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Moravian College • Preservation Master Plan
integrated into natural landscapes and sought to
create an intimate, family-like environment for the
students (Turner 1995:281-291).
Figure 3-27. Demolition of houses on east side of Monocacy
Street in 1966, prior to construction of Reeves Library (Moravian
College Archives).
college landholdings and Steel Field, creating a safe
connection between these two areas and forming a
unified athletic zone. At the Church Street campus,
a 60-car parking lot was created in 1967, eliminating
part of the former Pleasure Grounds. In more recent
times, an entire block of row houses on Otis Place
(figure 3-28) was removed in 1991 to make way for
the Breidegam Field House (Schamberger 2008,
personal communication; Weinlick 1977:38-39,107-
111).
Although modernism initially rejected many of the
traditional design patterns and planning tactics
used for historic campuses, by the 1960s elements
of traditionalism were creeping back. Postmodern
historicism in design and increased attention to
planning around existing campus components
came back into vogue. Postmodernist thought
encouraged the re-exploration and reinterpretation
of past building and planning traditions. New
design was meant to echo elements of the old, but
not the more superficial decorations. Paul Rudolph
and Eero Saarinen were among the first architects to
engage in this new thinking, and used it in designs
at Wellesley and Yale. Architectural compatibility
between new buildings and old buildings became
increasingly important to enhance the overall
continuity of the campus. Postmodernism coincided
with the rise of the historic preservation movement
of the 1960s, but also came at a time of new
financial threats to colleges nationwide. Declining
populations of students and the energy crisis in the
1970s spelled an end to the explosive growth and
funding of the 1940s-1960s, and forced campuses to
plan more conservatively than before. Alternatives
to erecting new buildings were considered more
seriously, particularly the adaptive reuse or
repurposing of existing buildings. This coincided
with the creation of federal environmental and
historic preservation laws and a newfound respect
for the built environment of the past. Renovation
and restoration of historic campus buildings
became a key component of campus planning
(Turner 1995:294-305).
Moravian: A Postmodern Vocabulary
Figure 3-28. These row houses on Otis Place, between
Rau-Hassler dorms and Johnston Hall, were eventually removed
to make way for Breidegam Field House (Moravian College
Archives).
3.6 Postmodernism
The utopian visions of the 1960s and early 1970s
generated a return to the Jeffersonian concept of a
college as an academic village. New dormitories and
building complexes sought ways to reinforce and
stimulate community among those who inhabited
them. These village buildings were often carefully
At Moravian, postmodernism arrived earlier than
in most places, appearing as early as the 1950s.
Johnston Hall, designed by George Trautwein
and completed in 1952, clearly evoked the historic
Moravian buildings of downtown Bethlehem with
its stone façade and mock buttresses (figure 3-29).
Though it was in most ways a modern gymnasium,
its outer envelope directly referenced Bethlehem’s
eighteenth-century architecture. Similarly, many of
the new dormitories constructed in the 1960s and
1970s for the growing student body were modern
in form but designed to be compatible with the
local vernacular (figure 3-30). Although their overall
plans were typical of dormitories of their era, they
John Milner Associates • October 2009 • Chapter 3 • College Context • 48