During the
1970s, I couldn’t have told you what an urbanist was. Perhaps someone who studied the gum stuck on
the bottom of park benches. Or maybe someone
who documented the different types of sewer manhole lids. I had no idea.
But I knew I
loved living near the University of California campus in Berkeley. Having most of my classes only a couple of
blocks away. Wandering the weirdness of
Telegraph Avenue whenever I wished.
Ambling to the baseball field to do physics homework while watching the
Golden Bears play a Pac-10 foe. Finding
a quiet place along Strawberry Creek to open a good book.
On nights
when cooking ambitions were low, walking a block to the Chinese restaurant
where I learned to love won ton soup. After
classes on Fridays, going with classmates to a pizza shop where the waitress
knew us well enough to give us the slices of pizza and pitchers of beer that
others had left unfinished. (Hey, we
were college students.)
One winter
term, subscribing to the San Francisco Symphony with a roommate, riding BART to
and from the old War Memorial Symphony Hall, and returning across the campus to
our apartment in the late evening hours, enthralled by the fog-shrouded
Campanile.
And leaving
my car in the garage, untouched, for a week at a time.
I may not
have known the term, but I was falling in love with the urban lifestyle.
Thus, when a
reader posted a link to “The 50 Most Beautiful Urban College Campuses”, I followed
the link with enthusiasm. The Cal campus
had to be near the top. The list would
be nonsense otherwise.
Reviewing
the criteria, location in a city of at least 100,000 people, international
acclaim, notable features, botanical gardens, and student enjoyment, I could
see that the test was set up for Cal to excel.
Starting
with #50, I began seeing old friends. The
University of the Pacific at #49, a fine campus with an intriguing history,
even if its host city of Stockton has issues.
Harvard at
#31, an academic powerhouse in a very walkable setting, although the range of
architecture and landscaping doesn’t match the depth and texture of the Cal
campus.
Vanderbilt
at #16, another academic star with stellar architecture, although I find the
campus too accommodating to cars, preferring the Cal layout where cars feel
like the interlopers among the pedestrians and bicyclists.
Santa Clara
at #14, with its rhythmic earth-toned buildings and vine-covered walkways.
The
University of Washington at #11, with its soaring collegiate gothic buildings
in brick and its setting along Lake Washington, a campus I learned to love
during my years in Seattle.
Stanford at
#3, which triggered the first bit of head-scratching. A very walkable campus with exceptional
architecture, but a place where too many students and faculty arrive by car to
truly be considered an urban campus. On
the other hand, if Stanford is #3, then Cal had to be #1 or #2, right?
Wrong. Cal was left off the list completely. It was an egregious blunder. The writer is lucky that the website on which
he posts doesn’t allow comments. I’m
sure that many would have complained about their particular favorite being
omitted, but none of the omissions would have been as absurd as Cal.
Luckily, I don’t
need validation from an internet writer with a poor sense of quality control. I have my memories of my time at Cal and my regular
visits ever since. Plus, I have the other
urban campuses that I’ve had the good fortune to visit. So I’ve begun to develop my own list of
favorite urban schools.
Iowa State
where I first realized the collegiate urbanism was a distinctive and stable type of urbanism.
The
University of Pittsburgh with its soaring Cathedral of Learning.
West
Virginia University with its grand Woodburn Hall, where the interface between the campus and the host city
of Morgantown is complicated but likely enhanced by the steep West Virginia
terrain.
Furthermore,
I’ll be able to expand my collegiate urbanism exposure this summer. Traveling with my regular summer traveling
companions, seen wandering aimlessly in the Cathedral of Learning photo, we’ll
tour the South, looking for minor league baseball, distinctive brewpubs, and
good barbecue. And, because they’re
willing to humor me in the hours before beer is socially acceptable, we’ll even
visit a few urban hotspots.
Even with
its fatal flaw, the 50 Most Beautiful list suggests Tulane University in New
Orleans, Rhodes College in Memphis, and Belmont College in Nashville, all of
which are on travel route. Also, a
return visit to Vanderbilt seems reasonable.
If all goes
well, I’ll have new college urbanism insights to share before the summer is
over, while also being several steps closer to have my own Top Urban Campuses
list. I won’t promise that Cal will be
in the top spot on that list, but it will be hard to displace the Berkeley
campus.
(By the way,
Newsweek also has a list of the 25 Most Desirable Urban Schools, a list in
which Cal is rightfully included.)
In the course
of recently writing about alternative locations for the second SMART station in
Petaluma, I offered an unconventional possibility. To my surprise, a few folks have rallied to
support the idea. I don’t think we’re anywhere
near a critical mass, but I’ll again write about the idea in my next post to
see how deep the support might be.
As always,
your questions or comments will be appreciated.
Please comment below or email me.
And thanks for reading. - Dave Alden (davealden53@comcast.net)
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