Louisiana State University

Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Building an American Renaissance (PDF) 4.5MB

Louisiana State University (Website)

In 1988, the central part of the Louisiana State University (LSU) campus was designated an historic district on the National Register. The core of the campus' Beaux-Arts design, based on an Olmsted Brother's plan, is comprised of eighteen buildings including the original Hill Memorial Library, an austere adaptation of McKim, Mead & White's Boston Public Library, and the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Tower, which Huey Long later used as a model for the Louisiana State Capitol Building. Grant funds will allow the University to develop a comprehensive preservation plan including an inventory and documentation of the school's historic buildings and landscapes, as well as make condition assessments of individual buildings.

Louisiana State University received a Getty grant in 2006 for $180,000 to support campus heritage planning.

Report Summary

Purpose: Grant funds will allow the University to develop a comprehensive preservation plan including an inventory and documentation of the school's historic buildings and landscapes, and to make condition assessments of individual buildings, particularly the 1920’s designs built with concrete and stucco according to J.J. Earley’s theories.

Commemorate university’s 150th anniversary with an exhibit traveling throughout Louisiana, January 1, 2009-January 1, 2010.

Historic Designation: In 1988, the central part of the Louisiana State University (LSU) campus was designated an Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places. The National Register also lists 57 individual campus buildings.

LSU began in 1853 as the Louisiana State Seminary of Learning, in Pineville, Louisiana. When the building caught fire in 1869, LSU moved to the city of Baton Rouge and later to a site north of the city. In 1926, LSU moved to its current Baton Rouge site.

The core of the campus' Beaux-Arts design, based on an Olmsted Brother's plan, is comprised of 18 buildings including the original Hill Memorial Library, an austere adaptation of McKim, Mead & White's Boston Public Library, and the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Tower, which Huey Long later used as a model for the Louisiana State Capitol Building. Fourteen buildings were designed by Theodore Carl Link, working with his son and using concrete with stucco according to the theories of John Joseph Earley. Upon Link’s death in 1923, the designs were continued by Wogan and Bernard, followed by political appointees Weiss, Dreyfous, and Seiferth. The original campus layout by Frederick “Rick” Law Olmsted, Jr., features live-oak trees and uses quadrangular spaces, each of which is surrounded by buildings with tile roofs and broad arches. E.A. McIlhenny (Jungle Gardens) implemented landscaping alongside Weiss, Dreyfous, and Seiferth; landscaping after 1930 was designed by Steele Burden.

List of sites studied (all architecture is symmetrical Neoclassical, unless otherwise noted):

• Agricultural Group of Buildings (designed by Theodore Link)
  • Stubbs Hall aka Home Economics Building
  • Prescott Hall aka Animal Industry Building
  • Dodson Auditorium aka Agricultural Auditorium
  • Audobon Hall aka Biology Building
• North Administration Building (designed by Theodore Link)
• South Administration Building (designed by Theodore Link)
• David F. Boyd Memorial Hall aka Administration Building (designed by Theodore Link, first contract let)
• Thomas Boyd Halls aka Law Building aka Post Office and Commandant’s Building (designed by Theodore Link)
• George Peabody Building aka Peabody Hall (designed by Theodore Link; second contract let)
• Hill Memorial Library (post-1923, designed by Theodore Link, realized by John Joseph Earley?; third contract let )
• Campanile aka Soldier’s and Sailor’s Memorial Tower (designed by Theodore Link)
• Foster Hall aka Foster Hall Cafeteria aka Cafeteria Hall (Roman basilica, flanked by arcades) (fourth contract let)
• Allen Hall aka Language Building (fifth contract let)
• Chemistry Group aka Chemistry Lab Buildings
  • Himes Hall
  • Coates Hall
  • Nicholson Hall

• Native American mounds
• Louisiana State Seminary of Learning (Italianate) (1853, by Alexander T. Wood; burned 1869)
• Seminary relocated in State Institution for the Deaf and Dumb (Gothic Revival)
• Hill Memorial Library (1902, neoclassical brick) – Downtown Campus
• Alumni Hall (1904)
• Garrig Hall (German Romantic)
• Irion Hall (Neoclassical symmetrical)
• Heard Hall (Neoclassical symmetrical)
• Robertson Hall (Neoclassical symmetrical)
• Peabody Hall (Neoclassical symmetrical)
• Powerhouse (Theodore Link)
• Electrical Engineering Building Steam & Hydraulic Engineering Labs and Shops (Theodore Link)
• Atkinson Hall aka Main Engineering Building (Theodore Link)
• Forestry and Horticulture Building (designed by Weiss, Dreyfous, and Seiferth)
• Physics Hall (designed by Weiss, Dreyfous, and Seiferth)
• Memorial Oak Grove
• Student Union Building
• Middleton Library, at campus core (1953)

Process

• Team studied campus origins and plans
• General Plan for Louisiana State University, integrating the main campus with the new acreage for an agricultural institute (1921, designed by Olmsted Brothers)
  • General Plan of the Louisiana State University and A&M college (1923, designed by Theodore Link)
  • Interim Campus Development Plan (1948, designed by Swanson Assocs.)
  • LSU Quadrangle Landscape Plan (Southern quadrangle) by Henslee Cox—Plan for the Southern Quadrangle (1980)
  • Campus Master Plan (2003, designed by Smith Group)
• Team surveyed campus and assessed condition of 18 buildings
• Organized survey results –i.e., 8 window types, 3 door types
• Sought input through 21 sessions with students (12), faculty/staff (6), community (3)
• Recommended dark anodized aluminum to replace for existing window and door frames
• Collected and reviewed traveling exhibition: LSU: Building an American Renaissance
• Exhibition brochure for LSU: Building an American Renaissance

Outcomes: Products

• Traveling exhibition: LSU: Building an American Renaissance
• Exhibition brochure for LSU: Building an American Renaissance
• Drawings of Window Features—original designs and replacements—in studied buildings
• Drawings of Door Features—original designs and replacements—in studied buildings
• Brief, on-line description of project at one site, plus on-line access to report pages at another site
• Master Plan components: Goals, System Diagrams, Planning Concepts, Campus-Wide Plan, District Plans, Jubilee Projects

Outcomes: Policies and Plans

• “Concentrate all functions in the historic core and along an academic spine that extends to the south”
• “Use the original 1921 plan as a model for future growth”
• Create distinctive, identifiable campus districts by clustering buildings around a “centrally located and architecturally defined open space,” orient the core to pedestrians, restrict vehicular traffic and parking to the perimeter
• “Create a continuous, open-space network” that reflects the park-like character of the historic core while highlighting “natural features, major open spaces, and pedestrian corridors”
• Increase the amount of open space from 55% to 61%; Decrease the amount of “hard-surface space” (roads, parking, buildings) from 45% to 39%
• “Upgrade campus edges”
• “Maintain the planning process,” with the Master Plan “as a Guideline for future growth”
• Replace heavy wooden doors with dark anodized aluminum and glass to accommodate handicapped access and a modern need for “clarity of access”
• “Achieve a positive interface with the Baton Rouge community”
• “Serve the needs of the people of the state”

Unique Features

• Use of faculty/students to carry out the project (report and exhibition)
• Report submitted in the form of an exhibit and a promotional brochure
• Use of maps, rather than text to display most project findings and recommendations
• Lack of detail regarding condition, recommendations, process, building materials, grounds or planting conditions, and much more

Advisors

The project team was entirely in-house:

• Dr. Michael Desmond, School of Architecture faculty
• Van Cox (landscape models), School of Landscape Architecture faculty
• Santanu Majumdar (graphic design), School of Art alumnus
• Anthony Threatt (editing), School of Architecture alumnus
• Andrew Wallace (building models), School of Architecture alumnus assisted by students Kristen Kelsch and Ivy Johnson

The Master Plan Working Committee included: Jerry Blanchard, Joseph Bockrath, Carolyn Collins, Van Cox, Michael Desmond, Gary Durham, William Eskew, Jim Fernandez, Patrick Gibbs, Jim Howell, Laura Lindsay, Roger Magendie, Neil Matthews, Ralph Portier, Fred Raiford, Vincent Russo, Dennis Stipe, Bob Thomas, Robert Zwirn

Executive Oversight for the Master Plan was assigned to: Roger Ogden, Stewart Slack, William Jenkins, William Richardson, Mark Emmert, John Costonis, Pat Gibbs

Credits and Links: Campus Contact
Dr. Michael Desmond
School of Architecture
Louisiana State University
136 Atkins Hall
Baton Rouge, LA 70803