Art
In the 1830s, American universities were expanding fast—and architects like Alexander Jackson Davis were imagining grand new campuses from scratch. This design for the University of Michigan shows how ordinary citizens' dreams of education were being translated into brick, stone, and ambitious public institutions.
Art · Full story
You're standing in Davis's office, squinting at ink and watercolor renderings. The elevation drawing shows a soaring neoclassical building with columns and a cupola—imposing, permanent, built to last centuries. Below it, the floor plan reveals where students would sit in lecture halls, where professors would pace, where knowledge would change lives.
Reflect
What building in your life has shaped how you learn or grow?