A Mid-Century History UNIVERSITY of SOUTH CAROLINA Planning Greene Street: a Mid-Century History
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UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA Planning Greene Street: A Mid-Century History UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA Planning Greene Street: A Mid-Century History 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 5 HISTORICAL REVIEWS 2 Sumwalt ......................................................................................................................................... 7 3 Russell House ............................................................................................................................. 11 4 Wade Hampton .......................................................................................................................... 17 5 McBryde ...................................................................................................................................... 22 6 Thomas Cooper Library Landscape ........................................................................................ 29 7 Thomas Cooper Library ............................................................................................................ 38 ARTH 542 American Architecture Spring 2017 SITE SURVEYS Dr. Lydia Brandt 8 Wade Hampton .......................................................................................................................... 47 With more Americans attending college than ever before; urban renewal; racial integration; the 9 Russell House ............................................................................................................................. 53 expansion of coeducation; and the architecture 10 McBryde ...................................................................................................................................... 59 community’s advocacy for holistic relationship between planning, architecture, and landscape 11 Thomas Cooper Library Landscape ........................................................................................ 65 architecture, the American college campus 12 Thomas Cooper Library ............................................................................................................ 72 developed rapidly and dramatically in the mid- twentieth century. Editors 13 Sumwalt ....................................................................................................................................... 82 Jessa Ross 14 Byrnes .......................................................................................................................................... 89 Using the University of South Carolina’s Sadie Pickens Columbia Campus as a case study, this project explores the history of American architecture in Designer 15 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 93 the mid-twentieth century. Josh Jackson 2 Planning Greene Street A Mid-Century History 3 1 Jessa Ross Introduction In the years following World War II, American ceptual heart of campus: the Historic Horseshoe. universities underwent dramatic transformations Shortly following its construction in 1955, the Uni- in scale, composition, and organization. Admin- versity completed its highly anticipated student istrations were tasked with solving challenges union, Russell House, east of the engineering lab. presented by burgeoning enrollment, diversifying Before 1960, five more buildings, including Thom- social makeup, and technological development. as Cooper Library, joined the assembly of struc- For many college campuses, this meant enlisting tures on the south side of Greene Street, creating a the help of campus planners and architects to new axis of campus activity external, adjacent, and envision intelligent expansion of the built environ- parallel to the Horseshoe. ment. The construction of the buildings of Greene The University of South Carolina, Columbia Street represented a break with the traditional was no exception. From the end of the war to 1980, core of campus for several reasons. The buildings over thirty buildings were added to the University themselves were not peripheral in function; the skyline.1 Immediately after the war, the admin- student union and undergraduate library drew istration was slow to develop new facilities to large amounts of activity and the new dormitories address increasing enrollment and emerging dis- housed several hundred students. Architect Ed- ciplines. But in 1950, the Board of Trustees agreed ward Durrell Stone said that the position of Thom- to spend all unused appropriations on three new as Cooper library would create a new “center of buildings: a science building, an administration gravity” at the University.3 With modern buildings building, and an engineering lab. President Nor- Russell House and Sumwalt flanking the iconic man Smith objected to the expenditure, but the new library, Greene Street became an important movement passed.2 corridor of activity. During the 1950s, the admin- This was the first large-scale update to the istration imagined other options for patterns of University’s building program in decades. Of the circulation around the new buildings. The collec- three proposed projects, one, the engineering lab tion of dormitories comprising the Women’s Quad (later Sumwalt College), was distinct for several faced north to Gibbes Green and offered another reasons. Though it stood on existing campus land opportunity to connect new buildings back to the on Greene Street, it was situated south of the con- original campus. Ultimately, an axis emerged per- pendicular to Greene Street with the installment of 1 A Spirit Of Place: Buildings and Gardens of the University of South Carolina Columbia Campus (Columbia: University of South Carolina, 2016), 42-59. 2 Henry H. Lesesne, History of The University of South Carolina, 1940-2000 3 Henry H. Lesesne, History of The University of South Carolina, 1940-2000 (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2001), 75. (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2001), 96. 4 Planning Greene Street A Mid-Century History 5 the reflecting pool to the north of the library and student requests, he prioritized the construction of Miriam Boyd McBryde dormitory to its south. Suddenly, the the student union and other facilities that would Josh Jackson layout of campus transformed from a tight nucle- address rising enrollment and institutional chang- 2 us of structures to a plan of intersecting axes and es. After his time at the University, he served as multidirectional movement. governor of South Carolina and remained influ- The rapid development on Greene Street ential at the Columbia campus. Sumwalt would HISTORICAL REVIEW further departed from the past in the decision to succeed Russell as president, serving until 1962, incorporate Modern styles of architecture. Sum- and continue to oversee the development of the walt and Russell House were the first buildings Greene Street campus, as well as years of universi- Sumwalt on campus to draw heavily on the International ty expansion to come. Style. The aesthetic choices of architectural firm The expansion onto Greene began years of the Lyles, Bissett, Carlisle and Wolff (LBC&W) for University expanding beyond its original forty-six both of these buildings was not uncontroversial. acres, nudging its physical boundaries and nego- The Board of Trustees, students, and faculty react- tiating its relationship with the city of Columbia. ed with ambivalence to the bold new designs so This project draws on archival research from the INTRODUCTION distinct from the Horseshoe’s revivalist structures. Board of Trustees minutes and papers from the Of- of veterans taking advantage of the G.I. Bill.3 Unlike Ultimately, the advantages to growth and devel- fice of the President, as well as published primary Although engineering courses have been Clemson, USC vowed that no qualified veteran wishing opment offered by the Modern style convinced the and secondary materials, to explore the history of offered at the University of South Carolina since to enroll would be turned away. By 1947, the number administration to implement the plans and unveil this development. Contributors to the report con- its inception, the College of Engineering was not of veterans enrolled at the University was greater than the new campus. ducted research in the archives at the South Caro- created until 1909.1 Over the next four decades, the University’s entire student body before the war.4 This period of expansion also introduced new liniana Library. The minutes of the meetings of the the discipline utilized a number of buildings that USC instituted three semesters during the school year actors that would be key in the coming years of Board of Trustees, printed on microfilm, provided included Hamilton College, nine temporary war and started offering night classes as a way to address USC planning. LBC&W completed its first projects a starting point for researchers investigating the surplus buildings, and an old fire department burgeoning enrollment. Acceptance of civilian women for the University in Sumwalt and Russell and buildings’ histories. Beginning with the year of a building.2 In 1951, the Board of Trustees approved and non-resident students was suspended in 1946 and played an instrumental role convincing the Board building’s construction and moving backwards in construction for an administration building, a 1947 in order to accommodate the influx of veterans.5 of Trustees to take