I think the summary of the Siry article that you are quoting may have been an oversimplification. In the original article published in The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians (2016), Siry clearly wants to cleave much closer to your position as he does in his concluding sentence:
For Roche, as for Saarinen and others, the vernacular and the
classical as historic points of reference meant issues of scale,
material, geometry, and space making that were independent
of specific ornamental motifs. In these ways, Roche’s approach to Wesleyan’s center was an abstraction of vernacular
and classical principles that was unmistakably of his moment
in the modernist architectural culture of the mid-1960s.
Well, clearly. But my own university, which has a fraction of their endowment and other revenue streams, and which is constantly trying to stay one step ahead of financial collapse, does a better job with landscaping than Harvard does. It’s just weird. Some schools prioritize it, some don’t. Harvard is in the latter category.
This is where they are going to live for four years. Some kids care about professors, majors, and what they are learning in the classroom. Others care about football teams, Greek life and other social factors. My oldest wanted a school with a central quad and a place where students congregated, socialized and hung out.
Still many, and I think it is often those who are going through the college search process for the first time, tend to over-prioritize the physical beauty of a campus.
Besides urban campuses, which are the ugliest private campuses in the top 100? There are certainly some governmental looking public U’s that would get low marks but they’re focused on in-state value.
Fair—but the inequalities are going to differ based on individual perceptions and preferences.
And let’s even let things be fully unequal. Given that—and I know this is CC heresy, but it’s still true—you can get a quality postsecondary education at any of the best several hundred colleges in the United States, why not narrow the list to a manageable size based on physical surroundings, if that’s not unimportant to you?
There’s a recent thread where we discussed our own criteria for selecting colleges. Aesthetics may be on a few posters’ lists but there’re generally other criteria that ranked higher. BTW, no one mentioned prestige as a criterion as far as I can recall.
I don’t know why I’m getting what feels like pushback here.
Am I saying that aesthetics is the only reason that people choose colleges? No. It is, however, a very frequent one amongst that sector of the population that has the luxury of choice, even if it is an unstated one.
And as for prestigiosity as a criterion some people have for selecting a college, I simply offer you {waves around at pop culture in general (including CC)}. It may not be something that’s stated outright—though whatever thread you’re referring to aside, it does get mentioned directly on CC pretty frequently—but if it weren’t something people paid attention to, there wouldn’t be a proliferation of “best” colleges lists, because there’d be no market for them.
I don’t believe prestige should be a factor in selecting colleges and I only brought it up to show that posters in that thread had managed to steer away from it, unlike in some of the other threads that you referred to.
May not be number 1 on the list, but prestige is certainly something we evaluated during college selection process. For both of my kids prestige was absolutely a point in favor of the college they ultimately chose because it does directly impact graduate school admissions, alumni networking, internships, and employment opportunities.
I liked hearing about different traditions at different schools on his list. I was the sort of 17 year old who would have probably felt obligated to participate in every ritual mentioned to me as a college freshman. Secret rituals and secret meetings and special obligations would have sucked me right in.
My S20 didn’t find any of the traditions cool or enticing. He didn’t hate them. He simply didn’t care about any of it. If a student mentioned the food situation on campus, he paid attention. When the talk turned to dorms or his intended majors/minors, he paid attention. If a student mentioned a ritual where all the freshmen run up a hill to touch a rock and race back downhill to step in a creek, S20 scoffed and said to me that he’d never do that.
Back in the 70s, there was a book called, “The Beard And The Braid.” Those were the days when Harvard Square was what it should have remained! Nutty Crunchy, interesting shops and restaurants, and eccentric people.
I was at MIT one year in the mid-80s. One day while walking and exploring, I stumbled onto Harvard’s campus. I had no idea where Harvard was in relation to MIT and no plans to visit that day. I was walking and walking, would spot a building that caught my eye and walk toward it, see another building and walk toward it, and while chasing another building I literally stumbled through some hedges onto campus. I wasn’t some reverent devotee dreaming of visiting Harvard, but I was 100% sold when I walked the campus that day. When I ended up in Harvard Square, I thought I could have lived there for the rest of my life and been the happiest guy in the world. Two subsequent Boston visits didn’t diminish its appeal to me. Maybe I’m easily impressed?