University of Oregon Campus Map: A Comprehensive Guide

The University of Oregon campus, situated in Eugene, Oregon, encompasses approximately 80 buildings and facilities. These include athletic venues like Hayward Field, the site of the 2008 Olympic Track and Field Trials, and McArthur Court. Off-campus sites include Autzen Stadium and the Riverfront Research Park. The Campus Map, published by the Location Innovation Lab, allows users to virtually explore the University of Oregon. Users can move between UO campuses, go inside buildings, search for points of interest, and use map apps to find resources.

Historical Overview

The University of Oregon campus officially opened in Eugene on October 16, 1876. It was built on an 18-acre former wheat field purchased from Reverend J. H. D. Henderson. Henderson's land was originally part of Hilyard Shaw's donation land claim. Construction on the first campus building, Deady Hall (named in 1893), began but was not completed until 1877. Classes began on the building's first floor amidst the sounds of ongoing construction. Judge Joshua J. Walton, who organized the Union University Association responsible for establishing the university, continued to keep his cattle on the property even after classes started. He later erected a fence to separate his cattle from the students.

Financial difficulties plagued the university from its inception. In 1881, the Oregon Supreme Court ruled that the campus could be sold to settle the university's debts. The court also determined that the transfer of campus property from the Union University Association to the university's board of directors in 1873, and subsequently to the Board of Regents in 1876, was intended to defraud the university's creditors. Henry Villard, president of the Northern Pacific Railway, prevented the sale of the campus by personally paying off many of the debts. He later established a $50,000 endowment.

Surviving Buildings from the Inception Era

Several buildings from the early days of the campus, sometimes called the old-campus era, have survived. These include a dormitory and a library. Friendly Hall, constructed in 1893 and named in 1915 for Sampson H. Friendly, an early donor and founding member of the Board of Regents, originally served as a dormitory but was converted into classrooms in 1928. Although the university library had been housed in various locations, a dedicated library building was constructed in 1906 and named in 1938 for a donor, Judge William D. Knight. The university purchased Collier House from physics professor George Collier in 1896. Constructed in 1886, shortly before Villard Hall, it became the second oldest building on campus. The purchase of Collier House included a barn that was converted to classroom space and used as an observatory.

The Lawrence and Cuthbert Era (1914-1946)

Ellis F. Lawrence joined the university in 1914 as the campus planner and created the first campus master plan that year. The plan was based on a formal design of buildings around a quadrangle. Lawrence quadrangles were open spaces with elements of formal gardens, unlike the Old Campus Quadrangle, which was a casual collection of buildings designed by several architects. Lawrence also designed the buildings, as agreed in his contract with the university. He became the university's architect in 1915 and founded the architecture school. Between 1916 and 1937, Lawrence designed and built 25 buildings at the university.

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Lawrence arrived during a time when Gothic Revival architecture was fashionable on some college campuses. It was trendy to design campus buildings in the style of the University of Oxford, making them appear historic. However, Lawrence resisted the copy-Oxford fashion and designed in various other styles, often influenced by his Beaux-Arts training. He also combined styles with ease. Frederick A. Cuthbert joined the university in 1932 as the landscape architect and later headed the landscape architecture department. In 1940, Cuthbert designed formal entrance gates to the university, including a motorway that would lead visitors past the old campus area to the new Memorial Quadrangle. Lawrence and Cuthbert defined the campus of the University of Oregon more than any other planners.

Post-World War II Expansion

After World War II, enrollment at the university increased dramatically, partly due to the G.I. Bill, a federal education subsidy. This mid-century era is characterized by dormitory construction. Unlike the previous era, which relied on the design skills of a single architect trained in the Beaux-Arts style, the new era awarded contracts to many architects. European Modernism, with its simple forms and absence of decoration, was a predominant style.

The Oregon Experiment

The university is known for being the site of a pioneering participatory planning experiment known as the Oregon Experiment, which is also the subject of a book of the same name.

Campus Trees

The university community has a longstanding interest in campus trees. A "Biological Map of the University of Oregon Campus" was prepared in 1913. In 1975, Kenneth W. Knapp, a former landscape architecture student, published an inventory of trees on campus. The work featured a numerical, abbreviated coding system offered by George Carroll, a professor of biology, that included the family, genus, and species of each tree on campus. The work also identified each tree on an indexed set of 53 campus maps provided by the Physical Plant, a forerunner of Campus Operations. Carroll suggested that 59 families of trees could exist in the campus climate, and Knapp identified trees from a subset of 40 families already growing on campus. Knapp's research was important for two reasons. The placement and nurture of campus trees had already become central to the emerging pattern language of campus planning, a critical part of the Oregon Experiment. In the 1990s, campus planners developed a new inventory of trees. They adopted an alphabetical coding system practiced by the International Association for Plant Taxonomy. They also created a database to include all available information about individual trees. They found 71 families of trees, 537 species, and 3908 individual specimens located across 117 campus maps. Parts of the database were published as the University of Oregon Atlas of Trees in 1996.

Digital Campus Map Features

The Campus Map, published by the Location Innovation Lab, enables virtual exploration of the University of Oregon. Key features include:

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Inter-campus Navigation: Users can seamlessly move between different University of Oregon campuses.
Building Interiors: The map allows users to virtually enter buildings and view individual rooms. To enter a building and see individual rooms, select the person with door icon. For room-level information, go inside the building and click on a room.
Point of Interest Search: Users can easily search for specific points of interest on campus.
Map Apps: The map integrates with various map apps to provide access to resources and tools. Turn on map apps from the main menu. Some map apps are available across multiple campuses while others are specific to a single location. Set a list of favorite apps by selecting the heart icon.
Interactive Pop-up Windows: Clicking or tapping on the map reveals pop-up windows with detailed information about the selected location.
Personalized Class Maps: My Class Map is personalized with a student's current course schedule at the start of each term. Each class is mapped to the room-level. The map updates in the middle of term to the locations of final exams.
Building-Level Details: Building-level details and downloadable maps are available by selecting a building.
Public Map Apps: Public map apps identify resources, historical information, and tools.

City Prints

A variety of finishing options are available for City Prints of the campus map. Each print is printed on high-quality 105# Stardream Pearlescent Paper.

Framing Options:

Black Polystyrene Frame: The size of this frame will vary depending on the size of the map you created. Frames are 16.5â³ x 16.5â³ for 12â³ x 12â³ prints and frames are 16.5â³ x 20.5â³ for 12â³ x 16â³ maps. Frames have a black 2.75â wide heavy polystyrene molding. The prints are mounted without a glass/acrylic overlay, which shows off the unique properties of the paper stock when it hits the light. The back of the frame is sealed with a dust cover for added protection.
Black Wood Frame with Mat and Acrylic: The size of this frame will vary depending on the size of the map you created. Frames are 23â³ x 23â³ for 12â³ x 12â³ prints and frames are 15.75â³ x 19.75â³ for 12â³ x 16â³ maps. Both frames have a black 1.75â wide genuine-wood molding. The print is enhanced with a soft white acid-free mat, which is bevel cut and placed on top of the print. The print and matt are protected by a premium crystal-clear acrylic overlay. The back of the frame is sealed with a dust cover for added protection.

Canvas Options:

Canvas sizes vary depending on the size of the map. Canvas are 30â³ x 30â³ or 14" x 14" for square maps and canvases are 30â³ x 40â³ or 14â³ x 18â³ for rectangular maps. Prints are directly printed on high-quality canvas, then stretched the image over heavy gauge 1.5â³-deep wood stretcher bars.

Important Note: All City Prints are printed on demand and are not eligible for return. However, the products are fully guaranteed, and efforts will be made to ensure customer satisfaction.

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