Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 77.djvu/620

614 who prepared a block plan indicating the most effective use of the three-hundred-acre campus lying along the! boulevard extension of Houston's principal street, and designating the position of all future buildings; in those three comprised in the first construction—the Administration Building, the Mechanical Laboratory and the Power House—the architects have suggested a style of treatment which will be reflected in all future construction. This style is not one easy to characterize, for in it are borrowings from many southern types; reminiscent of the medieval work of Italy, southern France and northern Spain, the influence of the east and the new world's Spanish missions is not less apparent; the round Byzantine arch serves to impart a scholastic tone to the whole architecture which none the less retains a quality distinctively American and American of the southwest rather than of the north. In the blending of these southern types full advantage has been taken of local climatic conditions; bright, warm skies have prompted a freer use of color than would be hazarded in a severer climate; open courts bounded by cloister walks, while fostering an academic atmosphere, ward off the sun and give easy access to every wandering breeze from the south. Another local condition, the excellent quality of brick available had weight in the selection of a building material which would lend itself readily to the effects sought. The light pink brick of native clay seemed especially suitable to a local adaptation of the admirable brick work of northern Italy; this brick will be used, therefore, extensively and with pink Ozark marble will establish the prevailing color tone.

The Administration Building, so called because eventually its function will be the housing of the various administrative offices, will, at the outset, be put to more academic uses, and will contain besides the offices of the president, registrar and bursar, the great hall or assembly room, the library and a number of lecture halls, seminar and class rooms. Lying across the principal axis of the campus and facing the entrance from the Main Street Boulevard, the Administration Building is approached by a long driveway lined with stately trees and flanked by broad lawns. Its sally-port gives access to an inner court richly gardened and planted with cypresses, and walled in by the cloisters of surrounding buildings. As the principal building on the campus and the most conspicuous, it has been given a pronounced richness of color and finish; special pink tile matching the brick are extensively used in the face work; beneath the projecting marble cornice glazed tile of blue color form a frieze; and in the façades small shafts, columns and inlays of many colored foreign marbles discreetly accent the dominant color tone.

At some distance from the Administration Building and closing another long vista from Main Street Boulevard, the Mechanical Laboratory and the Power House, surmounted by a lofty campanile, form the extreme boundary of the proposed science group, and the nucleus for its immediate development. The laboratory itself contains on the first floor the necessary offices for professors in charge, two large laboratory rooms and a thorough system of lockers; upon the second floor two large drafting rooms and three lecture halls. Communicating with the laboratory in the rear, a large machine shop connects it with the Power House, which will supply light, heat, power and water to the entire campus.

The next construction will include two more laboratories in the planning of which, as in the Mechanical Laboratory, assistance was received from an advisory committee consisting of Professor Ames, director of the physical laboratory of Johns Hopkins University; Professor Conklin, director of the biological laboratory of Princeton University; Professor Richards, chairman