Now, though, there has been a new, student proposal for what to do with the space. Aimy Tsao, a Fine Arts UDR, and the others want to incorporate a permanent sculpture garden into the spot, where Brandeis students can exhibit their artwork.

It is an alternative to Goldman Schwartz or an inside location, where some work is now shown. Unfortunately, though, larger work often doesn’t fit in these places, and it can sometimes get in the way. The new space, on the other hand, would provide a spot for even the biggest sculptures, and would allow students from all departments (not just art!) to examine student artwork.

So far, the push to make this happen is totally by the students, particularly the Fine Arts UDR’s. They have created a Facebook event and a petition to advocate for the idea. Next year, administration from the art department and elsewhere may get involved, but Aimy says she wants the effort to come from the students, first and foremost.

This seems like a great idea. We need more outlets to display student art on this campus, and this is a perfect opportunity. It’s low-cost, which is a major priority of the University. Plus, it’s awesome that the push is coming entirely from Brandeis students.

Make sure to check out the Facebook event (http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=123615614315950&ref=ts) and sign the petition (http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/deissculpturegarden) if you’re interested!

One of society’s ongoing problems is what to do with old buildings.  Do we demolish them and build something new?  Do we renovate and re-purpose them?  If they’re particularly special, we might even restore them to their original state.  Brandeis is no more immune to this problem than any city or town.  In fact, college campuses may feel the pressures to demolish old buildings stronger than any other communities.  Colleges depend on large donors to renew their facilities, and large donors want their names on fashionable new buildings.

Demolition of the Friedland Life Science Building

For several weeks now, crews have been working at demolishing the Friedland Life Science building and the Kalman Pre-Medical Building.  To my best knowledge, no one has made a fuss.  I’m not a science student, but I’ve visited both of these buildings.  Friedland was actually pretty quirky and interesting, with large white panels covering much of the exterior and short windows at the top of each floor, creating glass divisions between its five stories.  I believe it was designed by firm of Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson, and Abbott, which had some very famous founders.

Friedland Life Science Building. Architects: Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson & Abbott. Built 1956-58.

Should we really treat buildings such as Friedland as disposable?  I don’t think so.  Sure, they’re not very much in style today, but someday we may come to regret losing them.  Harvard’s now-loved Memorial Hall once faced the wrecking ball because 50-or-so years late it had fallen out of style.  Sure, Friedland isn’t so grand, nor was it probably constructed so well, but it’s so… well, modern.  It was of the era of the Space Race, and in my opinion it showed it.

Friedland isn’t the only building with a funky, modern style.  Goldman-Schwartz?  East?  Spingold?  Schwartz and Brown?  All of these buildings have been deeply neglected over the years.  Under the right conditions, any of these buildings could receive its death sentence.  At Brandeis, we take the attitude that after a building goes up, it’s okay to leave it to decay forever.  I urge Brandeis to treat its buildings with greater respect.

If you need reinforcement for what our ’50s and ’60s-era buildings could look like, visit the lobby of Gryzmish across from the campus center.  Without  daily wear from students, the interior has stayed fairly well preserved.  Really, take a look.  Once the examples of that style are destroyed, they will never come back in quite the same form.

Winter Sun Sets Over Friedland

Philip,
Thank you for your comments relative to pedestrian safety and vehicles on campus. We do try to balance all of the needs of pedestrians and vehicle operators who traverse our campus roads on a daily basis.
I must say that from a Public Safety perspective on a good day it is a daunting task. One which is compounded by illegally parked student vehicles which accrue hundreds of dollars in parking citations per year.

I would also like to see a car free campus at some point. A campus which is served by a multi level garage structure which would alleviate a good percentage of cars from the Main campus. Perhaps you would like to discuss this point and the long term North Academic Quad matter with Daniel Feldman, Vice President of Capital Projects.

Please understand that vehicular traffic at the Rabb intersection is also a concern which often creates traffic problems all the way down the length of the East Quad Road. We do balance both needs and attempt to expedite vehicle movement which sometimes impacts the response of Emergency vehicles to our campus. In addition a good percentage of the vehicles in question are operated by Faculty who are arriving to teach class, students both undergrads and grad who drive onto campus as well as Bran vans and buses which are deployed to transport students to class.

As a long term employee and Director of the Department of Public Safety I share your safety related concerns.

Best Regards,
Edward M. Callahan
Director of Public Safety

It’s great to hear that Ed Callahan supports a car-free campus.  I intend to further pursue this issue with Daniel Feldman, as he suggests.

To be continued…

Dear Chief Callahan,

I am writing you in response to an observation I made recently where an officer was giving priority to automobiles over pedestrians at Rabb Steps.  I believe strongly that the presence of automobiles negatively effects the quality of life on campus, and a policy of prioritizing vehicle traffic before pedestrians contributes to this problem.  Making driving on campus more convenient encourages more students to use their automobiles rather than walk and bike, which are much healthier options.  I have also observed police vehicles idling in the area at Rabb Steps, which with passing and idling vehicle traffic emit harmful emissions in an area with a high volume of pedestrian traffic.  I would like to remind you that unnecessary idling over five minutes is prohibited by Massachusetts law and by MassDEP regulations.

The current Brandeis Master Plan, established in 2001, calls for reduced vehicular traffic.  The document defining the plan’s scope lists “Reduction of vehicular encroachment into pedestrian areas” and “Separation of pedestrian and vehicular circulation” as major goals and objectives.  The plan itself envisions closing the area between Usdan and the North (Mandel) Academic Quad to vehicular thru traffic.  While the University has improved conditions for pedestrians on South Campus with a new link in the Brandeis Walk, policies toward traffic at Rabb Steps work against the goals of a healthier, more beautiful, and more sustainable campus.  I urge you to put people first, supporting safe and efficient traffic flow at Rabb Steps by prioritizing pedestrian traffic when an officer is present in the short-term and advocating for pedestrianization of the Brandeis Loop at Rabb steps in the mid- to long-term.

I appreciate your attention in this matter.

Most Sincerely,

Philip LaCombe

I can understand why the police have set up camp there.  Traffic can get backed up pretty far during the 10 minutes between classes.  There’s even a lot of idling caused because of it.  Really, neither the status quo nor the traffic direction works.  Both are harmful for the environment.  The thing is, we shouldn’t be encouraging more driving.  It’s bad enough that we have so many cars on campus, and that some people drive to class even with the inconvenience at that crossing.  What’s the alternative?  Pedestrianization.  Cut the loop road so that the furthest you can get is to the parking lot behind North Quad.  Here’s a drawing from the campus master plan of what it might look like:

Nice, huh?  Imagine the possibilities…  that portion of the loop road could become a plaza for all sorts of activities.  Hanging out, tabling, eating, people-watching…  it would be a great public space, free of pollution and cars.  Emergency vehicles would still be able to get through, but it would be a place for people, not cars.

Hi. I’m Jack. This should be the first post of what I hope ends up being a regular feature on Innermost Parts – (in)Accessible. My aim is simple – to document my attempts to place myself in locations that I’m not supposed to be, and then share the things I learn.

So, on to the documentation: An Eastern Excursion, Part I.

The plan for the night was to hoist myself (as well as two of my associates, Thurgood and Eliza) up to the top of D tower, whereupon we would clamber around onto various other parts of the castle’s roof. D tower contains a few doubles and triples on the first floor as well as the castle commons on the second. Attached to the side of D tower is an as-of-yet closed off spiral staircase leading from the first floor to the roof, and even a little further into an attractive-looking observation turret. The problem with rooftop activity is that it’s often limited by the weather – in this case, a light sprinkling of rain made the tarred surface of the roof too slippery to be gripped properly by hands. This ruled out our ascent to that particular roof – as I should mention again in the future, safety needs to be everyone’s first concern when doing stuff like this. Nobody wants their castle exploration adventure to turn into a bloody, limb-snapping adventure. Don’t do this stuff drunk. Don’t do this stuff high. Don’t go alone. Keep your wits about you. Don’t be stupid. Etcetera.
Anyway, with the ascent to D tower ruled out, our exploration party decided to get ourselves on to the roof of the reading room. The low, long structure that runs between the castle’s two arched entryways used to be a study lounge of sorts, with desks, chairs, lockers and such. It’s currently being used to store a whole lot of relatively uninteresting stuff – screens, window panes, miscellaneous pipes and fittings (leaves as well), but the real value to be found in the reading room is in the beautiful mosaic embedded in the southern room’s ceiling, as well as a hatch leading into a shallow tunnel system. Said tunnels should be detailed in a later post.
The door to the reading room’s southern room is currently unlocked, and can be opened with a push. After walking down a short set of steps, you can see the main room on your right, and a recessed re-bar ladder built into the concrete on your left.

The ladder led us up to the Purple Room – a small room overlooking the castle courtyard that’s been painted a rich shade of purple. There’s a hallway leading towards A tower’s spiral staircase, too… but it’s interrupted by a wall of masonry. From what I’ve seen of that staircase, it’s a fantastic place. Vintage graffiti, interesting items, small hallways to explore… that, and it’s pretty much the only way to get to the castle’s flagpole without climbing gear. For now, though, it’s behind brick and padlock.

We returned to the small window in the purple room. There’s a small concrete ledge underneath the sill that we were able to get a foothold on, and then reach across to the triangular red ornamentation on top of the roof to our left. A couple short hops later, and all three of us were on the roof, free to roam. Like most of the rooftops on campus, the area itself wasn’t exactly exciting – there’s waterproofing material, a few leaves, and a drain here and there. On the other hand, it does take you down the side of the courtyard to the opposite end of the reading room – the first floor of which is solidly locked most of the time. By basically reversing the process that we used to hoist ourselves on to the roof, we were able to squeeze ourselves into the north end’s open window.

Inside was a textbook example of the kind of disrepair that parts of the castle are in. Water damage on the ceiling, rust on most anything metallic, concrete and brick dust on the floor. Passage to the first floor, where janitorial supplies are kept, appeared difficult and slightly risky – the lower half of the spiral staircase was basically gone, leaving the twisted rebar skeletons of each step twisting out into the air.  That, and the floor of the staircase appears to be mostly loose boards over the previously mentioned shallow tunnel system. It was then that Eliza noticed that the ceilings between the room we were in and the conical red structures above it had apparently collapsed, allowing us to peer upwards.

Continuing down the hallway, we found a surprise – art.

By the looks of it, most of the work has been rubbed onto the wall with the chunks of brick that you can find laying abundantly on the floor. This little room (probably about 12′ x 8′) embodies a lot of what I feel exploring the castle is about – the mixture of discovery with Brandeis’ rich history and spirit of creativity, all with a bit of breaking and entering thrown in.

After heading back down to the courtyard, Thurgood and I parted ways with Eliza, who made her way home for some well-deserved rest, leaving Thurgood and I somewhat at a loss for what to do. We decided to head down towards Hassenfeld and Pomerantz , that halls that give this series of posts its name.  But that’s all for now, for there is still schoolwork to be done. Thanks for reading.

Hassenfeld and Pomerantz are technically composed of six “houses”: Hassenfeld, Krivoff, Shapiro, Pomerantz, and Rubenstein.  Once arranged in suites, each of these “houses” had its own entrance, staircase, and multiple floors of suites.  If you live in one of the East singles with a wall of windows, your room was once the lounge of a six-person suite.  Interestingly, in the conversion to single and double rooms in corridors, the “house” names other than Hassenfeld and Pomerantz lost their cultural significance and are no longer used.

Bird's Eye View of East Quad

In this early drawing, East Quad looks very sleek and modern.  The thin strips of windows enhance the building’s verticality.  You can also see how Hassenfeld and Pomerantz curve with the hill.

Ground-Level View of East Quad

The early drawings of East Quad portray a minimalist feel to the design, which unfortunately has been ruined with overgrowth of the greenery around the buildings.  The monochromatic drawing also emphasizes the bright white of the walkways, stairs, concrete “belts” around the buildings.  If you’re a little artistic-minded, you might link the sidewalks, concrete “belts” of the buildings, and clouds together, then the grass, trees, brick exteriors, and sky in an interesting duality.  In another sign of age, the concrete features of East Quad have turned from white to dark gray over the years.

East, in directly facing our hillside castle, has an important job in mirroring some castle-like features.

An East Quad Tower

Like the Castle, East Quad is defined by towers made of masonry and few windows.

East Quad Bridge

Like a real castle, East Quad has a draw bridge!  OK, so it doesn’t really raise and lower, but it bridges a deep moat-like gap.

An East Quad Staircase

Usen Castle has some amazing circular staircases.  They’ve all been closed to students, of course.  East Quad, however, takes the traditional circular staircase and puts some modern flair to it.  The staircases in East Quad are triangular and hollow through the center.  Like in a castle, you go round and round, up and up, to make your way to to the top.  It can be a little dizzying.

East Quad Crenelation

If you read my post about the Rosenstiel Science Center, then this picture should look somewhat familiar.  Usen Castle, Rosenstiel, and East all share a common feature–crenelation.  Designed to provide places for archers defending a castle to both hide and shoot, a crenelation is a short wall on the top of a building that has multiple rectangular spaces cut out of it in a pattern.

East Quad "Dungeon"

To end on a more comedic note, if you’ve ever been to Hass 2 or Pom 1 when the hall lights were out, then you know that it can look pretty dungeon-like.  Except for a light at the very end of the hall (and not even that if you’re there after dusk), all you can see is dirty walls, some brick, a few mysterious pipes, a strange waffle-block ceiling, a bunch of dark gray-painted doors, and an even darker carpet.

In summary, East Quad is a fascinating example of Brandeis modernist architecture.  It’s probably one of the most under-appreciated buildings on campus, mostly due to its state of disrepair.  If you live in East, take pride!

Rosenstiel Basic Medical Sciences Research Center

1) It’s designed to look like a fortress, with a very substantial and impenetrable appearance.  At certain angles, the building appears to have no windows at all.  The small windows it does have climb the building in small strips, leading your eye upward, giving Rosenstiel a strong and tall presence.

Rosenstiel - Tall and Imposing

2) Notice the rectangular protruding concrete structures at the top of the building.  This feature of Rosenstiel was derived from the crenelation of the Castle.  Crenelation is the term for the pattern at the top of a castle’s walls or towers that provides small pieces of wall for archers to hide behind and small breaks in the wall for archers through which to shoot.

The Southwestern View from Rosenstiel

3) Despite the thin windows, Rosenstiel has a great view.  The shape of the windows is actually consistent with typical castle structure, reducing the load of the exterior walls on the windows.  I took the above shot from one of its staircases.  The window glazing makes for a tinted photo.  Like Usen Castle and Spingold, Rosenstiel offers one an excellent opportunity to survey the land as it towers above its surroundings.

Rosenstiel Penthouse

4) It even has royal quarters!  I climbed the stairwell to the 7th floor (who knew a bulding on campus had that many floors?) and found this sign by the door.  Looks like you need royal permission to enter.  That sure does make me curious as to what’s in there.  If anyone knows, do inform the rest of us through the comments.

That’s my take on the Rosenstiel Basic Medical Sciences Research Center.  It may not be the prettiest building on campus, but since it takes features from the Castle I think we can all appreciate it.  For better or for worse, it may not be around forever.  If a former professor of mine is correct, then Rosenstiel is wired with aluminum rather than copper.  Aluminum wire was widely used in the 1970s but has since been blamed for a number of house fires and is often not permitted for new construction.

The first building I’d like to feature is Spingold Theater.  It has at least three castle-like characteristics.  Let’s start with the entrance, which reminds me of an open castle gate.  The large canopy above the doors is about the same size as the entrance, making it appear like it has been lifted up to welcome visitors.

Spingold "Gate"

The first feature one notices upon entrance is the ticket booth.  It’s also round and made of brick, with just a small window.  It reminds me of a castle turret.  It even has a small round hole through which to shoot you down with an arrow, should you try to seize the building.

Spingold "Ticket Turret"

If you’ve seen the structure, surely you’ve noticed Spingold Theater’s perfectly round shape.  Perhaps you’ve thought that it was designed to look like a tophat.  I’d like to offer a new suggestion: the corridor that circles the entire building is intended to be a modernist form of moat.  It’s easy to feel lost, almost trapped, inside the hall.  There are many entrances of various types (some marked “no entry”) and no way understand your location.  Let’s look at some photos.

Spingold "Moat" from the Interior

Looking through to the moat, the lighting creates a forboding message, even on a bright day.

Spingold "Moat" from the Exterior

Lastly, any good castle needs a great view.  What use are towers and turrets if you can’t use them to survey your vast tracts of property?  Spingold is no exception–it has a fantastic view from the balcony that encircles the entire building.

Spingold's View

I took this photo a week ago, so I’m sure that the view is even better today with the changing foliage.  I hope that if you haven’t visited the balcony that you will some time.

There you have it–my impressions of Spingold Theater as one of Brandeis’ castles.  Until next time, take it away in the comments to share your thoughts.

I think I can safely say that almost all Brandeisians agree on at least one thing: the Castle is really cool. Many of us have explored its rooms and passages, and some of us have even gotten lost in them. It’s the only still-standing building I know of that existed before Brandeis was founded. Usen Castle is on the National Register of Historic Places, and while almost all other buildings on campus will likely face destruction at some point in the future, the Castle is almost certainly here to stay.

Unfortunately the Castle has undergone a lot of changes over the years, mostly for the worse. I’d like to tell you about one of these today.

Between the two gates is a long, thin stone wall with red crenelations on top. On the interior side of the wall you can see through the windows that there’s a long room with a lot of junk in it. One day the door was open, so I walked in for a moment to take a picture.

From my research at the University Archives, I learned that this area between the gates used to serve as a reading room, complete with study corrals and cubbies for students to work and store their things. The room had an intimate feel, with a warm light from the lamps on each desk and the shimmer of a beautiful mosaic tile ceiling. It has since been closed and forgotten.

So, let’s do a before and after:

Some areas of the Castle have legitimate reason to be closed: many spaces contain asbestos, which could be hazardous to students’ health. I don’t believe that this area suffers from that problem, because it looks like it’s actively being used for storage. So why can’t students enjoy this space today? I would love to study there. This is just one of the Castle’s lost treasures.

I urge the administration to restore some of the Castle’s lost glory through renovating this space and making it usable for our great students once again.

I think you’ll find the rule to hold true with your personal preferences. You strongly dislike Massell Quad (1952), Sherman Hall (1959), Goldfarb Library (1965), Rabb Quad (1961) and the oldest parts of the Science Center (1956-1958). However, Usen Castle (1928), the oldest building on campus, is beautiful, and Farber Library (1984), the Mailman House (1972), and Ziv Quad (1980s) aren’t so bad. For me, the 50 Year Rule is a very interesting concept that says a lot about human nature. We like the things from the years around our grandparents’ birth, hate the things from the years around our parents’ birth, and aren’t sure about the things from around the years of our birth.

Nowhere have I seen the 50 Year Rule more clearly expressed on Brandeis Campus than in the Olin-Sang American Civilization Center. One day I arrived at my politics discussion section on the second floor a few minutes early. After I sat down I noticed that one of the ceiling tiles was missing, so I got up and checked it out. I saw the well-known waffle-block ceiling found across campus, but that wasn’t all. To my amazement, I viewed through the hole a beautiful arched frosted glass skylight, the light shining through.

Modernism Revealed

The Light Shines Through

Normally I don’t find connections between my love for Brandeis, architecture, and progressivism, but in this case I do. Progressives don’t believe in erasing the past, we believe in embracing it and fitting it to meet today’s and tomorrow’s needs. Our university sought to hide elements of Modernism, ironically in the effort to modernize classrooms with new lighting, carpet, and “normal” ceilings. Even though progressives may not like the America of the 1950s, that doesn’t mean we see history in black and white, right and wrong, modern and old-fashioned.

Did you know that Brandeis used to have an amphitheater? We did–it was called the Ullman Amphitheater and hosted commencement ceremonies from 1952 until 1992 (except for 1971–they were at the Chapels that year) when they were moved to Gosman Sports and Convocation Center.

Brandeis: Host at Last by Abram L. Sachar speaks of this former landmark, “Constructed on three acres of ground with seating for two thousand, but with space on the grassy slopes for seven or eight thousand more, it was equipped with a huge se and an orchestra put for forty musicians. Beneath the sing area were facilities for dressing, storage, and utility, as well as a number of classrooms.” It was designed by architects Harrison and Abramovitz, the same men who designed the beloved Three Chapels.

In a very unfortunate event, the Ullman Amphitheater suffered heavy damage due to fire, disabling its electrical equipment so that it was made virtually useless. The university did not repair the amphitheater but instead tore it down. It was located near Bernstein-Marcus and the location of the new Carl J. Shapiro Science Center. Here are some photos to give you a better idea of its location:

I know that Brandeis wasn’t doing as well financially in the ’90s, but I wish that the university had chosen to repair the amphitheater rather than demolish it. In just about 15 years it has faded away into memory. It could have continued to be an integral part of our campus today.

I hope you enjoyed learning this little tidbit of Brandeis campus history. There’s much more where that came from–you can be sure I’ll be back soon with another Blunder of Brandeis.