Around the State: New Haven

Yale University has completed renovations of two campus buildings, but other historic university buildings face demolition.

Stoeckel Hall is a Venetian Gothic fantasy, built in 1897 to designs by Grosvenor Atterbury and richly animated with ornate terra-cotta. After testing revealed extensive deterioration, the university engaged Charney Architects to renovate the interior and restore the exterior. The most visible aspect of the work is the restoration of the terra cotta. More than half of the 2,000-plus pieces were removed and catalogued, with 640 of them salvaged and cleaned, and 504 carefully reproduced. The remainder was cleaned in place and repointed. In addition, the original wood windows were restored and upgraded with insulating glass. Retention of 90 percent of the original structural walls and floors is expected to help the renovation qualify for a LEED Gold rating. A modern addition defers to the historic setting by stepping back from the street.

            Ingalls Hockey Rink, designed by Eero Saarinen in 1956, is one of Yale’s most prominent Modernist buildings. Said to evoke the grace and speed of ice skating, its swooping roof hangs on cables suspended from graceful concrete arch, creating a vast, column-free interior. The Rink has been the backdrop to sports dramas and real-life ones, perhaps most notably a series of tense public meetings during the Black Panther trial of spring 1970.

Yale is in the final phase of a multi-million dollar renovation and restoration of Ingalls Rink under Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates—the successors to Saarinen’s firm. Highlights include restoration of the ice slab to its original elevation; refinishing of the original wooden benches; and refurbishment or replacement of the exterior doors. Outside the Rink, work is progressing on an underground addition that will house additional facilities. Completion is scheduled for September.

While these noteworthy restoration projects are wrapping up, Yale is proceeding with plans for a new building for the School of Management (SOM), designed by Foster and Partners, and two new residential colleges, by Robert A. M. Stern Architects. From reading the press materials one would think both were being built in empty fields, but in fact their sites contain historic buildings that the university apparently has given no serious thought to reusing.

For the SOM building, Yale intends to raze two buildings constructed for the Security Insurance Company. One, designed in 1924 by Henry Killam Murphy, is an elegant Adamesque-style structure. As the first commercial intrusion into an upper-class residential neighborhood, it sought to fit through understated design and siting on a tree-dotted lawn. An awkward addition by Douglas Orr (1954) is also softened by its landscaping.

The new colleges’ site includes a number of buildings. In 2004 the Trust named two of them as Most Important Threatened Historic Places as examples of demolition by neglect: a Greek Revival house at 88 Prospect Street and the Daniel Cady Eaton house, home of a renowned professor.

Also on the site are three more 19^th-century houses, plus Hammond  Hall (1904), with a richly designed Beaux-Arts facade; Brewster Hall (1907), originally a dormitory for Yale’s Sheffield Scientific School; Urban Hall (1957) a classroom building by the Office of Douglas Orr; Williams Hall (1976), a residential building by Sherwood, Mills and Smith; Donaldson Commons (1978), one of Yale’s most inviting modern public spaces: a dining hall designed by Herbert S. Newman Architects reusing a 19^th-century carriage house that previously had been reused as a chapel; and Mudd Library (1984), by Roth and Moore.

None of these buildings, on either site, is a major landmark, but several of them possess historic connections or architectural quality and could lend themselves to reuse. For instance, the new colleges will require dormitory and dining facilities, both of which are already present. The Eaton house and 88 Prospect could become master’s houses; and Hammond Hall, with its flexible, open space, could be used for almost anything—perhaps the new theater slated for the site of the Eaton house. The SOM building could reuse the Murphy building’s elegant façade and charming entry rotunda, while the rest of the interiors could be reshaped with little concern about historic character.

Fortunately both Foster and Stern are experienced in working with historic buildings and could skillfully weave together existing buildings and new construction—if Yale wanted. Recycling existing buildings would also enhance the university’s emphasis on sustainability. The university filed for demolition permits for the college site on June 4. The city delay of demolition period, covering six buildings, will expire in 90 days, and demolition will doubtless begin immediately afterward.