The Princeton University Art Museum has just opened an exhibition that treats its campus as an art object.
“Princeton and the Gothic Revival: 1870-1930” examines the intent of the university’s medieval-stylized dormitories, classrooms, libraries and chapels, both when they were first built during the British Empire’s Victorian heyday and today. The galleries are just an appetizer, though, because the campus is literally a museum of what used to be called “collegiate gothic” architecture and you’re encouraged to use a smart phone app to follow its development on a tour.
It’s a more interesting subject than any mere historical study because of the recent completion of Whitman College, the sprawling dorm designed by Demetri Porphyrios, with $30 million provided by Meg Whitman, a Princeton graduate and former eBay chief, who now heads Hewlitt-Packard. Whitman College is, as so many Porphyrios buildings are, a historical revival, too, a gothic fortress on the outside and a software-friendly, James-Bond supervillain lair on the inside (at least, when compared with traditional college housing). Why contemporary students would want to live in a Hogwort’s dream such as the Whitman is really what this show is about. (via)someone needs to tell the university of tennessee that they're doing it wrong.
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