BOSTON COLLEGE
What is Boston College
Boston College is a private university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. The historic Boston College campus is set on a hilltop six miles (10 km) west of downtown Boston. Although chartered as a university by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1863, Boston College's name reflects its early history as a liberal arts college and high school in Boston's South End. The Boston College was the first institution of higher education to be founded in the city of Boston, though Boston College moved from the South End to then-rural Chestnut Hill. Boston College is one of the oldest Jesuit universities in the United States, and Boston College’s president serves as chairman of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities.
The campus
Landscape & architecture
Set on a hilltop overlooking the Chestnut Hill Reservoir and the Boston skyline, Boston College's 175-acre Chestnut Hill campus includes over 120 buildings in addition to athletic fields, rolling hills, wooded areas, three formal gardens, an orchard, and over 100 species of trees. The campus creates an almost rural setting, only 6 miles west of downtown Boston. A Boston College "T"-station located at St Ignatius Gate, is the western terminus of the MBTA Green Line's B-branch (also know as the "Boston College" line) and provides rapid transit to the city center. Travel time is approximately 30-45 minutes.
Due largely to its location and architecture, the Boston College campus is known affectionately as the "Heights," the "Crowned Hilltop" and "Oxford in America." This last moniker was the title of the original campus master plan and was confirmed by a visiting British journalist in 1915 who famously wrote, "Even in embryo, it is Oxford and Cambridge without their grime."
"The Crowned Hilltop"
Designed by Charles Donagh Maginnis and his firm, Maginnis & Walsh, in 1908, the Boston College campus is a seminal example of Collegiate Gothic architecture. Publication of its design in 1909--and praise from influential American Gothicist Ralph Adams Cram--helped establish Collegiate Gothic as the prevailing architectural style on American university campuses for much of the 20th Century. Gasson Hall, BC's signature building, is credited for the typology of dominant Gothic towers in subsequent campus designs, including those at Princeton (Cleveland Tower, 1913-1917), Yale (Harkness Tower, 1917-1921), and Duke (Chapel Tower, 1930-1935). Combining Gothic Revival architecture with principles of Beaux-Arts planning, Maginnis proposed a vast complex of academic buildings set in a cruciform plan. The design suggested an enormous outdoor cathedral, with a long entry drive at the "nave," the main quadrangle at the "apse" and secondary quadrangles at the "transepts." At the "crossing," Maginnis placed the university's main building, which he called "Recitation Hall." Using stone quarried on the site, the building was constructed at the highest point on Chestnut Hill, commanding a view of the surrounding landscape and the city to the east. Dominated by a soaring 200-foot bell tower, Recitation Hall was known simply as the "Tower Building" when it finally opened in 1913. Maginnis' design broke from the traditional Oxbridge models that had inspired it--and that had till then characterized Gothic architecture on American campuses. In its unprecedented scale, Gasson Tower was conceived not as the belfry of a singular building, but as the crowning campanile of Maginnis' new "city upon a hill."
Expansion & eclecticism
Though Maginnis' ambitious Gothic project never saw full completion, its central portion was built according to plan and forms the core of what is now Boston College's iconic middle campus. Among these, the Bapst Library has been called the "finest example of Collegiate Gothic architecture in America" and Devlin Hall won the Harleston Parker Medal for "most beautiful building in Boston." Subsequent campus expansions exceeded even President Gasson's vision and brought with them a new set of architectural vocabulary: Georgian, Neoclassical, Richardsonian Romanesque, and others. The 1895 Liggett Estate was developed into a Tudor style upper campus, while an architecturally eclectic lower campus took shape on land acquired by filling in part of the Chestnut Hill Reservoir. Around this time, a Seattle newspaper ranked Boston College #2 in a list of "America's Most Beautiful Campuses" (the University of Washington ranked first). Notions of "beauty" meanwhile were challenged by the advent of modernism. The 1940 design for St Ignatius Church is an important hybrid of this period and is an example of what has been called "Modern Gothic." Modernism had an enormous impact on development after the 1940s, though most modernist buildings at Boston College maintained decidedly un-modern rough stone facades in keeping with Maginnis' original designs. By the 1960s, Boston College's severe space demands and poor financial health began to leave their mark, as evidenced by the construction of prefabricated modular apartments on the lower campus. Originally intended as temporary housing, the "Mods" have survived in large part because of their popularity among upperclassmen. Indeed, their quadrangles are ideally suited for barbecues, whiffleball and other social events. Other legacies of this era include the hyperbolic-roofed Flynn Recreation Complex, constructed using laminated wood beams, and the later International Style O'Neill Library, designed by The Architects Collaborative. More recent campus development signals a return to Maginnis & Walsh's Collegiate Gothic designs, as reflected in the renovations of Fulton Hall (1997) and Higgins Hall (2002), and in the construction of Campanella Hall (2003) and the St Ignatius Gate Residence Hall (2004).
In June 2004, Boston College acquired land from the Archdiocese of Boston. The new grounds, adjacent to the main campus, include the historic mansion that served as the Cardinal's residence until 2002.
Boston College Athletics
Boston College teams are called The Eagles. The Boston College mascot is an eagle named Baldwin, derived from the bald head of the eagle and the word 'win'. The school colors are maroon and gold. The fight song, "For Boston!," was composed by T.J. Hurley, Class of 1885. Principal athletic facilities include Alumni Stadium (capacity: 44,500), Conte Forum (8,606), Kelley Rink (7,884), Shea Field, the Newton Soccer Complex and the Flynn Recreation Complex. The Yawkey Athletics Center is scheduled to open in the spring of 2005. Boston College students compete in 33 varsity sports, as well as a number of club and intramural teams. Boston College's Athletics program has been named to the College Sports Honor Roll as one of the nation's top 20 athletic programs by U.S. News and World Report (March 18, 2002).
A founding member of the Big East Conference, the Eagles will move to the Atlantic Coast Conference on July 1, 2005.
Boston College
Coeducational university with an average student population.
www.bc.edu
Boston College High School
Traces its roots back to 1863.
www.bchigh.edu
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