While many higher learning institutions in Massachusetts are renowned for the educational opportunities provided, some are criticized for aesthetics. UMass-Amherst was ranked the ugliest college in the Commonwealth.
While many higher learning institutions in Massachusetts are renowned for the educational opportunities provided, some are criticized for aesthetics.
Five Massachusetts colleges topped Complex Magazine's list of "The 50 ugliest college campuses."
Both the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and Dartmouth made the list, as did Hampshire College, Brandeis University and Worcester Polytechnic Institute. UMass-Amherst was ranked the ugliest college in the Commonwealth.
WPI barely made the list at number 49.
Complex considered the campus beautiful "but due to bad planning and poorly placed parking lots, the scenic foliage is overshadowed by sterile, bland construction like the new Campus Center or the Life Science Center."
The campus has been a focal part of Worcester since it was established in 1865. More than 5,000 undergraduate and graduate students enroll annually.
In part, the campus was designed by students. Each student is required to complete an interactive qualifying project which "relates technology and science to society or human needs," according to the Institute's website. One student created a fountain, which adjusts the height of the water based on the wind velocity.
Following right behind WPI is Brandeis University in Waltham, on the list at 48. The 65-year-old campus was designed by architect Eero Saarinen during the modernist movement. While the initial designs have historical status,
Complex states, "Brandeis mixed these Modernist buildings with bland, brick structures and a castle to come up with their current campus. This jumble of styles and aesthetics leaves the school looking disheveled and incoherent."
The University does feature varying styles of buildings that have differing connections to the campus. The Usen Castle, a brick, medieval-style building, was built in 1928 as a part of Middlesex College of Medicine and Surgery. It became a part of the Brandeis campus in 1946.
The Rose Art Museum features the works of Andy Warhol and Jasper Johns. While the interior contains beautiful works of art, the concrete and glass building is not visually striking.
Despite the negative review, academically the campus is sitting pretty. In the recently released 2014 Best College Rankings by the U.S. News & World Report, Brandeis ranked 32 of all universities in the nation. The ranking is on par with Boston College and New York University.
Further down the list, University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth ranked 38.
In the 1960s, modernist architect Paul Rudolph was hired to revamp the college's look.
Complex wrote of his work, "Paul Rudolph is an iconic architect, and his Dartmouth campus is cohesive, especially compared to some of the other colleges on our list. However, the buildings themselves are busy, unappealing, and appear overdone. With undulating forms and sterile, cold concrete, the buildings of the Dartmouth campus are spot on for style, but it's necessarily a pleasant or welcoming style."
This campus has been criticized by others, including students, as well. The Boston Globe reports student tour guides used to tell visitors that Rudolph was a Satanist, to explain the Brutalist architecture.
Though Hampshire may be appealing to students for its loose academic structure, allowing students to study without majors or letter grades, the school was given low marks for its lack of campus cohesion.
Complex commented, "The campus was designed around the library with initially bland planning. The school's planner Hugh Stubbin is quoted as saying that 'structure should be forthright and honest.; To achieve this honesty, Stubbin decided to commission poured concrete buildings. Unfortunately, these lackluster buildings leave a lot to be desired and do not add anything to the surrounding space."
While considered lackluster, the campus does have some interesting buildings. The school's student radio station is in a yurt, known as The Yurt Media Center.
Upper class students live in "mods" one and two-story apartments of varying shapes. There are three on campus, including Enfield house, Greenwich house and Prescott house. Greenwich "mods" are eight pie-shaped apartments arranged in a circular form to create a doughnut.
The University of Massachusetts-Amherst was ranked the ugliest of Massachusetts colleges at 13. The college is known for featuring a mix of 19th century brick buildings, cement structures and the second tallest library in the world.
Complex wrote, "Architectural criticism is nothing new to the University of Massachusetts Amherst. In 1974, the Boston Globe's architecture critic, Robert Campbell, called the campus 'a jumble of unrelated personal monuments that look more like a world's fair grounds than a campus.' We guess that's one way to say 'disjointed,' but the school is still made up of a variety of concert buildings, dark subterranean spaces, and clinical architecture, so Campbell may not have been far off."
To form a more perfect university, construction is a constant at the flagship campus. The University spent 186.5 million on the Commonwealth Honors College which opened this fall. Last week, a report by the board of trustees outlined a five-year plan for construction and renovation at the five UMass campuses with a budget of $3.8 billion.