
• Mohr Student Center (2006)

• Art Department offered a 2006 class on Lake Forest College as Cultural Landscape and history of campus planning (taught by Dr. Chris Reed)
• Benjamin Historic Certifications and head of library’s Special Collections trained students of the 2006 class to assist in architectural and historical building survey and review of campus master plans
• Town of Lake Forest designed to center on a 30-acre University Park (1857, designed by Almerin Hotchkiss)
  • Campus Master Plan (1857, Picturesque Landscape Style, designed by Almerin Hotchkiss)
  • North Campus aka Academy Park (1858-59, designed by Almerin Hotchkiss)
  • Lake Forest Academy Master Plan (1892-3, designed by Ossian C. Simonds)
  • South Campus aka Lake Forest Academy (1893, designed by Almerin Hotchkiss)
  • Lake Forest College Campus Master Plan (1897, Beaux-Arts Style, designed by Warren Manning/Benjamin Master)
  • Lake Forest Plan (1906, designed by Benjamin Wistar Morris based on Warren Manning)
  • College Campus Master Plan (1947, Beaux Arts, designed by Naess and Murphy with Chance S. Hill)
  • College Campus Master Plan (1948, Prairie Style / informal, designed by Marshall Johnson)
  • 3-Campus Master Plan (1959, designed by Perkins & Will)
  • Lake Forest College Tree Inventory (1992)
  • Campus Landscape Master Plan (1994, designed by P. Clifford Miller) (perhaps 1996, by Freeman Spiller)
• Participating students surveyed the campus, created a campus guidebook. Each of the building surveys recorded current photograph, history, information regarding construction/additions, architectural style / other building information, available resources.
• Johnson Lasky Architects surveyed the campus to assess all building conditions—interior and exterior
• CYLA Design Associates Landscape Architects surveyed the campus to assess green spaces and building plantings
• Team identified Defining Elements of the campus
  • Intimate scale
  • Integration of campus/town
  • Layout determined by terrain / landscape
  • Naturalistic landscape style
  • Varied architectural styles, each building reflecting the contemporary style of its construction
• Team identified Design Principles for campus preservation
  • Apply Secretary of the Interior’s Standards
  • Consider preserving all buildings the Secretary’s standards determine significant, contributing, eligible for landmark status or for inclusion in landmark district, recent but potentially significant
• Team identified and organized landscapes into campus zones—areas where buildings and landscape relate strongly to each other
  • Middle Campus
  • North Campus
  • South Campus
• Team presented findings, recommendations to campus staff and board members

Outcomes: Products

• Building surveys recording current photograph, history, information regarding construction/additions, architectural style / other building information, available resources
• Supplementary essays on Campus and Landscape History
• Glossary of terms
• Glossary of architectural styles
• Building key for the campus map, variously organized by: architect, architectural style, significance (according to the Secretary of the Interior’s standards)

Outcomes: Policies and Plans

• Respect the integrity of the original plan for college and landscape and include the natural ravine
• Conduct a study of parking needs
• Consolidate parking to allow restoration of green space in important landscape zones
• Consider aural as well as visual impact in placement of service/utility facilities
• Place structures meaningfully, with relation to each other and the landscape, from conceptual planning through construction
• Consider scale and materials of buildings and built areas. Maintain the intimate feeling of the present campus
• Improve pedestrian connections between campuses
• Restore/rehabilitate/maintain exteriors and interiors of existing buildings respectfully, employing Secretary of the Interior’s standards and recommendations
• Rehabilitate circulation and landscape plantings to frame views, complement plantings, and enhance pedestrian experience
• Connect natural areas with interpretive trails--a “campus walk” system
• Expand use of natural areas as teaching tools, perhaps with interpretive materials
• Recognize the importance of landscape buffers
• Use a qualified landscape architect to designed and supervise any tree planting
• Identify, protect, and maintain heritage trees
• Publicize efforts to protect and improve the natural environment

Unique Features

• Maximizing the project’s educational potential:
  • Kick-off in the form of a class
  • Students from that class assisting the contractors
  • Instructor from that class appointed to the project team
• Integration of campus and community
• Simple construction guidelines to protect existing trees
• Major stylistic challenges and
• Glossary of terms
• Glossary of architectural styles
• Building key for the campus map, variously organized by: architect, architectural style, significance (according to the Secretary of the Interior’s standards)

Advisors

The project team includes:

• 4 campus representatives: (Leslie Chapman, V.P. Business Affairs; Arthur Miller, Archivist and Librarian for Special Collections; David Siebert, Dir. Facilities Management; Dr. Chris Reed, Professor of Art)
• Art students taught by Dr. Chris Reed

and

• Staff from David Woodehouse Architects (David Woodehouse, Brian Hungerford, Andy Tinuooi)
• Staff from Johnson Lasky Architects (Walker Johnson, Anne Sullivan, Jennifer Williams)
• Staff from CYLA Design Associates (Carol Yetken, Karen Heller)
• Staff from Benjamin Historic Certifications (Susan Benjamin, Gwen Sommers Yant)

Credits and Links: Campus Contact

Ms. Leslie T. Chapman
VP for Business Affairs
Lake Forest College
555 N. Sheridan Rd.
Lake Forest, IL 60045
Ph: (847) 735-5035
F: (847) 735- 6276