Go-ahead from Corporation marks end of decade-long expansion push
Close to a decade ago, Yale University set out on a mission: to acquire a few two-story houses tucked near the corner of Prospect and Canal streets.
University administrators did not want the houses. They wanted the land on which the houses stood, because they forecasted erecting two new residential colleges there at some point in the future.
And this year, that long-held plan finally came together. This weekend, the Yale Corporation, the University’s highest governing body, formally authorized the construction of two new residential colleges on that very site, behind the...
It's like the adults are making us kids eat our vegetables.
I don't want the new colleges, but deep down, I can't deny that they're good for us.
For the new colleges to feel less remote, the number one priority is for the streets of New Haven need to be more walkable. These distances are largely psychological -- particularly to pedestrian students who are forced to cross streets like Elm and Grove on a daily basis. If our streets were designed for people, rather than for moving the greatest number of automobiles as rapidly as possible, the entire dynamic of our city -- socially, economically and environmentally -- would change and hundreds of preventable traffic-related injuries would be avoided. Distances would feel shorter. The perceived "lack of walkability" factor was even referred to in the Study Report on the colleges.
Please read the petition posted at http://www.newhavensafestreets.org/ and sign if you agree. A broad coalition is needed to address these issues and start planning our city using 21st century principles, rather than 1950s principles.
Yale's ten year mission to acquire two homes on a corner. How much did they pay the consultants ? Was University Properties involved ? Did they bring the Psych majors over ? Blow majik dust at it ?
So you did make an offer and all you got was a Nyet . Bring the Midnight run sans the toilitries
'Twould be pity to build the new colleges as Georgian--Harvard's architectural brand--rather than a variant on Collegiate Gothic--Yale's brand. Yale can learn from Princeton's new splendid, but overdone, Whitman Hall.
The location near Science Hill affords a perfect opportunity to honor Yales Nobelists with gateways, courtyards, etc.
A block equals a "lack of walkability" to the Yale students of today. How helpless and lazy have we become? Shuttles and escorts to around the corner. Upset because a single city block spposedly puts us in Siberia? But we'll walk 6 blocks to the bars won't we? Don't worry, Yale will coddle you enough and do everything but diaper you.
my friends walk 30 minutes to class at larger universities. We can handle a few blocks.
There are reasons to oppose expansion - the spacial consideration is not a good one.
Anon: None of those universities you mention are anywhere near as good as Yale for undergrad, though. The spatial considerations are the reason why.
It would be a real shame if Yale built Georgian style colleges. The whole point of abandoning any kind of architectural creativity by building "traditional" colleges is to maintain the aesthetic undergrads except from Yale. That aesthetic is Gothic not Georgian--building Georgian building just seems to be a way of avoiding having to build in stone, which would be much more expensive. Frankly, though, I just hope they manage to avoid repeating the architectural disaster that was swing space.
@#8 Don't you mean the twin architectural monstrosities of Morse and Stiles? Eero Saarinen made good furniture and a sweet ice rink, but those colleges are hideous.
There can only be one rational reason for expanding the college - that there were many alumni that wanted to have their names on a building, perhaps coupled with the fact that many of their children may not have otherwise qualified for Yale.