Special Tours Highlight Campus Architecture

Campus visitors will have the chance to see some of Yale’s most distinguished architecture — from its stately mansions along Hillhouse Avenue to the marble- and granite-paned Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library and the award-winning, “green” Kroon Hall — on special tours taking place this spring.

The two-hour walking tours of Yale’s architectural treasures will be offered on Saturdays at 11 a.m. March 27-May 6. Tours leave from the Mead Visitor Center, 149 Elm St. For reservations, call 203-432-2301.

The tours, first offered last fall, were designed by undergraduate Paul Needham ‘11 in collaboration with School of Architecture Dean Robert A.M. Stern. Needham, who is editor-in-chief of the Yale Daily News, is one of several students who will serve as guides for the tours.

“The architecture tour was very popular last fall,” says Nancy Franco, director of the Visitor Center. “It provides a unique opportunity to learn about the rich architectural history of Yale’s campus and highlights the work of many world-renowned architects.”

During the tour, participants will have the chance to glimpse the inside of some Yale’s architecturally unique buildings, including the Yale Center for British Art, the Yale University Art Gallery and the Beinecke Library.

Under the direction of Stern, Needham also created a new website featuring some of Yale’s architecture. On the site, Stern notes, “Among the nation’s oldest universities, Yale is the one most firmly embedded in its city and defined by its architecture. Our campus is a living history of the architecture and urbanism of its three centuries in New Haven, and home to the work of some of the world’s greatest architects.

“From the modest red brick college of the 18th century to the secret courtyards and gardens of James Gamble Rogers and the great modern works of Louis I. Kahn, Eero Saarinen, Philip Johnson, Cesar Pelli and Frank Gehry, the struggle to balance collective identity and individual expression is represented in Yale’s buildings, which in their totality represent the essential struggle of life in a democracy,” he continues.

Architecture tours can also be arranged by appointment. For more information about the guided tours, visit www.yale.edu/visitor or call 203-432-2301. For a self-guided tour, visit www.yale.edu/architectureofyale/archtour_map.pdf. To visit the Yale architecture website, visit www.yale.edu/architectureofyale.