Virginia Polytechnic Institute - Bugle Yearbook (Blacksburg, VA)

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Virginia Polytechnic Institute, was established, a plan which called for the erection of the old brick group of academic buildings and barracks was adopted. The buildings and landscaping called for in this plan were completed before the first world war. After World War I the alumni initiated a move- ment to erect a memorial in the form of a gym- nasium. The Administration approved the build- ing and commissioned Warren P. Manning to study the campus, select the site for the memorial build- ing, and offer his plan for the future development of the college ' s physical plant. The Manning Plan, the basis for the expansion of V. P. I. for all time, was submitted and adopted in the early 1920 ' s. Manning ' s plan called for a break with the old quadrangle scheme and the adoption of the present oval, with the gymnasium and stadium on the minor axis. Opposite the War Memorial Building on the same axis an administration build- ing was to be erected sometime in the future. The plan also showed tentative future developments which are now represented by the stone dormitories, dining hall, agricultural group, Davidson Hall, Patton Hall, and the Mineral Industries Building. In a period of twenty years the plan for all time has been completely carried out and V. P. I. is not yet equipped to grant admission to all qualified applicants. The Manning Plan did not anticipate a school of 6000 students, which, by the end of The World War II Memorial Viewed from the Parade Ground

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The increase in applications for admission to col- leges and universities has again made it necessary, as on two previous occasions, fo r the Board of Visitors of Virginia Polytechnic Institute to con- sider a plan for the expansion of V. P I. In 1872 the Commonwealth of Virginia, under the Congressional Land Grant College Endowment, ac- quired Preston and Olin Institute and established in its place Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College. The year V. A. M, C, later renamed

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m B - f ii Approach to the World War II Memorial from the Mall World War II, was forced on the consideration of the Administration. During the period between wars there was a steady increase in the enrollment at V. P. I. A study of this steady increase reveals it would have been sufficient to bring the student body to its present size even if there had not been a war resulting in educational benefits for the vet- erans The Administration, after studying this in- crease in enrollment and surveying the potential college students in the state, concluded that V P I. must expand sufficiently to accommodate 6000 students by 1955. As a result of its findings, the Board of Visitors, in 1946, engaged Alfred Hopkins and Associates to study and report on a plan for growth. The Hop- kins Plan, which calls for further development of the oval scheme, has not been approved in its entirety, but its basic suggestions have been adopt- ed and will be used in future developments. One feature of the plan which transcends all others is the erection of the War Memorial at the campus terminus of the Memorial Hall. Another firm of architects working with the alumni on the memorial also selected this focal point as the logical loca- tion of the monument. The Hopkins Plan divides itself naturally and prop- erly into groups located so as to provide facilities as conveniently as possible Imagine yourself