[.uk] The Campus Guide: Yale University (The Campus Guide) (ISBN 1568981678)

Buy It:
This is a prodigious and learned work. Anyone visiting Yale can learn a lot from it. One interesting thing about this campus series is that as we continue to turn America into sprawl -- what James Howard Kunstler calls "the National Automobile Slum" -- campuses are the first urban experience for many Americans. Note to Princeton Architectural Press: you should let the authors talk more about the outdoor public realm and not make them focus so much on individual buildings. The book should also have many plans (there are none). The best architecture guidebooks have plans for every building.

Architectural guide of the very highest quality:
Many authors would wilt under the task of tying together the nearly 300 year historical development of what is widely recognized to be the finest assemblage of buildings to be found on any American college campus. Fortunately, Pinnell, a Yale alumnus and professor of architecture, is up to the challenge. Bringing to his subject matter a depth of feeling and complexity of thought borne of his many years of close interaction with the Yale built environment, Pinnell pulls off the difficult task of creating a guide that will offer fresh insight and intellectual challenge to those who know the campus well while retaining the interest of even first time visitors. As this is an architectural and not a travel guide, the author assumes that the reader's primary interest is in the school's buildings, its public spaces, and its historical and urbanistic relationship to New Haven. As a result, a less architecturally-concerned reader may be better served by another sort of book. However, for those of us who share Pinnell's passion for building generally and the magnificent Yale campus, in particular, this is the book we've been waiting for.

Charming:
A charming book. Clear photographs and sensitive analysis of buildings familiar, new, and vanished. Pinnell sets his stories of each structure in its context with due attention to historical development. I would have liked seeing more photos of sets of buildings together. Note how the two large pictures of Harkness Tower are especially engaging for their backgrounds. It would also have been nice to see a drawing of Venturi's famously unbuilt Math building. If you can get to New Haven easily, carry this book around to enrich your visit.