Ravines & Council Ring
WARREN H. MANNING
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT
1146 TREMONT BUILDING
BOSTON, MASS.
LAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY, LAKE FOREST, ILL.
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REPORT on the PLAN of GROUNDS and on the LOCATION of
BUILDINGS, accompanying a STUDY dated June 1, 1897.
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Lake Forest University without doubt, at one time, stood on an equal footing with other similar institutions in the West, each of which had the support of special interests that gave it at that time a standing and a hope of future growth and prosperity. Some of these institutions through a fortunate combination of circumstances have been able to secure such an endowment that they have risen way above the plane of their less fortunate competitors, who with an inferior endowment can only secure inferior results in attempting to accomplish the same grade of work. The question naturally comes as to the availability for these smaller institutions curbing their ambition to boost a university [unreadable] bringing their field of operations within certain clearly defined limits that will enable them to do good and through work with the available endowment and facilities. A poorly equipped university could perhaps be made a first-rate preparatory school that would do its work so conscientiously and so well as to command confidence and win [unreadable] voluntary support. Such a school, if it be a denominational school, should not be a burden but a self-reliant, helpful, uplifting influence in the denomination.
Many schools are without doubt hampered in their work by a feeling of dependence upon the munificence of prospective donors. Instead of keeping their expenditures well within their own income, they are always going a little beyond it, and then, finding themselves in a precarious financial position, are spending more of their thought and energy on the question of procuring funds to maintain the new venture than they are upon perfecting and making more efficient that which has gone before. Too often also, a gift is a bane rather than a benefit; for by it department is equipped or a building is constructed on a scale that is all out of proportion to the general plan and policy of the institution and it becomes an incentive for a strain on the other departments to come up to the standard set by the new gift.
Not only should there be a well-defined policy with regard to the scope of the school's work, but the character, plan and location of buildings, grounds, and approaches and plantations should be carefully studied and determined upon in advance so that whatever is done at any time will held to the ultimate realization of these plans. If such policies and plans are studied in a sufficiently comprehensive way and with sufficient care, there can be no radical departure from them in the future without a sacrifice of beauty, fitness and convenience.
It should be the purpose in all this study to secure results that will give this institution so far as possible a distinct charter of its own as well in advance of other schools planned on similar lines. With all this in view I have made my preliminary study of the grounds.
LOCATIONS-
The location of the Lake Forest University is a most fortunate one, for while the city of Chicago is conveniently accessible it is not so near as to be in any respect a disadvantage. The proximity of the buildings to the lake gives them the benefit of the cool lake breezes, an opportunity to enjoy the inspiring views over this great body of water, and the advantages to be derived from the ravines leading down to the lake shore, to which I will refer again.
The town of Lake Forest was wisely planned in the beginning. The system of wide, curing roads then adopted add much to the attractiveness of the town. The fixing of property lines at the bottom of the ravines has resulted in the preservation of these important natural features. A liberal reservation of attractive land along the shore for public purposes was made and has been kept intact. The community is fortunate in having an unusually large number of cultivated and public-spirited men among its citizens. In these respects the school has an advantage in location over many of its competitors.
THE RAVINES-
Excepting the lake and its shores the most important natural features of the region are the deep, wooded ravines, such as form boundaries to a large part of the University property. Everyone has no come to realize the value of the lake shore and it will not be long before the value of the ravines will also be appreciated. At present, the lake of appreciation is made woefully evident in places by the destruction of the undergrowth and ground covering plants, the unsightly disfigurements caused by using the slopes as rubbish dumps, and the still more unfortunate and less easily remedied practice of carrying roads over them on fills instead of on bridges.
Another indication of the wisdom of the original designers of Lake Forest is shown by their selection for the "inalienable campus" for the University is in a position where it was to be surrounded by these ravines. They are of vital importance, they are the key to the whole situation so far as the plan of the grounds is concerned, and they are the one feature that will set these grounds apart from other like institutions. If their importance had been fully recognized by the early designers of this town, they with their side slopes would have been reserved to serve as attractive arteries of travel from the different sections of the town to the public park in its centre on the lake shore, and the public roads would have been established along the edges of the slopes so that houses would be placed with their fronts rather than their backs to the ravines.
With the ownership of so large a part of the most important of these ravines resting in the University it would seem to be quite practicable to correct this oversight and bring about the result suggested in such a manner that it would be a benefit to the town as well as to the University.
PRESENT PLAN OF GROUNDS-
No consistent general plan embracing the grounds of the University and its connecting schools seems to have been prepared. A plan of the Academy grounds made by Mr. O. C. Simonds was adhered to in the location and grade of buildings already constructed. He also prepared a preliminary plan of the University grounds showing main roads and suggesting the location of additional buildings, but he did not have an opportunity to complete this plan. The power and heating plant was located at a different point from that recommended by him, and in such a manner as to wholly defeat his design so to the location of the main entrance road.
The gymnasium and two new professors' houses with several of the older buildings are located near the ravines which indicates that there has been a recognition of the importance of preserving a broad stretch of open grounds in the centre of the property for a campus. The surface of the open ground is unnecessarily cut up by roads and the main building is located too near the centre of this open ground. These, however, are defects that can be easily remedied if the old building is to be removed, and I understand it is likely to be ultimately.
The Art Institute is placed in such a manner as to destroy the value of the ground about it for any other important structure but probably it may be considered of sufficient importance to justify its location in the center of this tract.
A considerable tract of land has been made into a base ball field and another tract is occupied by a foreman's house and a litter of old buildings and a waste material in it vicinity.
I have already referred to the Academy buildings which are well designed, well located, and surrounded by fairly well kept grounds. The location and design of Ferry Hall are both satisfactory. Old and rather unsightly buildings back of the hall, one of which is used as a stable, are by no means attractive additions to the grounds.
PROPOSED PLAN-
In the study presented it has been designed to link Ferry Hall and the Academy with the University grounds by dignified approaches that will be wholly under the control of the college authorities, to secure for each school a broad, quiet, and attractive campus from which traffic will be excluded so far as practicable, to so arrange building sites as to provide an opportunity for a satisfactory architectural effect in the grouping of the buildings and yet provide for pleasing views over the campus from each, to exclude athletic grounds where noisy sports are to be indulged in from the campus and to locate them where they will not interrupt the quiet that should prevail about school buildings and dormitories, and to also place well apart from the campus, school buildings and dormitories, and stables, storage yards, houses for workmen, etc.
MODIFICATION OF PROPERTY LINES-
In order to make a proper connection between the University grounds and those for Ferry Hall and the Academy over which satisfactory approaches can ultimately be made on University property and between University buildings, the additional land not now owned by the institution but covered by the study, should be secured. It will be noticed too, that an addition is recommended in front of the Academy property rather than at each and for the purpose of securing an enclosed campus which cannot be provided to advantage on the present grounds or on the ground that might be added to the east and west.
The proposed additions provide also a suitable place for administration buildings and tenants' quarters, and for a chapel. (It is to be noted that this involves change in a highway).
The proposed approach to Ferry Hill will be partly over a land which is indicated on the map of the town and it will furnish a place for buildings.
I also suggest a piece of ground for an athletic field which would bear much the same relation to the University as does the new athletic field to the academy.
In view of these additions I should advice that such outlying treats as the Mitchell Hall property and the lots near the railroad be disposed of, for owing to their being detached they cannot be of so much value as land that will come into a compact and well-connected scheme.
ROADS -
The main entrances of the University grounds should come opposite to [Deer]Path and Linden [now College] Avenue. I have indicated a bridge over the ravine at a point east of the fill near the power plant (which was intended as a crossing) so that it may be well away from this structure and so that the disfiguring fill may be removed, as it must be if the ravine is to become an agreeable passage to the public ground and the lake.
The circuit road about the University grounds will serve all proposed buildings adequately as they are located and arranged on the plans, and it will not be necessary to have any traffic inside of the campus.
These roads may also serve the public as an approach to the park so well as to justify the town in relieving the University wholly or in part from the expense of construction and maintenance. With this use of the road in view I have indicated a bridge to enter the park from the Ferry Hall grounds. If this road is to be used as a park road, all heavy traffic expecting such as is requires to supply the school should be kept off from it.
At Ferry Hall a symmetrical arrangement of the main drive is indicated. To accommodate the smaller building sites at the south end of the grounds, as well as the main building, the service drive is located here.
At the Academy the campus will be delivered by the main entrance road to the central building and the side buildings will be served by a circuit road and service roads and branches.
Adequate provision is made for the accommodation of the service traffic at all buildings and for separating it so far as practicable from the general traffic on the main roads.
BUILDINGS -
Buildings located in the manner indicated will permit of a simple road system that will give all required accommodation without intruding upon the campus, provided these buildings are planned with such a result in view, that is, with the entrance side next to the road, the living side next to the campus, the kitchen ends of two buildings adjoining so that they may be accommodated by one service yard and so that they will not face living apartments or classrooms of adjoining buildings.
The purpose for which buildings erected on the sites pointed out are to be used should be determined by a conference of all interested parties. The architectural treatment of the buildings and the main features of their plan should also be made part of the proposed design. Of course, in such questions an architect must be called in consultation.
PLANTING -
In determining upon the treatment of existing vegetations and upon new plantations both a landscape and educational purpose should be kept in view. It should be the ultimate purpose to have the campus grounds well shaded by fine, broad-spreading trees standing well apart as individuals with a fine turf under then interrupted only by necessary paths. Shrub and vine plantations should here be limited to the base and immediate vicinity of buildings, where they will serve to soften hard architectural lines and connect such structures more intimately with the ground. Outside the campus at the base of buildings, junction of roads and walks, and at the edge of the ravines, plantation of shrubs and small trees could be used more freely. The vegetation in the ravines should at present be let entirely alone. Dead fallen brush should occasionally be removed from them, they should be carefully protected from fire, and a rule should be established and enforced at once to prevent the plucking of flowers and pulling of plants. The plantations can readily be made of educational values without detracting form their values as elements of landscape or as decorative features by including in them a collection of the native plants of the region and perhaps also the hardy plants commonly found in gardens, by bringing together the early related kinds and arranging them in botanical sequence and indicating their location on a plan and in a hand-book so that the situation of different species and varieties could be readily identified. Such a collection would make a very desirable addition to the equipment of the institution and one that would not be costly to establish or maintain.
MAINTANANCE -
The care of all the grounds should be placed wholly in the hands of a thoroughly competent superintendent. It is evident that there is much room for improvement in this respect; for I notice that a very large surface (I was told thirty acres) was being cut with hand lawnmowers, whereas horse-mowers would have been more economical. Much of this lawn mown surface was full of sharp humps and holes as to be exceedingly hard to mow, as well as ruinous to a machine. These holes and humps could be smoothed up at small cost. In gradingin parts of the grounds the roots of valuable trees had been cut off and exposed in the edge of unsightly mounds, much to their detriment. More unpleasant then all this was the evidence of gross carelessness and lack of neatness in various parts of the grounds, notably back of the Art Institute where I noticed in various places a pile and partly open box of roofing slates, piles of stone, old stumps, timbers, etc., and in the ravine close at hand old barrels, boxes, etc. and an even more unsatisfactory condition of affairs prevails in the easterly point of the property. All this should be at once corrected.
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