Richard Kiehnel
completed the Rollins campus plan in 1927.
The library, set to be a commanding 29-story structure, was the centerpiece. Set at the terminus of a central axis that
bisected a linear green and a common lawn, the dominant structure slated to be the
tallest building in Florida paid homage to the University of Virginia and its
founder, Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson
built an “academic village” that placed the Rotunda, a half-size adaptation of
the Pantheon housing the library, at the terminus of a linear lawn. The rounded cranium housed the “brain” of the
University, and it faced an unbounded horizon to symbolize the flow of
knowledge into the young Republic. Jefferson envisioned a
new kind of university dedicated to
educating leaders in practical affairs and, a century later, his iconic hand directed
Hamilton Holt.
Kiehnel grouped 29 structures to form a
neo-Renaissance academic village. Given
the climate, openness and connection were keys.
Loggias and covered walkways linked the campus, while buildings were set
on quadrangles and small courtyards to capture breezes and foster air
circulation. “Breezy and cool” was how Holt described the scheme to create the
first “open-air college” in the United States.
The library was never built to its
outsized specifications. In fact,
funding for
Mills
Library was not secured until 1949, the year Holt retired. Designed by James
Gamble Rogers II, the two-story steel framed stucco had a commanding arched
entryway. From its steps, one could
glean a picturesque view that extended into Winter Park, as the oaks framing
Interlachen Avenue directed the eye to the horizon. This vista was also the route students took to
complete their graduation ceremony. They marched across Mills Lawn to the
Congregational Church on Interlachen, where they were introduced to the
community as citizens ready for service.
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| Rollins Graduation ca 1932 |
The campus showpiece, Knowles Memorial
Chapel and the Annie Russell Theater, was completed in 1932. The Rolyat set the standard. The buildings framed a cloistered patio
garden centered on a Spanish tiled fountain circled by inlaid cypress. Kiehnel designed the Annie Russell, while Ralph
Cram, a noted ecclesiastical architect, designed Knowles Chapel. The chapel reflected 17th Century
Spanish architecture, a period when Renaissance fashion transitioned to more
classical forms. The campanile, modeled
after the Toledo Cathedral, towered over the campus. Above the chapel’s entrance a carved stone
tympanum depicted Spanish conquistadors planting the first cross in American
soil, a reminder that Florida’s unique history was embedded in the college’s calling
to prepare young minds for the future.
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| Knowles Chapel Bell Tower |
The campus was built largely in accordance
with Kiehnel’s plan, but it had, from a modern perspective, a glaring omission—there
were no parking lots. In 1927 the automobile
was an option, but once it became a necessity the campus’s pedestrian orientation
suffered. The widening and realignment
of Fairbanks Avenue severed the central axis.
Graduation ceremonies were confined to campus and parking lots soon covered
sites designated for open space. In the
1990s road rage entered the picture, as Central Florida suffered the nation’s
highest pedestrian death rate.
Looking to the past for inspiration, the college
and Winter Park championed a pedestrian-oriented urbanism patterned on the
American Renaissance. In 1997 Dover-Kohl
redesigned Park Avenue. Sidewalks were
widened for outdoor dining, vehicular travel lanes were narrowed and bricked,
and a prescription was provided for designing buildings based on the principles
of traditional civic art. In 2002, Rollins College commissioned Chael Cooper &
Associates, in affiliation with Dover Kohl, to design the McKean Gateway and
the Rinker Admissions Building on Fairbanks Avenue. Taken together they established a definitive terminus
and signified the willingness of both college and city officials to restore a
walkable, pedestrian-centric community. In
2014 a gateway was built at the head of a new walkway that bifurcated the
linear green centered on Mills Library. The
Harvard Gates inspired architect John Cunningham’s concept for this signature
piece, which marked the reestablishment of the historic central axis.
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| Rollins Gateway |
The last three presidents of Rollins, Thaddeus
Seymour, Rita Bornstein, and Lewis Duncan, labored to create the intimate sense
of place Hamilton Holt revered. Their
efforts not only produced the most beautiful campus in the nation, they restored
a vision grounded in the iconic ambitions of American higher education.
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