Gothic for Now and Tomorrow

By LAWRENCE BIEMILLER

Memphis, Tenn.

Not many colleges have tried out more names than architectural styles. But Rhodes College, now on its seventh name, has been adamant about putting up only Collegiate Gothic buildings since 1925, when it moved here from Clarksville, Tenn. What really sets Rhodes apart, though, is that the Collegiate Gothic buildings it puts up are so good.

Its new library, at 136,000 square feet, could easily have been a big steel-framed box with a few purposeless Gothic details glued on — that's what many other institutions with Collegiate Gothic pretensions would have settled for. But the Rhodes library's considerable mass is broken up into a three-story main volume with tall bands of arched windows, a two-story wing that stretches east, and a cross-shaped two-story portion jutting out to the south. The building's size is further disguised by a handsome tower and a low, pleasing cloister that encloses a garden and leads to a vaulted entryway.