Yale will not demolish Divinity School buildings

JOHN YI/YH The Divinity School's rear buildings are saved.

Following the destruction of Maple Cottage this summer, many preservationists feared the deteriorating buildings of the Divinity School would be the next to go. But on Tues., Sept. 14, Yale announced that it would not demolish the rear buildings of the Divinity School. Instead, the University will implement a $38 million renovation plan, which calls for moving classes to the Sterling Divinity Quadrangle, and leaving the four rear buildings intact but empty.

The rather unexpected announcement pleased the coalition of preservationists who had mounted strong opposition to Yale's previous plans throughout the year. A group of Divinity School alumni and faculty members had sued Yale for mismanagement of endowment money last year, and lost both the original case and the appeal. Architecture professor Vincent Scully, JE '40, GRD '49, felt so strongly about the architectural value of the Divinity School's present layout that he said he would consider resigning if the University tore down the buildings. "I'm so relieved that I don't have to stop teaching," Scully said.

"We still think the original plan was excellent, but the benefit was just not worth the cost of spending years in litigation and controversy," University President Richard Levin, GRD '74, said. Preservationists were planning a new lawsuit based on historic preservation, and Yale feared critical media attention. So, in July, they asked Kliment and Halsband, the architects who had come up with the original plans for the school, to come up with new plans that would allow the rear buildings to stay intact. "We kept our alternate plans very close, because the subject was a big magnet for media coverage," Levin said.

Yale plans to leave the rear buildings intact but empty, since the cost of renovating their interiors, Levin said, "would be millions more dollars—those buildings need total work." As it is, the new plan will cost $2.5 million more than the original plan. Levin says the University is funding $20.5 million of the cost of the renovation through gifts, and the rest through a debt issue; they still need to find about $6 million from donors.

The Divinity School had been in dire need of renovation, not only because of severely dilapidated buildings, but also because of the changing demographics of their students. The dorms had originally been built for a young, male population; the Divinity School is now co-ed, and many are married, making the austere dorm rooms unpopular. After renovations, all the classrooms and offices will be relocated to where the dorms are now, encouraging community interaction. "Nearly all the Divinity School students see the virtue of moving the classes up to the front," Levin said. "And those buildings really are falling apart."

Back to News...