West Campus Quad
The plan for Duke University’s historic West Campus, developed in the 1920’s, was consistent with the traditional model of an English campus: a collection of buildings organized around a central open space, where students live and learn together as a unified community. While many campuses in the United States had been constructed within the confines of large cities, James Buchanan Duke had the foresight to acquire large amounts of land in the wooded piedmont of North Carolina as the site for his new university, ultimately acquiring approximately 8,000 acres.
The West Campus was constructed between 1927 and 1932 as two intersecting quadrangles framing the ridge of a prominent landform. Duke Chapel was built adjacent to the high point as the architectural focal point ending the main axis. The top of the ridge was covered with a large stand of mature oak trees, and preserving as many of the existing specimen trees as possible was one of Duke’s planning goals.
Initial plans for elaborate landscape elements such as fountains and a major lake were eventually rejected due to budget constraints. The landscape architecture firm Olmsted Brothers of Brookline, Massachusetts, founded by Frederick Law Olmsted, was hired to create a development plan for the University. This plan defined the pedestrian circulation system, established a planting strategy, and located what would one day be specimen oak trees lining the open lawn of the Quad.A landscape master plan and landscape design guidlelines were completed in 2005 and several subsequentprojects have enhanced the West Quad landscape, which remains one of the most picturesque campus landscapes in the country.
