Everyday we walk through our beautiful campus, but we don’t often stop to look around and smell the flowers. The University of Oregon has had many additions and renovations since 1876 when Deady Hall was the only building on campus.
Over the years our campus has expanded again and again, always keeping up with the architectural style of the era. Along with the different types of buildings, we have also grown many different types of trees around campus. The University of Oregon Atlas of Trees from 2006 claims that there are over 500 species of trees.
Throughout our history of almost 150 years, our campus has also become the home of many different sculptures, here are some that can be seen without entering a building:
You may have seen the Pioneer sculpture standing tall across the street from Johnson Hall, but have you seen Alexander Proctor’s other sculpture on campus? The Pioneer Mother was installed in 1932 near the original women’s building, Gerlinger Hall, and because the Pioneer was located directly north he became commonly known as Pioneer Father.
Artist Wayne Chabre has art featured all over campus including gargoyles of Albert Einstein’s head outside Willamette Hall, a Drosphilia (fruit fly) on Streisinger Hall and a raven outside the Museum of Natural and Cultural History. His sculpture Aboretum Illuminatum, commonly called the Tree of Knowledge, is located outside of the Knight Library and features a bronze tree that blossoms into a book at its peak.
If you are a business major who spends most of your time in Lillis then you have probably seen the large, shiny sculpture full of panels, which is suspended in the air outside the back doors. Artist Ned Kahn crafted the artwork with the intent to reveal the invisible passage of wind through the fence. Kahn has many sculptures featured around the world that incorporate aspects of the environment such as water, fire and sand.
Two bronze sculptures by artist Don Eckland have been located in the courtyard of the Education building since 1981. One of his sculptures, titled Emergence, features a young woman who is ready to emerge from her rest and the other sculpture, New Horizons, is a multi-faceted work that hints at a relationship between an adult and young children.
You may have seen the 17-foot steel sculpture in the quad across from the Student Recreation Center, but did you know it was designed to look like a garden of a 16th century Indian ruler? Artist Lee Kelley created the sculpture, titled Akbar’s Garden, in 1984, but it was not until 2002 that Jordan Schnitzer and his parents donated it to the University. The donation was made to commemorate the accomplishment of The Oregon Campaign that raised over $225 million from 1992 to 1998.
In the courtyard of the newly renovated Psychology building, Straub Hall, sits the House for Phineas Gage. Artist James Harrison designed the sculpture, which is made up of uniformly cut wooden boards that stack up to create a curved shape. The subject for the work, Phineas Gage, is a legend when it comes to the history of brain injury due to surviving after being pierced through the head by a 3-foot rod.
Next time you head to class give yourself a few extra minutes, put your phone away and look around at what you may have been missing. If you take the time to check out your surroundings you can become more aware and alert of specific details, which may even help in the classroom.
There is no need to check out fancy museums when our campus is home to so many works of art that cannot be found anywhere else. We should all stop and enjoy the beauty that the University of Oregon offers while we are here.
Follow Tanner Owens on Twitter @T_Owens21