Hewitt Quadrangle

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Hewitt University Quadrangle, commonly known as Beinecke Plaza, is a plaza at the center of the

created subterranean library facilities beneath the courtyard, establishing the present appearance of the paved plaza and sunken courtyard.

Buildings

Bicentennial Buildings

The Bicentennial Buildings–University Commons, the Memorial Rotunda, and Woolsey Hall–were the first buildings constructed for Yale University as opposed to one of its constituent entities (

.

The University Commons, simply known as "Commons" on campus, is a timber-trussed banqueting hall.

in the 1930s.

Woolsey Hall was the University's first large secular assembly hall, with 2,691 seats.^[2] It holds one of the largest organs in the world: the Newberry Memorial Organ, a 1928 Skinner organ.

The Rotunda, with tablets on the walls commemorating Yale's war dead is a double-sized, domed, colonnaded version of

built in 1502 on the site of St. Peter's martyrdom in Rome. Above the memorial is the President's Room, used for donor and ceremonial receptions.

Woodbridge Hall

Also completed in 1901, Woodbridge Hall is the main administrative building of the university. The

, one of the ten founding ministers of the school, whose names of are engraved on the building's facade.

Beinecke Library

The visible portion of

, is like the visible portion of an iceberg. With three underground levels extending under the plaza, most of the library is hidden.

Sculpture

Before the colonnade of the Commons is a memorial cenotaph. Its inscription reads:

In Memory of the Men of Yale who true to Her Traditions gave their Lives that Freedom might not perish from the Earth. 1914 Anno Domini 1918.

Behind the cenotaph, one can see inscribed the names of

and is French Renaissance in style. It contains the central administration of the University. The building was named for Reverend Timothy Woodbridge, one of the founders of Yale College.

The Beinecke Library's sunken courtyard, visible but not accessible from the plaza, contains Isamu Noguchi's sculpture The Garden (Pyramid, Sun, and Cube). The three marble sculptures represent time, the sun, and chance. Alexander Calder's sculpture Gallows and Lollipops stands on the plaza. The Claes Oldenburg sculpture Lipstick Ascending on a Caterpillar Tread (now located in Morse College) was once on the plaza.

Use

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As the symbolic heart of the university—and as the space in front of the administration building—Beinecke Plaza is occasionally the site of rallies and protests. These have included labor rallies held by the

, the university administration ordered its removal and demolished it. The destruction of the shanty-town, which required the arrest of dozens of protesters, unleashed an outpouring of anger and demands that the shanty-town be recreated. Eventually the university relented and the town was resurrected, only to be burned down by an irate alumnus two years later and replaced by a "memorial wall".

References

Bibliography

• Ossman, Laurie; Ewing, Heather P. (2011). Carrère & Hastings: The Masterworks. Photographs by Steven Brooke.
  ISBN 978-0-8478-3564-5
  .
• Pinnell, Patrick (1999). The Campus Guide: Yale University.
  ISBN 978-1-56898-167-3
  .
• Carroll, Richard C., ed. (1979). Buildings and Grounds of Yale University. New Haven: Yale University.
• Kelley, Brooks Mather (1974). Yale: A History.
  JSTOR j.ctt32btbf
  .
• Holden, Reuben A. (1967). Yale: A Pictorial History.
  ISBN 978-0-300-00565-3.41°18′41″N 72°55′36″W / 41.3115°N 72.9268°W / 41.3115; -72.9268