Re-laying the foundation: then and now
’90s construction creates same look as ’20s, but incites
different reaction
By Michael Howerton
The noises of construction  crews yelling to each other,
trucks beeping and metal and brick clanging  compete with
lectures in the classrooms and students’ conversations on
campus.
New walls and detours appear daily as students try to get to
class amid the floating dust and banging beat of the construction
work. Preparing UCLA for the future has made it look very much like
the past.
Nearly 70 years after construction on the Westwood campus began
in 1927, construction is again the dominating theme at UCLA, the
dominating thought in the minds of many.
"It sucks," said chemistry and material science junior Josh
Bar-Lev, referring to the construction on campus. "I hate that we
are stuck in narrow corridors and poking each other with umbrellas.
There is too much under construction at once."
Frustrations with the current construction parallel those of the
first students on campus, who also walked by Royce Hall surrounded
by the sight of scaffolding and the sounds of construction.
However, in contrast to the sentiments of today’s Bruins, an
anonymous graduate of the class of 1930, preserved in the
university archives, expressed excitement in seeing new buildings
being created.
"(But) I must confess that my sharpest memory of UCLA’s first
years at Westwood, my senior year, was MUD; we walked in it up to
our knees," he added in the yearbook. "The ramshackle bungalows in
which most classrooms were housed had mud coming through the floor
boards. The permanent buildings had an almost permanent layer of
mud on the floor."
Despite the hassles, Sherman Grancell, also a 1930 graduate,
remembered no great hostility or annoyance toward the construction
by the student body.
"There was mud everywhere," Grancell said with a laugh in a
recent interview, "but when you are 18, 19 or 20 it is easy to
accommodate change."
Even though Royce Hall, now surrounded by scaffolding and piled
bricks, might not look so different from when Grancell carried
books past it on his way to class, he points out that it was a very
different campus then.
"You have to remember that only part of four buildings were
built," he said, "and each of these buildings had wings under
construction (while classes were held in adjacent wings). But it
did not bother us because it was all new."
UCLA was brought to the Westwood site from its previous campus
on Vermont Avenue in bits and pieces, all piled into a caravan of
student cars. Blanche Baker, a member of the class of 1928, said
she and her fellow students felt directly responsible for moving
the university to the current site.
"We were totally involved in getting the new university," Baker
said. "There was opposition to the move, but we worked to get the
bonds passed. We walked the beats and carried the signs. The
student body was small enough then for all to know about it and be
involved."
The student body was, in a way, part of the construction
crew.
"We all knew it was going to be a great university," said
Grancell, who still comes to campus a few times each week. "There
was a great deal to look forward to."
The feelings of involvement and having something at stake in the
campus development, which are so palpable in the words of Baker and
Grancell, seem to be less prevalent today on campus.
Instead, more students feel cheated at having to sacrifice some
of the student experience at UCLA now for the benefit of later
classes.
"It pisses me off that I won’t be able to enjoy the buildings as
a student," said Bar-Lev, who will graduate next year.
"This is my campus, but the dominant image I have of it is
construction."
Construction has an impact on students, agreed history senior
Jason Busby, while standing in the green fenced corridor between
Royce and Powell.
"It’s a beautiful campus where you can see it, but there are
very few buildings on campus that are not under construction or
behind green wire. It won’t be my most dominant memory (of UCLA),
but it does color my impression," he said, the sounds of
construction accompanying his words.
There has hardly been a time when construction has not
characterized the UCLA campus to some extent, said Grancell, who
has kept up with campus developments since graduating in 1930. It
is not so much the presence of construction today, but rather the
attitude toward it that he said is such a departure from the time
when he was a student.
"I’m sorry that students have mixed feelings about the
construction," he said. "The new facilities are part of campus
growth and improvement. I believe that there is something for
everyone on this campus, and it couldn’t be that way without the
growth. Growth is inevitable and it is great."
"The 75th year is an amazing accomplishment," continued Baker,
who has remained close to campus since graduating in 1928 and has
been involved in some of the campus celebrations this year. "I’m
not familiar with the campus anymore; it’s growing so fast that it
is hard to stay familiar with it.
"I remember when I was here every one knew each other. There was
something homey and friendly about the campus. We felt like it was
our campus," she said, adding that she wonders whether the
graduates of today will feel the same.
Busby, who will be graduating this year, takes issue with the
huge amount of construction all at once.
"It’s the fault of the government and administration," he said.
"They put it off too long and then the earthquake came and now it’s
all being done at once. The morale of the students is definitely
affected; it increases detachment to the campus."
But there are also those on campus today who see the necessity
behind the chaos of green fenced detours.
"It’s a pain in the butt for the students," agreed Mary Chaitt,
senior administration analyst, "but also for the faculty and
administration. The January quake was a wake-up call and now there
is a frenzy to get things up to code. We’re all in this
together."
The prospect of renovating the buildings while preserving their
outer appearance has been a challenge for the architects, said
Chaitt.
"There is a strong sense of pride in the campus heritage among
the administration," she said, "and the architects are acutely
aware of the need to preserve the right feel of the campus."
Protecting the look of the buildings necessitates bulldozing
inside and modernizing from the inside to the outer shell, an
arduous job for the planning and construction crews.
"Our concerns are seismic, safety and modernization. (But) we
want to preserve the history we have inherited," Chaitt said.
The first construction on campus began on Sept. 27, 1927, and
today some of the same buildings are back under construction. The
new bricks being laid today carry with them the same hopes that
created the buildings originally, hopes for a grand and illustrious
future for the university.
The new construction is necessary, said Chaitt, for UCLA to
remain one of the country’s top universities in the future.
"So that we never lose stride with the future, we have to always
change," she said.
"Out of their foundation they rose," wrote the Alumni
Association in a 1937 yearbook, looking back at the construction of
the first buildings on campus.
"First covered with scaffolding, then with the warm red-brown
colors of the brick and tile and terra-cotta of their facing.
Cement and lumber, brick and steel said the specifications, but
also built into these great temples of learning were hope and
courage, faith and resolution. Born of an improbable dream,
nurtured by a great need, the new California of the Southland was
emerging, the tangible realization of all that had been hoped and
fought for."
Grancell has seen his son and granddaughter graduate from UCLA.
He is neither surprised nor dismayed by all the development on
campus, but merely considers it and says, "The beat goes on."