Stephanie Rufino - Georgetown University: An Architectural History
Georgetown University: An Architectural History by Dr. Stephanie Rufino is a comprehensive guide to the history of Georgetown University's iconic buildings and campus spaces. Read one for a Q&A with the author to learn more.
How did student input from the Georgetown University: Architecture & History seminar contribute to or shape this book?
It was fantastic to collaborate with students during this project. Students come to class with so much lived experience in buildings and sometimes highlight elements that a historian might miss. In one instance, a student who lived in Harbin Hall noted how that dorm's cohesive, clover-like interior layout positively impacted their first-year experience.
At least one student prompted me to rethink a building. One senior wrote such a thoughtful visual description of Village C that it made me reconsider my own perceptions of the building’s style.
Coming together at the Booth Family Center for Special Collections at Lauinger Library and exploring a myriad of archived university correspondence, old photographs, and building plans was an incredibly valuable collaboration with students. I looked at so many historical documents, but students also found fascinating images I had not seen – that is always fun. In addition, there are a few building entries and quotes in the text, contributed by students.
Which aspects of the campus did you find most interesting to write and learn about?
So many areas were fascinating – there are over 50 buildings highlighted in the book. Various campus buildings have had multiple ‘lives’ – and I always find that change interesting. For example, Poulton Hall on 37th Street was a surplus World War II government building which once formed part of a large explosives manufacturing plant in Pennsylvania. It was moved to campus after the War.
Visiting Healy Hall’s Riggs Memorial Library, while also reading architect Paul Pelz’s aims for the space was interesting. When Pelz designed the library in the late nineteenth century, he was adamant about preserving and not obstructing the library’s interior natural light drawn from Healy’s multi-story bifora windows. That light, along with spectacular views, resonates within the small cast-iron library today.
The architect of Lauinger Library, John Carl Warnecke, also designed Village A and Henle Village on campus and we see some of Lauinger’s exterior geometry echoed in the adjacent Village A. Often the campus buildings and their architects led to more D.C. connections. Warnecke designed important capital buildings in and around Lafayette Square, and also designed JFK’s memorial gravesite at Arlington National Cemetery.
It is also always fascinating to see how campus changes over time – 1870s photographs of the no longer extant, labyrinthine, wooded campus path called “The Walks” come to mind. Much later in time, I also enjoyed the Capitol Campus buildings - particularly architect Vlastimil Koubek’s late twentieth-century, herculean “Darth Vader,” building at 111 Massachusetts Avenue with its exterior of dark glass, black stone and razor-sharp edges.