Vanderbilt University

Campus

Located approximately 1.5 miles (2.4 km) west of downtown Nashville, the university occupies a park-like campus. It has an area of 330 acres (134 hectares), though this figure includes large tracts of sparsely used land in the southwest part of the main campus, as well the medical center. The original academic quad is approximately 30 acres (12 ha) in area.

Related Topics:
Mile - Km - Nashville - Acre - Hectare

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Click here for to see a campus map.

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Layout

The Vanderbilt campus is roughly fan-shaped (with the point at the corner of West End and 21st Avenues) and divisible into six sections. In the northeast corner of the campus (the "base" of the fan) is the original campus with the Mr. and Mrs. Henry S. Foote home, the only campus building that existed before the University was founded. The first college buildings, including Kirkland Hall, were erected here in the 1870s, 1880s, and 1890s. This section stretches from West End Avenue south to the Stevenson Center and west from 21st Avenue to Alumni Lawn. The majority of the buildings of the arts and humanities departments of the College of Arts and Science, as well as the facilities of the Law School, Owen, and the Divinity School, are located in the original campus. Additionally, the Jean and Alexander Heard Memorial Library and Sarratt Student Center/Rand Hall can be found on the original campus.

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Flanking the original campus to the south (and separating it from the Medical Center) are the sprawling Stevenson Center for the Natural Sciences (housing all science and math departments of the College of Arts and Science, save for psychology, and several departments of the School of Engineering) and the School of Engineering complex (Jacobs Hall-Featheringill Hall).

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The Vanderbilt University Medical Center takes up the southeastern part of the campus. Besides the various associated hospitals and clinics and the facilities of the schools of Medicine and Nursing, the Medical Center also houses many research facilities.

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Directly across 21st Avenue from the Medical Center, the campus of Peabody College stands almost with itself. In fact, prior to 1979, Peabody College was an institution independent of Vanderbilt. Due to separate histories, the Peabody Campus is designed radically differently from the original campus. Whereas the original campus has a semi-organic design, the Peabody campus is designed geometrically, recalling the Jeffersonian style of the University of Virginia to the informed observer.

Related Topics:
Jeffersonian - University of Virginia

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Arboretum

The oldest part of the Vanderbilt campus is renowned for its abundance of three and greenspace. Considering the campus is surrounded by the cityscape of urban Nashville, this can be considered a remarkable feat. At least one specimen of every tree that is indigenous to the state of Tennessee is certified to grow on campus.. One tree, between Buttrick Hall and Garland Hall, is known to predate the American Revolution.

Related Topics:
Tennessee - American Revolution

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The main (original) campus was designated as a national arboretum in 1988, a status which the University does not take lightly. One interesting consequence of this designation which any visitor to the campus will quickly notice is length to which trees on campus are protected. Signs posted to the trees by various student groups are actually bound to the trees with wire instead of being nailed to them, as it is illegal to cause damage to any tree on a national arboretum.

Related Topics:
Arboretum - 1988

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