The Council of Independent Colleges: Historic Campus Architecture Project

Robert Hutchings Goddard Library

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Robert Hutchings Goddard Library (general view), Clark University

Robert Hutchings Goddard Library (rear view), Clark University

Institution Name: Clark University
Original/Historic Place Name: Robert Hutchings Goddard Library
Location on Campus:
Date(s) of Construction:

1967-1968

original construction Johansen, John M.

Designer: John M. Johansen
Type of Place: Individual building
Style: Modern/post-WWII, Other (Glossary)
Significance: culture, education, history
Narrative: see below
References: see below

Materials:

Foundation: concrete

Walls: brick and concrete

Roof: tar paper

Function:

1968-present (2006)

library

Narrative:
The Robert Hutchings Goddard Library was designed by the internationally acclaimed architect John Johansen. It is an early example of postmodernism, which the architectural critic and historian Peter Blake called Johansen's "manifesto." Johansen wrote, "The building does not attempt outright to be architecture, in the sense of a work of Fine Art, a thing of good taste or of beauty. It represents an attempt by the building and myself to find the essential nature of 'library.'"

References:

Dober, Richard P. Campus Architecture: Building in the Groves of Academe. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1996.

Gaines, Thomas A. The Campus as a Work of Art. New York: Praeger, 1991.

Johansen, John M. John M. Johansen: A Life in the Continuum of Modern Architecture. Milan: L'Arca Edizioni, 1995.

United States Bureau of Higher Education. Higher Education Facilities Design Awards. [Washington, DC], 1966.

United States Office of Education. Excellence in Design, a New Potential on the American Campus: The 1966 Awards Program. Washington, DC, 1967.