Which ACC school has the prettiest college campus? Architectural Digest weighs in
Architectural Digest recently published a list of the 64 most beautiful campuses in the United States, and it included several institutions in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
While many schools are impressive, AD says, not all of them “stun across the board.”
“Like a well-styled outfit, from the entry arches to academic halls and manicured lawns, everything on these grounds works in harmony to create a place as beautiful as it is educational,” the publication writes.
Eight of 18 ACC schools, including three in North Carolina, made the list. It’s not ranked, just a compilation. So it’s up to readers to decide which institution has the most beautiful campus.
AD considered “both architectural legacy and setting” to create its list. Some of the campuses were planned by landscape architects including Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted. Some have buildings designed in the same architectural style, while others feature a mix.
Most beautiful ACC schools, according to Architectural Digest
Apologies to N.C. State, Boston College, Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Miami, Pittsburgh, Syracuse and Virginia Tech, which did not make AD’s list.
Eight of 18, though, for the ACC. Not too shabby. Could be worse.
- Duke University
Architectural Digest doesn’t have much to say in defense of its decision to include the Durham university in the list. Just that of the 254 buildings on its campus, “none is more impressive than the Duke Chapel, a beacon of Collegiate Gothic architecture.”
The stone that makes up many of the Gothic buildings come from quarries in Hillsborough, but it has become more expensive and has more recently been used less often, Duke’s website says.
The university also contains many examples of the Georgian style, with buildings featuring red brick and symmetry.
- University of Notre Dame
AD notes the gold-dome structure called the Main Building has become a symbol of the university in Indiana.
The building serves as a headquarters for administration, though it still has some classrooms, the school’s website says. It was constructed in 1879, which was when the previous building burned down. The “Golden Dome” was added in 1882.
- Stanford University
The school’s main quadrangle, with its California Mission style, was singled out by the publication. The area was designed by Olmsted and the architecture firm Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge.
Notable architect Frank Lloyd Wright built the Hanna-Honeycomb House for Stanford professor Paul Hanna.The building, now part of Stanford’s campus, is a National Historic Landmark.
Stanford officially became a member of the ACC this week.
- Southern Methodist University
Another ACC newcomer is apparently one of the most beautiful schools in the country. (Disclosure: This News & Observer reporter attended Texas Christian University, SMU’s cross-town rival. TCU did not make AD’s list. So she’s not not questioning the validity of AD’s work.)
AD notes Dallas Hall, SMU’s first building, was designed by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge. The structure, an example of the Georgian Revival style, is on the National Register of Historic Places.
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Architectural Digest mentions the school’s Louis Round Wilson Library, designed by Arthur Cleveland Nash and William Kendall of McKim, Mead and White, is an example of the Beaux Arts style.
What the publication doesn’t say is that the Chapel Hill campus is one of the filming locations for the popular Amazon Prime series, “The Summer I Turned Pretty.”
Here’s Christopher Briney near the campus, photographed by an N&O reporter earlier this year. Though not a permanent part of UNC’s architectural legacy or setting, some would say Briney stuns “across the board.”
- University of California, Berkeley
In the 1890s, as enrollment increased and required growth, university leaders wanted to have a comprehensive general plan. University benefactor Phoebe Apperson Hearst financed an international competition to choose an architect to take on the development. French architect Emile Bénard won, and his plan called for a campus in the Beaux Arts style. He declined to be the lead architect, though, so in 1901, the fourth-place finisher of the competition, John Galen Howard, became supervising architect.
Howard was supposed to basically stick to Benard’s vision, but he ended up modifying it so that “the plan was more his than Benard’s,” Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design website says. However, he maintained the Beaux Arts style.
In 1924, the university and Howard parted ways, and San Francisco architect George W. Kelham replaced him. Arthur Brown Jr. became supervising architect in 1938. After he left, a decade later, no other person held the role of supervising architect.
UC Berkeley officially joined the ACC in July.
- University of Virginia
The Academical Village of the Charlottesville campus was designed by Thomas Jefferson and exists as an example of the Neoclassical style. The village was “designed to foster cross-disciplinary exchange” and “housed faculty from a range of specialties around a central lawn,” the university’s website says.
As a whole, the campus — along with Jefferson’s nearby home, Monticello — is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
- Wake Forest University
Architectural Digest notes the university’s Wait Chapel was the first building constructed on the new campus in Winston-Salem.
Much of the Reynolda Campus sits on land once part of the R.J. Reynolds estate, the university’s website says. Winston-Salem is the home of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company.
While the school has grown over the years, the Reynolda Campus has kept the look of its original 14 Georgian-style buildings.
Non-ACC schools recognized by Architectural Digest
The rest of the 64 campuses are scattered across the United States:
- Bard College
- Baylor University
- Belmont University
- Berry College
- Brown University
- Bryn Mawr
- Carnegie Mellon University
- Colgate University
- College of the Holy Cross
- Cornell University
- Columbia University
- Dartmouth College
- Flagler College
- Florida Southern College
- Furman University
- Georgetown University
- Harvard University
- Howard University
- Indiana University Bloomington
- Johns Hopkins University
- Kenyon College
- Lewis & Clark College
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Mount Holyoke College
- Northwestern University
- Pratt Institute
- Princeton University
- Rhodes College
- Rice University
- Salve Regina University
- Sewanee: The University of the South
- Spelman College
- St. John’s College
- St. Olaf College
- Swarthmore College
- The University of Chicago
- Trinity College
- United States Naval Academy
- University of California, Los Angeles
- University of California, Santa Barbara
- University of Colorado Boulder
- University of Hawaii at Manoa
- University of Mississippi
- University of Missouri
- University of Pennsylvania
- University of Richmond
- University of San Diego
- University of Vermont
- University of Washington
- Vanderbilt University
- Vassar College
- Washington University in St. Louis
- Wellesley College
- William and Mary College
- Williams College
- Yale University
This story was originally published August 2, 2024 at 6:30 AM with the headline "Which ACC school has the prettiest college campus? Architectural Digest weighs in."
