Return to New Haven

New Haven

I recently spent a long weekend in New Haven, Connecticut, the town of my grad school and a place I have not visited in more than twenty years.  I can happily confirm what so many folks have told me - that New Haven is a dramatically nicer and safer place than it was when I was at Yale in the early 1990s.  

New Haven Cemetery gate

 

Yale University

Like you might imagine, a storied place like Yale does not change that much over the years. Their alumni donations are contingent upon being able to conjure up college-days nostalgia that drastic physical changes would betray.   There are of course some new buildings and a very different and relaxing feel to the place.  But the core of the campus has not changed much nor have the half dozen or so well-remembered buildings that I was anxious to see again after so many years.

Harkness Tower, Yale University

It is fascinating to visit a place again after so many years and this trip certainly had a fair dose of nostalgia mixed in as a catalyst.  For an architect, it is also interesting to visit again the buildings that were so influential to my education and prominent in my understanding of what architecture can be.  I will likely be posting about some of these buildings in the near future.

Yale Law School, stone sculptures

For the time being, I will just post some photos of Yale and New Haven and try to come up with some thoughts about memory and architecture, place and nostalgia.

Yale University gym
Yale University library reading room