Two libraries, both alike in dignity, both incredibly different in style. How did gothic Deering end up next to brutalist Main? Allison Rauch has more.
NARRATOR: Whether stopping for a break, meeting with friends or catching up on some work, chances are you’ve been in one of Northwestern’s libraries. And although Mudd wins some love for its north campus proximity and, uh, showers, it’s really a question of Deering or Main.
It’s a sharp juxtaposition. Deering’s collegiate gothic towers and stained-glass windows are featured on campus tours, adorn official merch and serve as a backdrop for many a club photo shoot. Main lurks behind, – a hulking, brutalist building that sprawls out in every which way.
How did two completely different buildings end up literally connected on Northwestern’s campus? Architectural projects as big as a college campus can evolve over time. Wendy Dunnam Tita, a principal at a firm called Page in Austin, Texas, described this effect.
WENDY DUNNAM TITA: Where you are with Northwestern…when you look at that campus, in many ways you at least have an understanding of when things were built. And you have an understanding of the priorities at different times.
NARRATOR: Deering was the first of the two libraries to be built, with construction starting in 1931 and finishing in 1933. Architect James Gamble Rogers modeled the library after the King’s College chapel in Cambridge, England. Tour guides love to point out that the King’s College chapel and buildings like it inspired the architecture of Hogwarts. But Deering was created in the collegiate gothic style.
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NARRATOR: The collegiate gothic style emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as a subgenre of the gothic revival. Think carved stone facades, buttresses and stained glass windows. A lot like a church – which Dunnam Tita says is on purpose.
DUNNAM TITA: Collegiate Gothic really had a lot to do with Oxford and Cambridge University.
Those universities were using styles built on kind of early and medieval Gothic kind of compounds and, and those churches, and part of the reason the churches look the way they do is we because they were trying to inspire awe…to, you know, feel the power of God. That was kind of translated into these universities that were also trying to kind of inspire a feeling of importance.
NARRATOR: Dunnam Tita says that American universities then copied European universities to give an air of established importance to their newer institutions. Northwestern seems to have gone all in in that area. The Gothic style has extended to the campus’ signage, merch and athletic uniforms. But looking at U.S. college campuses as a whole, the collegiate Gothic style is everywhere. Dunnam Tita remembered touring schools with her son.
DUNNAM TITA: When we went to Lehigh…it is collegiate Gothic…And we walked in, and Marcus was just, like, totally tuned out. And, you know, he’s like, I don’t want to go to school in Hogwarts, I don’t want to be in old buildings, I am designing, I want to design the future.
NARRATOR: Which brings us to Main, definitely not a collegiate Gothic building. Construction began in 1966, with doors opening in 1970. Main was designed by architect Walter Netsch of Chicago-based firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. Netsch is particularly known for championing the brutalist style of architecture.
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NARRATOR: Despite its appearance, brutalism did not get its name from the word “brutal.” Rather, it comes from the French phrase “béton brut,” or “raw concrete.” Dunnam Tita joked that many architects seem to like brutalism because it allows for greater design control.
DUNNAM TITA: Concrete is liquid, and you can form it into all kinds of things, and it can be much more sculptural. And there is this idea of a kind of honesty, you know, of materials.
NARRATOR: Brutalism gained popularity in the UK and US for municipal buildings in the 1950s and 1960s. But why for a library, especially next to another library that looks entirely differently? Dunnam Tita explained how changing materials and techniques can influence the intentions of a design.
DUNNAM TITA: And I think…instead of a presence of lightness aspiring to God, was a presence of like the importance of a library and like a visual weight, and the heft of that. And so you can see just how these colleges and the mindset is shifting, and then the architecture is shifting, because they might not have had a master plan that was rigorously keeping a style.
NARRATOR: So in a way, the juxtaposition of Deering and Main goes beyond a “pretty” library and an “ugly” library, or a collegiate Gothic building versus a brutalist building. They are markers of ideologies, of the university’s goals and sense of self over time. Choosing a favorite library, then, could be a student’s way of marking their own sense of self.
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NARRATOR: And aesthetics aside, the most important part of any building is its functionality.
DUNNAM TITA: I think a lot of people think architecture is only the outside but interior architecture, like there’s so much about the experience of buildings… those essential qualities might not really have anything to do with the outside but they are able to have their essential needs met by the inside.
NARRATOR: So though the Deering/Main debate will never be settled, take some time to really look at these buildings next time you’re walking by. They’re much more than just libraries.
For WNUR News, I’m Allison Rauch.
