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Architectural rendering of Skinner Hall, 1929 |
Architectural rendering of Shattuck Hall, 1929 |
"She [Mary Lyon]
enlisted us in making our home attractive. In the spring vacation of
the second year we were requested to bring flower seeds or shrubbery
and were promised that the grounds should be prepared and the yard
fenced by the time the term began. This was done, and I returned with
a trunk filled with roots and seeds, and planted the first dahlias
that grew there. Before the summer term closed, the front yard was
gay with blossoms." The magnificence of Mount
Holyoke's milieu has always been an integral part of students'
educational experience here. The College's surroundings, an
extraordinary fusion of natural beauty and majestic architecture,
seem to be a catalyst for intellectual growth. While students,
faculty, and staff have come and gone through the years, MHC's
grounds and buildings (for the most part) have endured--cementing a
bond between those who walk the campus today and those who came
before them. Although the campus landscape is a legacy to be
treasured, it is also vital and alive--changing in synchrony with the
College's curricular and cocurricular needs. On Friday, March 3, a
special panel will convene to discuss ways of preserving the campus
landscape and planning for growth and development. The MHC community
is invited to join the panelists in Gamble Auditorium at 4 pm. Titled "Campus Landscape,
Architecture and Culture," the discussion will be the first step of a
campus master-planning process, according to President Joanne
Creighton, who formed a board of trustees landscape and facilities
task force this year and planned the landscape forum to coincide with
trustee weekend, so trustees could easily take part. Serving on the panel will be
Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz, professor of history and American studies
at Smith College; campus planner Philip Parsons of Parsons Consulting
Group; David Miller, an expert on historic resource management and
landscape architecture, of Carr, Lynch and Sandell, Inc.; and Michael
Davis, professor of art at MHC. Joan Cocks, MHC professor of
politics, will be the moderator. Each panelist will speak for
about twenty minutes, after which there will be questions and
discussion. Horowitz will focus on material from her book, Alma
Mater. Miller will discuss Frederick Law Olmsted's work on
American campuses at the turn of the last century and the evolution
of the Mount Holyoke campus. Philip Parsons, who is working as a
consultant to the College, will focus on the campus today, its
relationship to current and past plans, his sense of how the campus
shapes the culture of Mount Holyoke, and some of the ideas he has
about "how rediscovering and enhancing some of the rich possibilities
of the campus landscape can add to the quality of a Mount Holyoke
education," he says. Michael Davis and Joan Cocks will bring a
faculty perspective to the discussion. Exploring change in relation
to the campus landscape is a timely topic, since the College is on
the threshold of three construction projects: the restoration and
addition to the music building, the redesign and expansion of the art
building, and the creation of a science complex. Upcoming plans also
include design work to make Blanchard, which was originally used as a
gym, into a more effective student center. On view for the day of the
forum at the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum will be selections from
the MHC postcard collection of Donna J. Albino '83. Much of this
collection re-creates early days of the campus. --A
recollection by a MHC student during the College's early years,
quoted in the History of Mount Holyoke Seminary (1887), by Sarah
Stow.
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