Download Robert Adam: The Design for Edinburgh University The building we

Robert Adam: The Design for Edinburgh University
The building we know today as Old College has been through a long and extremely
slow development process to arrive at its present status as one of Edinburgh’s prime
architectural landmarks, only recently completed with landscaping of the interior
courtyard in 2011. The building of Old College began over 200 years ago in 1791,
but the history of the University of Edinburgh on this site dates back to its founding in
1583. The site before Robert Adams plan for the new building in 1789 was nothing
but a random collection of old buildings just inside of the Flodden wall, Horse Wynd
skirting its west side and leaving the walls at Potterrow, College Wynd leading up the
steep hill from the Cowgate to the main entrance. Robert Adam always had
aspirations to plan monumentally large town schemes, for which rarely any
opportunity arose for him.
One such opportunity did arise though, in 1785, with the announcement of plans to
build South Bridge, completing the north – south axis of the city’s new infrastructure
developments. The 1785 South Bridge act also links the re-building of the college
site to the scheme, which was planned by the University anyway in the 1760s, a
single set of trustees were appointed to undertake both projects collectively.1 As a
clear opportunity the appointment as architect for South Bridge had prospects to
move on to the College design, Adam pushed himself forward to be architect for the
trustees. Unfortunately, probably due to Adams overly eager approach to the South
Bridge scheme, his proposals were rejected, but in 1789 the projects were split and
a new set of trustees were established for the re-building of the University.
There is no official brief for the project and was most likely communicated to Adam
personally by the principal William Robertson. Robertson was the first to propose the
rebuilding of the university in the 1760s with the plan to rebuild over the original
buildings on the quadrangular site, provide all the functions necessary for a
University and accommodate apartments for the professors.2 Adam’s plans from
1789 respond to these requirements in a very sophisticated manner with a large
scheme that would take up the whole historic footprint of the University, at a scale
that would make it the largest public building in Scotland. Adams original plan
consisted of two courtyards within a closed quadrangle of buildings entered from the
east side, facing onto the new South Bridge. He responded to the awkward site
conditions by using the slope of the site to his advantage, creating an impressive
journey through the building to the great court at the end. The first court would be
entered through a triple archway, giving access to the professor’s houses which
were planned to occupy the east and north sides of the first court. Originally there
1
2
Fraser, A.G (London, 1989) The Building of Old College page 51
Fraser, A.G (London, 1989) The Building of Old College page 89
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were meant to be only three of these houses; one for the Principal, one for the
Professor of Divinity and another for the librarian. However, Adam altered the design
after the librarian, (Adams nephew) Andrew Dalzel requested in a letter that the
other professors, who had residence within the college before, should receive
apartments in the new building also, warning that “the allowing of only three houses
will be apt to create much ill blood… the scale of the three houses which you
mention is I am afraid by far too magnificent”3 Adam changed this section of the plan
following his nephews advice, squeezing seven apartments into the first court.
The journey then moved up through the separating block, housing the chapel on the
second floor, and into the Great Court - giving access to the academic halls and
lecture theatres. The entire building was planned to have four storeys; the basement:
on street level on the north side and submerged as the slope rose to the south, the
first floor: on level with the raised great court, the second floor, and the attic: “an
unobtrusive row of windows peeping out just below the roofline.”4
In the first court the houses covered all four storeys, entered by a stairway up to the
first floor, they were arranged so that the public rooms were on the entrance level
with the bedrooms above and the kitchen below. 5 The grand court was intended to
be surrounded by the teaching rooms and public halls on all four sides, linked up by
curved corners, arcaded on the first floor and with an Ionic colonnade on the second
– providing a system of corridors that ran the perimeter of the courtyard on both
levels. Classrooms and lecture theatres were all designed with the subject in mind,
providing an adequate layout for the specific teaching and access to preparation and
store rooms. The greatest example of this is the Anatomy theatre placed in the northwest corner of the great court, one of the sections of the Adam design that was
actually built. This was designed in an octagonal form, to centre all the students on
the dissection table in the centre, and with a skylight above to focus the light in. As
for access to teaching material, the anatomy theatre was fitted with its own
‘subterraneous passage’ passing under North College Street to a private yard on the
other side,6 a somewhat dark addition to the architecture, clearly seen as a necessity
to education despite the backstreet nature of the business. Another similar plan of
Adams for the agriculture department, involved a subterranean passage from the
middle of the north side, passing under the street to an external agriculture building.
This however wasn’t built due to lack of funds.
The journey through the two courtyards terminated at the great hall, situated in the
west building of the great court. This was to be entered through a three bay arcade,
providing grand centrepiece to the interior façade of the great court. The arcade was
flanked by an arched window on either side, above these on the first floor were
pedimented windows, sandwiching between them three Venetian windows in
3
Fraser, A.G (London, 1989) The Building of Old College page 109
Fraser, A.G (London, 1989) The Building of Old College page 106
5
Fraser, A.G (London, 1989) The Building of Old College page 110
6
Fraser, A.G (London, 1989) The Building of Old College page 114
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relieving arches. These windows were to be set between single Corinthian columns,
and pilasters for the flanking bay windows. On the roof, Adam intended to have
ornamental sculptures on the end of each bay, with a balustrade parapet running
across the central bays.7 This façade design would have certainly given a grand
stature to the great court, but it couldn’t have taken away from the even more
magnificent design for the East block façade, the pride and joy of the university,
symbolising the whole endeavour to beautify the College for the modern age. The
triple archway entering from South Bridge is a “magnificent version of a Roman
triumphant arch embedded in the façade”8 This was to be framed by Doric porticoes,
for which six colossal columns were required, each cut out of a single piece of stone.
These columns, which were actually built (unlike most of the ornamental items cut
due to costs) truly showed the wonderful effect that can be achieved by opting for
bespoke materials over cost cutting, William Creech claiming they were “not to be
equalled in Britain.”9 Above the columns Adam designed a frieze carved with
encircled ox skulls alternating with a floral design. This ox skull design was also to be
used above windows of the houses in the first court. Above this, in the centre, is a
“lunette window in a relieving arch”10 with a pedimented window on either side.
Above the attic level are three panels, the centre panel contains a Latin inscription
mentioning Robert Adam as the architect, “the other two panels are decorated with
swags; Adam’s drawing shows a unicorn over one swag panel and a sphinx over the
other.”11 These sculptures were intended to sit either side of the domed turret that
Adam planned for above the main entrance.
Construction of this design for the College began in 1991, intended to be completed
in stages in order to continue teaching in the old buildings and move the classes into
the new build as each part was completed. This began with the north-west block
containing the anatomy theatre and the front East block, the Icon of the new
University. Only the north-west section was completed and in use by Adams death in
1792. James Adam, his younger brother, filled in until his own death in 1794 by
which time the construction came crashing to a halt. The trustees’ funds had run out
due to inflation and taxation caused by the Napoleonic wars. The building wasn’t
started on again until the end of the war in 1815, by which time a revised design was
an inevitable conclusion in order to carry the progress forward.12 In 1816 William
Playfair was selected as winner of the competition to carry on the construction,
owing to a revised simpler design, Playfair essentially kept most of Adams original
features, but any of the elaborate and expensive ornamentation that Adam planned
was cut from the design.
7
King, D. (Oxford, 2001) The complete works of Robert and James Adam page 56
Fraser, A.G (London, 1989) The Building of Old College page 330
9
Fraser, A.G (London, 1989) The Building of Old College page 116
10
King, D. (Oxford, 2001) The complete works of Robert and James Adam page 53
11
King, D. (Oxford, 2001) The complete works of Robert and James Adam page 54
12
Fraser, A.G (London, 1989) The Building of Old College page 122
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The immense detail and grandeur that Adam intended for the East façade, was most
certainly intended to relate to his rejected South bridge proposal. In his designs for
the South Bridge project in 1785 Adam seemingly got carried away with the chance
to design a monumental axis of the city, extending the scheme far past the allotted
boundary and planning a number of new public buildings. In the plot directly across
the street from the Old College entrance, Adam designed a great crescent intending
to house professors and provide public buildings like coffee houses and bookshops.
The crescent was just part of the plan for a picturesque University centre; the main
aspect of the design was that it focussed on the entrance and the grand façade of
the College. The crescent would have allowed for full views of the magnificent
building but alas, it didn’t happen, and Robert Adams finest public building could
never be appreciated in full sight as he intended.
“Adams solution for Edinburgh University was an original concept, tailored to the
specific site and institution, and one of the finest designs in his long and varied
career.”13 No precedents for a new University scheme of this scale existed and so
Adam was left to his own visionary skills as an architect to create the design which is
widely regarded as his best. Some parts of the design however show a clear
example of Baroque Rome’s influence on Adam, the curved corners of arcades and
colonnades in a courtyard form can be related to Italian town plans, whilst the
monumental crescent he proposed, as part of his vision for South bridge and the
University as a whole, can be clearly related to St.Peters square in Rome, with its
grand colonnaded walkways. Adams experience and visionary skill are what make
Old college a masterpiece of Scottish architecture, his perseverance through the
years despite many rejected schemes for Edinburgh didn’t put him off his aim, to
build on a monumental scale. It’s a shame in a way that Adam died just as his skill
as an architect was recognised by the city, and perhaps a city that would have been
quite different in form had Adam been recognised sooner.
13
Fraser, A.G (London, 1989) The Building of Old College page 107
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Bibliography
Fraser, A.G (London, 1989) The Building of Old College
King, D. (Oxford, 2001) The complete works of Robert and James Adam
Bryant, J. (London, 1992) Robert Adam Architect of Genius
MacInnes, R. (Oxford, 1993) Robert Adams Public Buildings, Robert Adam,
Architectural Heritage IV
Kay, W. (Oxford, 1993) Robert Adam: Some responses to a Scottish background,
Robert Adam, Architectural Heritage IV
Jamie Prendergast
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