Yale's New Colleges

Big news from my alma mater, which has been planning for a decade now to build two new residential colleges to accommodate more students. They have just announced a $250 million gift from alumnus Charles Johnson, which means some of the ill-gotten gains of Wall Street will flow into construction and then into an increased number of people who can get the education Yale offers.

I was dreading the design, wondering what sort of post-modern horror the elite arbiters of taste would foist on tomorrow's undergraduates. But no! Architect Robert Stern went for a neogothic design much like the older colleges. Maybe there is hope for our civilization after all. Most of these pictures come from a video walkthrough at that link. The colleges have not yet been named, although I suppose one of them will have to be Johnson. Votes for the other?

They will be built just south of the Ingalls Rink -- too bad it wasn't necessary to tear that thing down to make room. They are supposed to help connect the main campus to Science Hill. I don't know about that, but at least they won't make the world uglier.