A Place Apart, by Tom Griffin & Jon Marmor

LIBERAL ARTS QUADRANGLE

Liberal Arts Quadrangle. Click to enlarge


Photo by Mary Levin. Click photo to enlarge.
Visiting the "Quad" in the spring is a spiritual experience. While Rainier Vista may be the UW's natural icon, the Quad is its natural sanctuary. Walking through the rows of 30 Yoshino cherry trees in bloom, you can't help feeling uplifted, transported. But it doesn't have to be the last weeks of March or the first weeks of April for the Quad to work its magic. Summer promises deep shade and sudden sunshine; the fall offers crimson leaves and crisp vistas. Any time of year you have the ornate Collegiate Gothic architecture, inspired by the classic quadrangles of Oxford and Cambridge, offering food for the eye and for the soul. There are many we can thank for the Quad: Carl Gould's 1915 campus plan and his insistence on one architectural standard for its buildings; Henry Suzzallo's determination to fund its buildings; Charles Odegaard, Fred Mann and Eric Hoyte for putting the cherry trees into its rather empty center. Did any of them know how successful it would be? Sadly, the trees are aging—as are the buildings. Now it is our turn to preserve what they accomplished.—Tom Griffin


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