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Sarah Lawrence College - Campus

Sarah Lawrence College - Campus: Encyclopedia II - Sarah Lawrence College - Campus

Sarah Lawrence College: Encyclopedia II - Sarah Lawrence College - Campus

Sarah Lawrence College - Campus

Situated on 41 leafy, beautiful acres in Bronxville, NY, the Sarah Lawrence College campus is built around the original manor, known as Westlands, of the College's founder. Among the original ideas that were employed in the College's founding was the notion that, in order to foster a complete and thorough education, academic life should not be separated from recreational life which in turn should not be distinguished from residential life. As a result, most of the buildings on campus house a combination of administrative and faculty offices, classrooms, dormitory spaces, and common areas. As a result of zoning laws and fire safety regulations, many of the newer buildings do not employ this technique, but it remains nevertheless a central facet of the Sarah Lawrence experience. The buildings below have been categorized according to their most apparent function.

Sarah Lawrence College - Housing

Andrews House, a former manor house named for its original owner, is known for its high ceilings, fireplaces, and its spiraling main staircase. The majority of the building houses students, but it is also the home of the College's Department of Operations and Facilities and to the offices of the Writing faculty.
Andrews Court refers to the 12 cottage-style buildings to the south of Andrews House. Built in the 1960's and 1970's, the buildings have, on average, about 8 dorm rooms each in addition to full kitchens, living rooms, and bathrooms. The buildings are particularly popular, and are occupied by mostly upperclassmen.
Tweed, also a former manor house, is home to a number of large dorm rooms in addition to a small classroom.
Curtis is home to a number of dorms, but is also part of the Early Childhood Education complex.
Lynd House, another former mansion, is home to mostly living spaces. College legend dictates that the mural that runs through the house was painted by former student Yoko Ono, but it was in reality an original feature of the building.
Hill House, bought by the College in the late 1990's, is a seven-story apartment building on the extreme southern end of the campus. At this point, the majority of the aparrtments in the building are occupied by students, but a handful remain in the possession of the original tenants who occupied them when the building was purchased by Sarah Lawrence. Most of the apartments are quite large and each has a full kitchen. Apartments on the upper floors with south-facing windows have, on clear days, a view of the Empire State Building.
Kober is home to dorm rooms, but is also a part of the Early Childhood Education complex.
Morrill is the former maid's quarters to the President's House, and now is home to five dorm rooms.
Slonim House was formerly a manor house that is now occupied by dorms and by the College's Center for Continuing Education and to a handful of graduate programs.
Slonim Woods is the group of 10 purpose-built living facilities constructed in the style of Andrews Court.

The "Old Dorms" are the four original purpose-built student housing spaces to the immediate north of Westlands. Construction began in the late 1920's and was supervised by William Van Duzer Lawrence's son, Dudley Lawrence, after whom one of the buildings is now named. The four dormitories are built in keeping with the English Tudor architectural style found on most of the older buildings in the area, and are known for their thick plaster walls, hardwood floors, leaded windows, and rough-and-tumble charm. McCracken, built a few years later than the other three, is situated to the south of Dudley Lawrence. The original elegant living rooms that were found in each building, excepting McCracken, have been converted to classrooms.

Dudley Lawrence, the northernmost building, houses two classrooms in addition to living spaces.
Gilbert, named for one of the College's original trustees, is the northernmost building of the three, and is known for being quiet and populated with the College's more studious set.
McCracken, named for Vassar College president Henry McCracken, is a few years younger than its neighbors and has, at various times, housed the College library, the bookstore, and a number of other facilities in addition to living spaces. Although it still serves as a dormitory, it now also houses dance studios, meeting spaces, and administrative offices.
Titsworth is appropriately an all-girls dorm and was also named for one of the College's founding trustees. It occupies the space between Gilbert and Dudley Lawrence, and is also home to the Titsworth Lecture Hall.

Designed by world-renowned architect Phillip Johnson in the sparse modernist style of the time, the "New Dorms" were actually completed in 1960. The architectural style of the buildings is meant to be a modernist reflection of the three older dorms (Gilbert, Titsworth, and Dudley Lawrence) that stand on the opposite side of the North Lawn. The three buildings that comprise the New Dorms are connected by two glass atria in which the buildings' primary stairwells are found. With the exception of the large apartments in Rothschild, these dorms typically house first-year students.

Garrison is a traditional dormitory-style building with shared bathrooms.
Rothschild is comprised of apartment style, air-conditioned dorm spaces with kitchens, living rooms, and an elevator. The basement houses two film viewing rooms.
Taylor is nearly an exact copy of its neighbor, Garrison.

The Mead Way Houses are the eight former residences that stand along the steep hill of Mead Way on the College's eastern end. The two southernmost houses, Robinson and Swinford, are occupied by administrative offices, and the northernmost six houses, listed below, are reserved for student living spaces. The houses often have different themes (they may be reserved for vegetarians, French speakers, visual artists, etc.) which tend to rotate through the years, and the buildings, which have hardly been converted from their original state, are quite popular among students as a result of their cozy charm, large rooms, full kitchens, and living rooms.

Brebner House
Mansell House
Morris House
Perkins House
Schmidt House
Warren House

Sarah Lawrence College - Administration

Andrews Annex, built in the 1990's adjacent to Andrews House, houses a number of administrative offices.
Lyles House is home to the College's Health Services Center.
Westlands is primarily an administrative building, but its top floor houses a number of student living spaces. Completed in 1917, it is the oldest building on campus and was home to Sarah Bates Lawrence and William Van Duzer Lawrence before being given to the College. Dynamically situated at the highest point ofe elevation on the campus, it is a stunningly beautiful example of English Tudor architecture, and when completed was pictured on the front page of the New York Times. It has been the heart of the campus throughout the history of the College and, owing to its massive size, it now houses the president's offices, the Office of Admission, the Office of Financial Aid, the Office of the Registrar, the Office of International Programs, the Career Counseling Office, the offices of all of the College's deans, and a number of meeting spaces in addition to the top-floor dorms.
The Wrexham Road Property, acquired by the College in 2004, is a large manor house that once belonged to the Rwandan Consul. The College is presently in negotiations with the City of Yonkers to rezone the building, and until those negotiations are complete it will remain unoccupied. Plans have stated that it will house the Office of Communications or the Center for Continuing Education.

Sarah Lawrence College - Academic and Recreational Facilities

Bates is one of the original campus buildings. A huge facility designed in the English Tudor style that is common in the area, it has housed not just offices and classrooms, but everything from maids’ quarters to dining halls to laboratories and arts facilities. At one time, it was home to a miniature basketball court that is now a painting studio, though the lines of the court can still be seen on the floors. Over the years, programs in science, visual arts and physical education have grown to the point that they’ve spilled over elsewhere on the campus, requiring three buildings of their own. During the 2004-05 academic year, Bates will be remodeled once again, this time as a space for student activities, faculty offices and classrooms. Bates has always been home to the College's main dining facility and also houses the popular "Health Food Bar."
The Esther Raushenbush Library, built in 1974 in an architectural style meant to interpret in a more modern and sleek fashion the implied buttresses and strong features of its much older neighbor, Andrews House, the Raushenbush Library houses over 300,000 volumes.
The Science and Mathematics Center, completed in 1994, is situated on the far north end of the campus. It houses state-of-the-art laboratories in addition to classrooms and offices. Although most students at Sarah Lawrence are very much oriented to the fine arts and the humanities, they have nevertheless been known to enter the building from time to time to use its spacious and comfortable bathrooms.
The Marshall Field Music Building
The Monica A. and Charles A. Heimbold Visual Arts Center is the newest building on campus. Finished in 2004, "Heimbold" is a breathtaking example of cutting-edge architecture and has garnered national press for its sustainable, earth-friendly design.
The Campbell Sports Center was, contrary to popular belief, not named for legendary long-time faculty member Joseph Campbell, but instead for a College trustee. One of the newest buildings on campus, the Sports Center was completed in 1997 and houses a swimming pool, a rowing tank, a weight room and excercise center, an indoor running track, squash courts, a basketball court, classrooms, locker rooms, and administrative offices.
The Charles DeCarlo Performing Arts Center, completed in the mid-1990's, is an enormous facility on the western end of the South Lawn. Named for former College president Charles DeCarlo, the complex is comprised of the Bessie Schönberg Dance Theater, the 200-seat Suzanne Werner Wright Theatre, the 400-seat Reisinger Auditorium, a 117-seat Workshop Theater modeled after Shakespeare's The Globe theater, and countless practice spaces, work areas, and labyrinthine passages. The College bookstore is now located in the Center.
The Ruth Leff Siegel Center, which is almost exclusively referred to as "The Pub," was originally constructed as a gardener’s cottage on the Lawrence estate, then used as an infirmary and later as a faculty house. When the College began admitting male students in 1968, it became temporary housing for men. During the 1970s, the space was remodeled and christened “The Pub” for use as an informal dining hall and as a space for student activities. During the 1980s, it was renamed “Charlie’s Place,” honoring former President DeCarlo. In 1998, the entire structure was renovated, an addition was built, and the new complex took on its present official name. Today, it houses primarily a café serving on-the-go food, but also meeting spaces, a pool table, and the College's "Red Room," which serves as a political activism center.
The Tea House, also known as the "Tea Haus" for reasons that remain unclear, was originally a gazebo built by the Lawrence family on a small rock hill on the north lawn of their estate. After being saved from demolition in the 1950's by a student petition, it was converted to an enclosed building with large windows and a fireplace that now houses a café selling a variety of teas and baked goods. While it is a fact that the building housed the Alumni Affairs Office for some time, there seems to be no evidence to support the persistent campus rumor that the Tea House was once the office of long-time faculty member Joseph Campbell.