In 2014, the pop culture magazine Complex deemed UTD the 12th ugliest college campus in the world. In 2022, Complex redesigned their list and placed UTD slightly lower, with our sprawling, 445-acre campus coming in at only the 27th ugliest in the world.
As JSOM III sprouts its towering glass windows and the new Student Union takes shape as the single largest modern behemoth on campus, Comets may find themselves looking at the concrete pancake that is Hoblitzelle Hall and wondering how we got here.
In 1961, the founders of Texas Instruments established the Graduate Research Center of the Southwest to recruit homegrown Texas talent. Comets will recognize the last names of GRCSW’s early leaders as they decorate many of our buildings around campus: McDermott, Green, Berkner, Jonsson and more.
The architecture of college campuses, like all buildings, is a product of their history. For example, we can trace the origins of university courtyards to the construction of commons in monasteries. In UTD’s case, the university’s focus on innovation and STEM research has shaped it from day one.
Professor of Art and Architectural History Charissa Terranova sits as the Margaret M. McDermott Distinguished Chair in Art and Aesthetic Studies. Terranova described UTD as a layered collection of contemporary architectural styles that is unlike most retrospective campus architecture.
“The harmony of the campus is the fact that the ethos, or the spirit, is modern and in the future.” Terranova said. “In comparison to SMU, for example, it is looking towards the future and the present, but not the past.”
One of the most prominent architectural styles present at UTD, especially in its older buildings, is brutalism. Characterized by large shapes and rough concrete surfaces, brutalism emerged after WWII and was most prevalent in institutional buildings like schools. Terranova identified the Erik Jonsson Academic Center, also known as JO, to be one of UTD’s clearest examples of brutalist architecture.
The harmony of the campus is the fact that the ethos, or the spirit, is modern and in the future.
— Charissa Terranova, professor of art and architectural history
Brutalism has its appeal, but it can easily create dull, concrete jungles. Luckily, landscape architect Peter Walker was recruited by the university in 2008 to beautify the campus. You can thank Walker for the iconic magnolia tree walkway and most of UTD’s current landscaping.
A common trend among the Comets we interviewed was their fondness for these green additions. After all, there’s a reason the magnolia trees feature in just about every UTD graduation photo and most LinkedIn profile pictures.
“The thing that makes campus feel most alive is all the plants,” mechanical engineering sophomore Jayne McGovern said.
According to Terranova, Walker’s work acts as an architectural “spinal column” that supports the transition between UTD’s earlier brutalism to its current contemporary Silicon Valley-esque style. These 21st century, post-Gilded Age buildings include the Edith O’Donnell Arts & Technology building and continue to reflect UTD’s commitment to innovation and technology.
Senior Curator of University Archives Thomas Allen oversees materials related to UTD’s history. Allen said that Walker’s landscape architecture had the additional effect of making campus more of a student community rather than a collection of research labs. For a school that had only begun accepting undergraduate students starting in the 1990s, this was especially important.
“It was a conscious attempt to give the campus a central heart that would be more conducive to students being out-and-about rather than being this vast, empty swath of open space with angular buildings.” Allen said.
Even so, Allen said that the combination of UTD’s early focus on advanced research remains a permanent aspect of the university.
This identity comes through in not just the overall aesthetic of campus, but also specific architectural installations. For example, the giant patterned blue rectangle on the outside of the Science Learning Center illustrates the process of gel electrophoresis — a method of separating DNA samples.
“It’s nice having those nods to some of the research-based strengths that UTD is known for,” biomedical sciences sophomore Sweedal Dsouza said. “I’d love to see more elements like that on campus.”
However, even if UTD’s newer buildings may seem like a departure from brutalism’s rough textures, Terranova says that our campus still utilizes concrete in a way that is ill-suited to DFW’s intense heat.
“I love the Crow Museum. But the plaza underneath it and going out to the street is all concrete,” Terranova said. “Giant slabs of concrete like that are not good for this environment. The earth has to breathe. Water has to go into the earth and to the aquifers. When we pave over the earth, we do ourselves a disservice because we create these little microclimates that heat the temperature up.”
If our campus is able to grow without disregarding the natural world around it, UTD could become a truly special collection of modern architecture. It may also protect its students from burning in Texas’ increasingly scorching summers and give graduating seniors a larger selection of photo shoot locations.
Terranova says that taking this path involves remembering the true purpose of university campuses: to foster an environment of human connection and learning.
“University campuses around the country and around the world are modeled to feel like an oasis, a cohesive community environment for humans to feel humanized rather than dehumanized,” Terranova said.
As UTD pushes full steam ahead with new construction every year, we will witness first-hand its architecture evolve from one building to the next. Even so, UTD will forever be a product of Texas Instruments’ vision of the future — an identity that Comets can sense in each and every establishment on campus.
Hopefully, Complex will one day recognize all of UTD’s unique architectural layers and take us off the Ugliest College Campuses list once and for all.
“There’s nothing wrong with having an eclectic campus,” Terranova said. “We don’t need uniformity. We just need connection.”