In 1925, Vassar hired Beatrix Jones Farrand, the foremost woman landscape architect in the United States, as Consulting Landscape Gardener (her preferred term). She remained in the post for less than four years, but contributed designs and ideas that shaped the campus in significant ways. This project was the first analysis of Farrand’s little-known designs for the Vassar campus; it chronicled her involvement on campus, as well as the quagmire of obstacles she faced, and set her work in the context of contemporary issues about women’s roles and environmental issues, on the grounds and in the curriculum.
Category: Completed
Sustainable Wastewater Treatment
From the early practice of dumping wastewater into the Casperkill to Ellen Swallow Richards’ novel proposal for a “sewage farm” of filtration beds, this project traces the history of Vassar’s wastewater treatment systems, raising questions about progressive ecological initiatives the college could consider going forward.
Spaces for GIs
A POSSE veteran at Vassar interested in the issue of campus spaces for veterans today set out to study spaces for the GIs who had studied here in the late 1940s — Vassar’s first male graduates. His research revealed that there actually were not many such spaces –just one lounge for the men to get away from the “girls”. In the process, he chronicled some of the experiences of those first male graduates on the Vassar campus.
Williams Hall
The planned demolition of Williams Hall to make way for the Vassar Inn and Institute has provoked strong feelings on both sides. Cassie Jain (VC ‘20) shot black and white film images of the building, pairing her own photos with historic images she found in the Vassar archives. The resulting zine is an eloquent eulogy to the building, in text and image.
