Northeastern University - Cauldron Yearbook (Boston, MA)

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NU ' s edifice complex It is not true that Northeastern was designed by a blind engineer with a T-Square. It is also not true that the reason the campus looks so uniform is that the builders of the university simply left the buildings in the boxes they came in. It may surprise a lot of North- eastern students but there is a rea- son most of the buildings look the way they do. It all started with the fact that there was a university before there was a campus. Northeastern was formed as an evening education program at the main Boston location for the YM- CA on Boylston Street. In 1896, there were part-time courses in law, electricity, architecture and something entirely new for the time, automobile mechanics. The practicality of the program, as op- posed to the liberal arts education of nearby Harvard and Boston University, eventually led to the development of the vaunted co-op system in 1909. Classes continued to be conduct- ed at the YMCA until a fire de- stroyed the building in 1910. Classes continued at other loca- tions until the mammoth YMCA building on Huntington Avenue was built in 1912. In 1916, the evening program became Northeastern College and started offering daytime courses in mathematics, physics, chemistry, English, economics and manage- ment. In 1917, the college was giv- en permission to grant bachelor ' s degrees. By 1922, the college had become a university and had Continued on Page 21 Not the Land of Oz, but a 1960s plan for Northeastern. A football stadium that was never built. Richardson Plaza sort 20 History

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Since then there have been seven successors to the noble first King Husky. One of the most memorable was King Husky V, who showed his displeasure with a negative Beanpot outcome by wandering onto the ice and leaving a little something for the opposing team to consider. Long live the King!

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Only an artist would imagine hallways this clean. H ' f looks like this today. A recreation center that may be built, don ' t hold your breath. Continued from Page 20 outgrown the YMCA building and some rented space across Hunting- ton Avenue. Campus officials be- gan eyeing some vacant property next door on Huntington Avenue. The property had been vacant since a railway stockyard had closed, in 1 903 it had served as the site of the first World Series game, between Boston and Pittsburgh. The university held a design competition and the prominent lo- cal firm of Coolidge, Shepley, Bull- finch and Abbott was given the contract. The company attempted to meld two distinct styles in its campus designs. The first was the Beaux Arts school which inspired such buildings as the main hall at MIT and the Museum of Fine Arts. The other school of archi- tectural thought involved was the Bauhaus European school of util- itarian, interconnected design. The resulting conglomeration was the unique white brick, four story vo- cabulary that has followed North- eastern to the present day. The first building put was Rich- ards Hall in 1938. A short time later, Science Hall, now part of Mugar, was built. The Botolph Building, now Cullinane, was pur- chased shortly before the outbreak of World War II, as was Parsons Field in Brookline. Northeastern experienced a boom after the war and the Ell Building (in 1947) and Dodge Li- brary (in 1952) were built to meet it. Several more acres of land were purchased for parking and the Greenleaf and Forsythe Buildings were also purchased. In 1954, Cabot Gym was built, followed by Hayden Hall in 1956. The White Brick architectural Continued on Page 22 History 2 1