The Calvin University Architectural History Exhibition showcases the work of late architect Bill Fyfe, who completed his design of Calvin’s Knollcrest Campus in 1959.
The exhibition, located in the Center Art Gallery, features old photos, models and original designs of the campus. One wall provides a history of Calvin’s campuses, from the second floor of a school building in the center of Grand Rapids to the continued development of Knollcrest. Another area displays plans that never came to fruition, with one sheet of the 1959 master plan depicting six potential dorm buildings on the east side of East Beltline.
Fyfe graduated from Yale University School of Architecture in 1932 and then apprenticed under the acclaimed architect Frank Lloyd Wright at the Taliesin Fellowship. There, Wright instilled Fyfe with the idea of organic architecture, which Fyfe described as “working with, rather than against the landscape,” according to the exhibition.
Art history professor Craig Hanson, alongside his student researchers, put the exhibition together as part of a research project. “Gabbie Eisma [assistant curator] has done an amazing job curating the exhibition. It is the second installment in a series of shows aimed at better understanding the history of this extraordinary campus. Crucial to the legacy of Frank Lloyd Wright — as mediated through the master planning of Bill Fyfe from the 1950s through the 1980s — is the idea that architecture is best conceived in relation to living landscapes. As Wright would have it, architecture should be organic,” says Hanson.
The construction of Knollcrest Campus began with Calvin’s purchase of the Knollcrest Farm in 1956. University president at the time, William Spoelhof was a visionary who saw the need for a new campus due to overcrowding and imagined a “modern and culturally-engaged Christian liberal arts campus,” as stated in the exhibit. The transition from the Franklin Campus to the Knollcrest Campus lasted over a decade and was completed in 1973.
Eisma described Spoelhof’s vision as an ode to Modernism, where “form followed function.” She described this modernist style as characterized by “clean lines, open spaces and an honest expression of structure.” It portrayed how Spoelhof hoped students and the campus would interact.
The exhibition also includes a 1991 film interview with Fyfe in which he discusses his philosophy regarding the architecture of the current campus. He was committed to Wright’s principle of organic architecture, reasoning that “A great deal of the appeal of this campus … is the natural setting.” Fyfe desired a residential quality for the academic buildings, as he felt an institutional design was intimidating. For the science building, he implemented a different style, which he described as economical, bare-bones, utilitarian and functional.
In the interview, Fyfe also acknowledged that the campus will never be complete and will continue to adapt. At the time of the interview, the construction of the top floor of Hiemenga Hall was still in the planning phase. Prizing the natural setting of Knollcrest, Fyfe’s deepest wish for the campus was that no building would be added to the central area of campus, today known as Knollcrest Lawn.
Brent Williams, director of exhibitions, shared that students might find it “interesting to see the ways that campus has changed as it has grown, been remodeled and reimagined. I encourage gallery visitors to search for things in the drawings that were dreamed up, but did not happen.”
The Calvin University Architectural History Exhibition is available for viewing through Saturday, Feb. 21. Calvin students can also look forward to future exhibits this semester, including the work of Scott Erickson in the form of large-scale installations, poetry prompts and more from March 2 to April 18.
