Buskirk Hall

This building is a typical product of the last trend of Modern architecture (the 1960’s decade) designed under the prevailing idea of a very clear plan fitted to its function, using modern materials and avoiding any decoration or expressive ornament. The prevalent theory at that time was that ornament, if any, must be provided only by the quality and finishing of industrial materials. The main façade, that faces west and the campus center, is a regular rectangle with alternating wide and narrow vertical stripes of brick wall between vertical stripes of aluminum windows, all of these of the same size. Floor levels are expressed only through tiled wall surfaces between each window panel. These tiled surfaces are multicolored, but mixed together in a square grid, perhaps the only timid concession to formal play. Significantly, Modern architecture of the 1960’s coexisted with a formalist trend, whose major leaders were Eero Saarinen and Edward D. Stone, and perhaps this influenced the Buskirk Hall designers.