<p>Interesting article about Olmstead and some of his campuses ...</p>
<p>I'd just like to say thank you for the informative and respectful posts. When I first posted, I thought this would seem frivolous, but you all helped me to clarify what she meant, to take it seriously and to show me some schools that neither of us has any familiarity with.</p>
<p>Notre Dame has a gorgeous campus, and the INTERIORS of the buildings will knock your socks off. </p>
<p>I am also very sensitive to aesthetics, and ND stood out for its attention to detail and the attitude that beauty is not wasted on undergraduates. Stanford had the same attention to details, although the aesthetic there is very different--kind of colonial Spanish as opposed to classic Gothic campus architecture. </p>
<p>Reed was awful. It had beautiful buildings, and the main campus has a postcard look from a distance, but the interiors are grubby and nasty, with graffiti spoiling a beautiful old Gothic revival student center. The students are obviously too intellectual to care about their physical surroundings.</p>
<p>Haverford and Bryn Mawr have very pretty campuses. Macalester, in St. Paul has a lovely campus in a really great neighborhood. Grinnell has the most wonderful student center I've seen anywhere. I also love the Carleton campus. I second what others have said about Vassar, Lewis & Clark and Reed. We liked Goucher also. I think "the look" may affect some people more than others, but it probably affects everyone on some level.</p>
<p>The arts Quad at Cornell is beautiful, and the number of gardens it has is incredible. With the School of Agriculture there this is taken very seriously.</p>
<p>Zoozermom: I am with your daughter. Esthetics are extremely important to me, too. Even more as I age. I am not sure whether your daughter likes the buildings or grounds or only the combination.</p>
<p>Other posters have mentioned other stone campuses; I'd add Middlebury for its white granite buildings and Skidmore for the woods. </p>
<p>I would also say Sarah Lawrence, but I know from your other thread that the student body there wouldn't be her "tribe" as I think bethievt called a good match.</p>
<p>Smith has a variety of architecture--buildings are supposed to reflect the era they were built in, so you have 1880's Victorian houses to the under-construction contemporary Engineering building--but the overall effect is very pleasing. Note that Smith also scores #1 in US News' "Dorms Are Like Palaces" rating.</p>
<p>check here:</p>
<p>It is the website for the "The Council of Independent Colleges: Historic Campus Architecture Project"</p>
<p>There, you could search for every campus that contains parts designed by Olmstead, for example. and it has lots of good pictures!</p>
<p>Thank you so much newmassdad! Awesome!</p>