Left: An early architectural model of the new science complex shows it located north of Briggs Student Center. Above: The actual structures, seen during construction, occupy the heart of the campus’ academic core.
that Peyton Rhodes, who was then president, gave the Physics staff an almost free hand in the design of the Physics Tower from a systems point of view. Another way of putting this might be to say that the design of a physics building is too important to trust to an architect.” Having served at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington D.C. during World War II, Taylor applied the concepts he learned there to the physics building. The original blueprints were reconfigured, and the interior design pushed in the direction of less Collegiate Gothic, more aircraft carrier. “It (the tower) has six stories, including one below ground level, and, in cross section, is similar to an aircraft rhodes.edu
carrier,” Taylor wrote. “The toilets, stairwells, elevator, pipe shafts, vertical duct systems, etc., have all been located on one side in what would correspond to the island on an aircraft carrier . . . This width conforms generally with the other buildings on the campus, all of which are of Collegiate Gothic type.” Taylor had little interest in frills. “What have washrooms to do with science? Nothing,” Taylor told the Commercial Appeal. “So we put them out of the way.”
WEB EXTRAS Read Dr. Jack Taylor’s history of the early Department of Physics: rhodes.edu/physics/history. See an interview with Dr. Jack Taylor at rhodes.edu/magazine.
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