University of Virginia Library

Green Folder

On the other hand, a green
folder contains one of the most
relevant and significant articles to
be recently printed at the
University. Chris Baer's "150 years
is a Long Time For Anyone to
Sleep" wittily and probingly
examines the series of Master Plans
of the University, from TJ on. For
the most part, they have been an
incredible hodgepodge of buildings
mapped with an incredible
insensitivity to our Jeffersonian
heritage (and I don't mean a
federalist style), an indifference to
present tastes, and
incomprehension of future trends
and needs. Witness, for instance,
our already obsolete library
addition, and those atrocities, the
Physics Building and Wilson Hall.
How the Chemistry Building and
the fine arts center escaped mock
Jeffersonianism is beyond me, but
even these two manifest regrettable
fragmentation of studies.

The entire plan ought to be
re-thought, and the Baer article is a
starting point, with its perspective
on the past. My only regret,
though, is that it may not reach
those to whom it is most
important.

Theo Crosby mentions some of
the problems applicable to the
University in its metamorphosis
from an academic village to a city,
such as functional fragmentation
instead of the preferable
coordination (as we originally had).
His article broaches the topic of
problems of the cities as an
environment. As surely we all
realize by now, urban ills are all but
overwhelming; Crosby, then, can
only offer a mere introduction to
them. Though he forwards two
answers, there really can be no
satisfactory responses in 750 words.

Fortunately for the soundness
of the magazine, some responses
attack certain issues with more
depth. A series of papers confronts
a variety of topics, beginning with
the distinguished piece on,
"Ecology for the Evolution of
Planning and Design," by Ian L.
McHarg, who is a noted ecologist.