Emory Campus Master Plan: History

Hornbostel's Design

Hornbostel proceeded with a design for a campus that responded to the unique characteristics of the landscape. Accounts indicate that Hornbostel was particularly impressed with the "rolling hills, pines, and even marble as native stone." (English, p. 20) For Hornbostel, the Druid Hills landscape evoked qualities similar to the rolling landscape of Northern Italy. The Italian Renaissance villa became a suitable precedent for Hornbostel's Emory campus designs. The parterres and terrace gardens of Italian villas would serve as precedents for the quadrangle spaces, villa buildings and their dependencies would become the paradigm for the library and classroom buildings, and the unique "nestling" of architecture, gardens, and the broader landscape found in Italian villas led the way for the siting of the composition on the Druid Hills parcel. In a sense, since the site had at the time of the Civil War been the location of the Paden Plantation, the transformation to a college campus by way of a villa paradigm lends a poetic dimension to the designs. The Hornbostel plan provides a "high-art" rendition of the plantation/villa paradigm that is particularly responsive to the site's history.

Villa Tressino, Palladio

Villa Tressino, Palladio

For Hornbostel, the ravines that skirted the building sites were not obstacles to be overcome, rather they provided unique features of the site that would embellish the design. Thus a depression in the landscape, a small creek, a stand of trees were not seen as obstructions to the approach of the main quadrangle, something to be begrudgingly bridged, infilled, or felled, so that cars and pedestrians could move efficiently from one place to another. Hornbostel saw these features of the landscape as amenities of the ultimate design. Prominent in Hornbostel's "Birds Eye View" of the Emory campus are the two ravines that separate the academic grouping from the other areas of the campus. These areas were intended to at once weave aspects of the natural landscape with those of the man-made interventions and at the same time act as "thresholds" and boundaries between the various areas of the campus.

Landscape and Architecture

The design of the exterior spaces of the campus and the individual buildings were seen by Hornbostel as interdependent problems to be addressed in the design. Perhaps it is for this reason that the original core of campus buildings remain to this day the most memorable portions of Emory. The experience of both exterior landscape and interior built environment comprise a seamless visual experience in this area of the campus. In the "Birds Eye View," one can note that campus is divided into various districts: an academic quadrangle, a residential quadrangle, an athletic field, and a quadrangle formed by the Physiology and Anatomy Buildings. Each of these districts were carefully positioned with regard to the natural lay of the land and were segregated from one another by landscape features. Hornbostel situated the entire academic quadrangle composition to enhance to a picturesque approach sequence. The visitor would leave "suburban" Atlanta by crossing the intersection of North Decatur and South Oxford Roads advancing onto the campus proper. Then, by moving along a winding road that penetrated a densely wooded area and bridged a deep ravine, the promenade would extend to the formal cross-axis of the academic quadrangle. An heroically scaled library building flanked by numerous "good-soldier" college buildings would have commanded the approach to the composition. The major axis of the quadrangle was oriented by Hornbostel in a north-east/south-westerly direction so that the open terrace situated to the south of the library building would conceivably have provided views in the direction of downtown Atlanta's skyline. This space flanked by the Theology and Law buildings would have featured a large oval fountain and a monumental colonnade. Clearly Hornbostel had intended this space as a frontispiece to the campus proper, a threshold, through which the visitor would pass upon entry to the main quadrangle located directly to the north of the library.

Bird's Eye View of Emory

Bird's Eye View of Emory

The library building, had it been completed according to the architect's plans, would have been based upon a reconstruction of the Tomb of Mausolus, at Hallicarnassus. Reconstructions of the Mausolus Tomb became popularized after the 1905 publication of Hector d'Espouy's, Fragments d'Architecture antique d'après les relevés et restaurations des ancients pensionnaires de l'Académie de France à Rome. Louis Bernier's reconstruction of the tomb, depicted in d'Espouy's publication and circulated in other publications prior to 1905, influenced the design of Grant's Tomb, by architect John Duncan, in New York City (1897), the Temple of Scottish Rite Freemasonry (1914), by John Russell Pope, in Washington, D.C., and ultimately Hornbostel's own design for the Soldiers' and Sailors' Memorial Hall (1907-11), in Pittsburgh. Flanking Hornbostel's library building were a series of three-story buildings that would hold the activities of the various colleges. Four of these buildings were built according to the Hornbostel plan.

Emory Library as proposed by Hornbostel

Emory Library as proposed by Hornbostel

Problems and Solutions

Hornbostel's architectural contributions to the Emory campus set the tone for much of the future development of the campus. Of necessity, construction on the campus buildings were begun even before the plans for the proposed buildings had been finalized. Though this meant that work would proceed with all rapidity, it did produce the unfortunate consequence of driving up the costs of construction. This fact was noted by Bishop Warren Candler, the university's Chancellor, and became a point of contention between his eminence, the architect, and the contractor. Candler wrote in letters to Hornbostel, and to the contractor Arthur Tufts, that he, ". . . regard(ed) strong men as more important to an institution than costly buildings." (Bierle, p. 54) Both Hornbostel and Tufts responded by noting that "the unprecedented conditions of the material market brought about by the European War,. . . caused prices of material to change overnight, and deliveries to be delayed for months." (Bierle, p. 55) They noted that in comparison to other college buildings erected in the vicinity of Atlanta, the Hornbostel buildings were built at a lower cost per cubic foot. Hornbostel wrote to the Chancellor, "It is not fair to assume that, because the buildings are elegant looking and well built, and commodious and appear as expensive structures, they run contrary to your standard of the University." (Bierle, p. 55) While the cost of the buildings may have bothered the University's Chancellor, the President of the Board of Trustees and principal donor to the University, Asa Candler, appears to have favored the Hornbostel-Tufts solution. Indeed Hornbostel had employed innovative techniques to bring down the cost of construction while rendering the appearance of a much richer building. For example, during a visit to the Georgia quarries from which the exterior cladding of the buildings were to be fabricated, Hornbostel became aware of piles of scrap marble that had been rejected for use in other architectural projects. Realizing that he could get a better price for the material if he were to utilize this material, Hornbostel devised a technique of squaring the scraps and finishing-off a single face of the material. The marble was then laid-up on site with plaster of Paris serving to close the mortar joints. Using metal clips to bond the "veneer" of marble to the structure, Hornbostel then directed the contractor to pour concrete behind the marble exterior. In utilizing this technique, Hornbostel was able not only to purchase the marble at a lower price, but he was also able to build the exterior wall out of reinforced concrete without the additional cost of expensive formwork. He was able to omit the formwork because the marble exterior finish of the building essentially performed this role. (North, pp. 429-430) Hornbostel utilized both grey and pink Georgian marbles for the construction of the buildings on the Emory campus. The blocks were laid-up in a random bond which added variety and visual interest to the façades of the buildings. The hip-roofs of the original campus buildings were clad in clay-tiles lending a subtle yellow-ochre hue to the composition.