Architectural Design
By Daily Bruin Staff
Nov. 20, 2000 9:00 p.m.
 PRIYA SHARMA Royce Hall, one of UCLA’s four original
buildings completed in 1929, is an example of Romanesque
architectural style.
By Carolina Reyes
Daily Bruin Contributor
Although students decide to attend UCLA for its academic
disciplines, some also value the campus for its architectural
beauty.
Connie Sanchez, a fifth-year mechanical engineering student,
said seeing the school’s architecture inspired her to enroll
at UCLA.
“It was the thing that struck me the most,” she
said. “That’s one of the reasons I wanted to come, and
then I found out I wanted to be an engineer.”
The campus’ four original buildings, often depicted on
postcards showing views of the university, were Royce Hall, the
College Library and Haines and Kinsey Halls.
Architect David Allison of Allison & Allison, a Los Angeles
architectural firm, and UC supervising architect George W. Kelham
began work on UCLA’s historical buildings in 1927,,
completing the project in 1929 with a budget of $3,000,000,
according to the book “UCLA on the Move.”
Allison and Kelham based the design of the buildings on a style
of architecture called Italian Romanesque, which began in Italy and
France in 700 A.D.
 PRIYA SHARMA One of the aspects of Romanesque
architecture is its ornamented arches. Specifically, the two used
the Italian Romanesque style of Lombardy, an area in Northern
Italy.
The use of domes on top of buildings, arches, towers as well as
colored marble and wall designs lined throughout the buildings
often characterize Lombardian architecture.
Allison designed Royce Hall after the Church of San Ambrogio in
Milan, while Kelham modeled the octagonal dome of the College
Library after the dome on top of the Church of St. Sepolcro in
Bologna.
The College Library’s porch and doorway are partial
reproductions of the Church of San Zenove in Verona. The architects
used brick wall textures, like terra cotta and colored marble,
prevalent in various churches in Northern Italy to ornament the
historical buildings.
As Royce Hall approached completion, Allison and building
decorator and painter Julian Garnsey suggested to then-provost
Ernest Carroll Moore that murals should cover the ceiling of its
upper porches.
“The Lombards always painted the ceilings of the porches
of their public buildings. We want to paint Royce Hall’s
porches,” Allison said in “UCLA on the Move.”
In addition to the Lombardian style’s aesthetic
contribution to the university, it also has other significance on a
college campus.
 UCLA Archives A 1929 aerial shot shows the campus’
original four buildings, clockwise from top left: Royce Hall,
Haines Hall, Kinsey Hall and the College Library. Under
construction at the bottom is Moore Hall.
Bologna had a university which at one time had about 10,000
enrolled students, including the poets Dante Alighieri and
Francesco Petrarch.
The outer walls of both Kinsey Hall and College Library have
symbolic depictions carved into them, mimicking the style of
architecture after which the historical buildings were modeled.
In Romanesque-styled buildings, Christian symbols often
decorated the walls of churches and public halls.
At UCLA, many of these markings stand for academic, social or
cultural achievements in world, national and state history, but
others give personal flair to UCLA’s own story as an
educational institution.
On the east wall of Kinsey Hall ““ originally the Physics
and Biology Building ““ a series of panels depict an
automobile, an airplane, a sailing ship and a prairie schooner,
commemorating how Anglo-American settlers came to California. On
the other side, carved panels of ranchers and Native American
hunters show the two prominent cultures present in 19th-century
California.
Some depictions, however, commemorate animals used in scientific
research, according to “UCLA on the Move.”
At the upper left-hand corner above Kinsey’s east doorway,
an isolated panel of a cat honors unnamed cats dissected in science
classes.
Other carvings, like the bear and the eagle on Kinsey’s
east’s doorway, connect the university to the state and
national governments.
At the College Library, the carving of an owl represents the pet
owl of Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom ““ Athena in Greek
mythology ““ which appropriately symbolizes the purpose of a
library, to provide knowledge.
Designs also line the interior walls of the buildings,
especially in Royce Hall and the College Library.
In the the inner walls of the dome of the College Library, 40
printers’ marks make up an intricate design called The Tree
of Life from the Garden of Eden.
Printers’ marks were graphical designs printers used to
identify themselves and later evolved into an ornamental art form,
according to the College Library Web site.
Among the printers’ marks depicted on the wall of the dome
are those of Ercole Nani and Simon Vostre, who worked in Italy in
the 15th century.
Murals inside Royce honor 12 men whom Moore thought made the
greatest contributions to the world, according to “California
of the Southland.”
One such painting, called the Instruction to the World, shows
Plato, Christ, Socrates, Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein. Under
the feet of each image, a key phrase written in golden letters
reflects each man’s philosophy.
According to “California of the Southland,” Moore
himself suggested to Allison and Garnsey how to arrange each man in
the mural.
“”˜Start,’ I said, “˜with Socrates, and
opposite Socrates paint the figure of the Christ, and on their
right hand and on their left hand paint their chief disciples, for
they happen to have been the same men, Plato and
Aristotle,'” Moore wrote in his book “I Helped
Make a University.”
Though Moore worked closely with the architects and designers in
creating the buildings, not all UCLA officials agreed with his
choices.
According to “UCLA on the Move,” then-President
William Wallace Campbell disagreed with Moore’s placement of
the aphorism “Education is learning to use the tools which
the race has found indispensable” over the stage of Royce
Hall Auditorium.
“Only the President of the University is empowered to
place inscriptions on campus buildings,” he wrote to Moore.
“Moreover, your inscription is unsuitable.”
But despite Campbell’s objections, the inscription
stayed.
In his book, Moore defended the choices he made, calling the end
product a triumph.
“The color of university buildings ought to be
vital,” he wrote. “Ours always will be vital, and as
the sun plays upon them and the days go by, they will become
mellower and more humanly responsive until in time no university
will be more beautiful.”
