ISOMETRIC LOOK An early sketch of the Administration building.
BEFORE WALKING ONTO THE GROUNDS OF UMASS DARTMOUTH, I half hoped the buildings would resemble Hogwarts, covered in luscious ivy and surrounded by Versailles-like gardens. But I’d heard the vicious rumors of a concrete prison, plagued by rain, and designed by a Satanist. I came prepared with a wind-resistant umbrella and a pair of rose-colored glasses.
P
ulling onto Ring Road, I was greeted by a flashing neon sign and a twisted jungle-gym structure. I soared into a cemented, futureworld. The serrated shapes and uneven levels were a lot to take in; at first, it felt like I was swirling on a bad acid trip amid strange, Arctic buildings. I yearned to explore the campus, to discover its secrets. I knew a hidden beauty was buried in the concrete walls, or resting outside them. And over the past four years, the cold appearance of the campus has grown on me. I admit UMass Dartmouth appears a little rough around the edges. The buildings are jagged, with flat roofs and wallto-wall windows. The inside of Group 1 is a labyrinth, filled with stairways and levels
32
Fall 2011
Dart
that seem to shift while you rush to class. “I feel like our school was designed for you to stroll rather than walk,” said senior Kevin Shepley. Looking out from the enclosed corridor between the Liberal Arts building and the Campus Center, three benches form a perfect 666 below. This sparked the campus legend of a devil-worshiping architect who designed a penitentiary-like campus – and ended his life by jumping off the University’s campanile. But contrary to notorious rumors, architect Paul Rudolph, who died of cancer in 1997, had no Satanist beliefs or suicidal thoughts. Fascinated by modern aesthetics, he transformed complex ideas into paradoxical buildings meant to excite and challenge the minds of a campus
community. If he were alive today, the harsh reviews and misconceptions of his designs would baffle him. Modernist Aesthetic At the time of the school’s inception in 1962 (then Southeastern Massachusetts Technical Institute), Rudolph was a highlyregarded architect. He was a proponent of Brutalism – an architectural movement that involved concrete geometrics in a modernist style – which also served as a utopian philosophy. “The real point is that the buildings are connected to form a greater whole, and that whole is a social entity,” Rudolph said about his design in a 1996 interview. His master plan was to design all buildings facing the central point of the campus: the 200-foot campanile.