The Getty Grant Program awarded a two-year, $151,000 grant to CIC this spring to support a survey of historic architecture and design on the campuses of independent colleges and universities.     The survey will include about 700 independent colleges and universities and will attempt to record, interpret, and evaluate an inventory of structures of architectural or historical interest on independent college and small university campuses across the country. "Historic buildings on the campuses of small colleges and universities across the country offer a rich and vital resource for understanding the history and cultural significance of American architecture, design, and planning during the past two centuries," said CIC President Richard Ekman. "These buildings offer evidence of the relationship between physical facilities and educational objectives, reflecting the deliberate traditions and values of some of America's oldest institutions of higher learning. We are pleased that the Getty grant will allow CIC to build the documentation of these important structures."     Dr. Barbara S. Christen, currently Research Associate at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts of the National Gallery of Art and an architectural historian, will direct the project as Senior Advisor to CIC.     Information from the survey will be organized geographically, with each campus discussed in terms of 1) architecturally and historically significant buildings; 2) the campuses themselves, in relation to issues of planning and landscape architecture; and 3) the history of the town and city in which the institution is located. "A database will be created for buildings, sites, and images, with cross-referencing between institutions regarding style, and similar historical or religious contexts in which an institution was working. The database will serve as a scholarly foundation upon which other studies on the architectural history of higher education will be grounded," Christen said.     Christen indicated that, once the survey is completed, future funding would allow the team to begin work on the second phase of the project, which will encompass research, writing, and editing of a number of publications. "These publications will make accessible a little-known area of American architectural and educational history to a wide audience, including prospective students, alumni, business leaders, tourists, interested laypersons, and specialists in American architecture and related fields in education, religious studies, historic preservation, American studies, construction, and the material arts," she said.     Among the architectural historians and others who will serve on the project's advisory committee are John Strassburger, president of Ursinus College (PA); Russell V. Keune, an architect and fellow of the American Institute of Architects; Thomas C. Celli, a principal of CelliFlynn-Brennan Architects and Planners; Damie Stillman, professor emeritus at the University of Delaware; and Randy Mason, director of the graduate program in historic preservation at the University of Maryland at College Park.
		Fisk University's (TN) Jubilee Hall, the South's first permanent structure built for the education of black students, is a designated National Historical Landmark, and remains the dramatic focal point of Fisk's campus.
		Huntingdon College's (AL) John Jefferson Flowers Memorial Hall (1909) is the central figure of a handsome group of collegiate buildings built of rough-faced brick and trimmed in limestone with heavy "reveals" and classic carvings.
		Completed in 1915, this Cass Gilbert-designed building houses Oberlin College's (OH) administrative offices: the president, dean of the college of arts and sciences, and secretary of the college.

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Last updated: July 5, 2002
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