ABSTRACT
Cobb’s plan physically embodied every aspect of the pedagogic philosophy of the university. It contained residential quadrangles, a chapel, administration building, library, museums, laboratories, small teaching classrooms and relatively few large lecture theatres. While the women’s dormitories formed the eastern façade of the Main Quadrangles, the men’s residences formed the western. The first buildings to be erected, Goodspeed, Gates, Blake and Cobb Halls, created a long, fortresslike western boundary to the outside world. Initial building focused not at the centre but at the perimeters of the campus, immediately demarcating the learned enclave of the university and distancing its community and their higher purpose from the mercantile
grind of the city beyond. In so doing, the university began its life by establishing itself as a place apart. This persona of scholarly retreat was enforced by the choice of architecture.
