Architecture & Scholarship
Architecture & Scholarship
Renewing Jonathan Edwards College at Yale University
Copyright Š2009 Newman Architects, llc
“Resolved, in narrations never to speak anything but the pure and simple verity.”
Jonathan Edwards, an undergraduate at Yale College in the early eighteenth-century, was one of the most distinguished thinkers and voices of his place and time. A champion of observation over dogma and individual insight over orthodoxy, many of his thoughts and observations about life and learning are as potent today as they were when he lived. In 2005, Yale University asked Newman Architects to design the renovations to one of its 1930’s-era residential colleges. Named after Jonathan Edwards, this much-loved Collegiate Gothic structure accommodates an academic community of several hundred undergraduates and university faculty. As we reflected on the task before us, we thought it would be meaningful to let Jonathan Edwards’ words guide the renovations and reorganization inside the envelope of the building. Our aim was
to create a tangible expression of the thought of Jonathan Edwards, embedding his words literally and figuratively into the fabric of the walls so that his ideas might resonate in the lives of those who make the College their home. With the support of the University, we studied his contributions to the American philosophical canon, reviewing his writing with a number of scholars at the University who study his work. In the process we came to know a visionary capable of subtle observation and profound appreciation of the world around him. Using the age-old principle of ‘the writing of the walls,’ we infused the architecture of the College with the spirit of thought made real, revealing the beauty within the ordinary and the existing, and the wonder to be found within multiplicity: to us its namesake’s most powerful insights.
Newman Architects
Jonathan Edwards College, c. 1930
“I believe that the whole universe, heaven and earth, air and seas,… be full of images of divine things, as full as a language is of words; and that the multitude of those things that I have mentioned are but a very small part of what is really intended to be signified and typified by these things: but that there is room for persons to be learning more and more of this language and seeing more of that which is declared in it to the end of the world without discovering all.”
New Central Stair
“Let there be something of benevolence, in all that I speak.�
Robert A. Taft Library
“Resolved, if ever I live to years, that I will be impartial to hear the reasons of all pretended discoveries, and receive them if rational, how long so ever I have been used to another way of thinking.�
New Tunnel Gallery
“True virtue most essentially consists in benevolence to Being in general.�
New Entrance to Taft Library
New Central Stair
“Resolved, to live with all my might, while I do live.�
New Buttery
“If we should never suffer ourselves to rejoice, but because we have obtained a religious end, we should never rejoice at the sight of friends, we should not allow ourselves any pleasure in our food, whereby the animal spirits would be withdrawn, and good digestion hindered.”
Great Hall
“By a sparingness in diet, and eating, as much as may be, what is light and easy of digestion, I shall doubtless be able to think clearer, and shall gain time.�
New Servery
“One alone, without any reference to any more, cannot be excellent; for in such a case there can be no manner of relation no way, and therefore, no such thing as consent.�
Common Room
“Try not only to silence but to gain readers.�
New JE Press Letterpress Studio
“And this, sir, is the way of spiders’ working. This is the way of their going from one thing to another at a distance, and this is the way of their flying in the air.”
New JE Theater
“Resolved, never to lose one moment of time; but improve it in the most profitable way I possibly can.”
New JE Press Letterpress Studio
“Let there be much modesty in the style.�
Entry Hall
Preserved Foundation Fragment
Client: Yale University Architect: Newman Architects Construction Manager: William A. Berry + Son Our Consultants: Structural: Michael Horton Associates MEPF/Civil/IT: BVH Integrated Services Lighting: Atelier Ten Landscape: Towers|Golde Code: Bruce J. Spiewak, AIA, Consulting Architect Kitchen Design: Ricca Newmark Design Exterior Envelope: Leavitt Associates Roofing: H.B. Fishman + Co. Elevators: VDA Estimating: International Consultants Signage + Graphics: Strong Cohen Graphic Design Historic Light Fixture Restoration/Re-creation: Enchanted Glassworks Art Installation: Gabriel Da Silva, Westville Gallery Photos courtesy of : Peter Aaron/Esto ©2009 David Rodrigues, Newman Architects Michael Marsland, Yale University Manuscripts & Archives, Yale University Library Book Design: Amanda Damour, Newman Architects
Renewing Jonathan Edwards College The scope of this project involved the replacement of all the mechanical and electrical systems and the comprehensive renovation of 147,000 square feet of existing interior spaces. These spaces included 78 undergraduate residential suites and faculty apartments, the Master’s House, plus seminar and common rooms, the dining hall, servery, and kitchen. New stairs and elevators knit together into one accessible whole what was formerly an assemblage of attached but misaligned structures. A new central stair links the front door of the College to the basement, now cleared and re-organized for enlarged social and recreational spaces. A new tunnel, which we added beneath the College courtyard to create a continuous loop of circulation, also serves as an art gallery for changing exhibitions of student work, visiting exhibitions, and the extensive art collection of the College. Also in the basement, the JE Press, a letterpress print shop, is re-housed in a purpose-designed studio. Two long-disused basement squash courts became the new 60-seat JE Theater. In addition, the work included the full restoration of the exterior of Jonathan Edwards College and its courtyard landscape. After 18 months of construction, the College was re-dedicated in December 2008.
300 York Street New Haven, Connecticut 06511 TEL 203.772.1990 FAX 203.772.1997 info@newmanarchitects.com www.newmanarchitects.com