Hear the University Architect (PP519)

University Architect Ron McCoy discusses Scudder Plaza and Roberston Hall

Robertson Hall and Scudder Plaza were designed by Minoru Yamasaki and opened in 1965.

Yamasaki is best known as the architect of the World Trade Center in New York City. Along with architects such as Philip Johnson and Edward Durrell Stone, Yamasaki worked in a style that was known as New Formalism. This was a post International Style of architecture that is characterized by idealistic, rational, and monumental form. 

Robertson Hall is an interesting stylistic twist of a classical temple, with a colonnade shaped into the fluid form of a neo-gothic arch.

The plaza is an example of a post-war vocabulary of modern, monumental public space. The design is similar to a number of important civic spaces of the period, most notably Lincoln Center.

While the plaza contrasts with the principles that have defined the Princeton campus, it has become a popular and iconic campus and community space.

In order to create the site for the building and the plaza, Corwin Hall was moved to the east end of the site, on a system of steel rails, from its original location along Washington Road.

The plaza was renovated with an elegant order of trees in 2005 by the landscape firm of Quennell Rothschild.