Campus Expansion and Approaching Princeton Via Washington Road

The article on the expanding campus prompted me to reflect on my experiences approaching the campus from Washington Road, which, arguably, is the main way to reach the campus.

The first time I came to Princeton by car was in September 1964, when I was about to start my year as a qualifying graduate student in the School of Architecture. Between Exit 9 on the New Jersey Turnpike and the Washington Road traffic circle, Route 1 had little roadside development. The Washington Road intersection with Route 1 was distinctive, having a symmetrical group of four gas stations, one on each corner.

The cluster of four gas stations seemed somewhat incongruous to be the entrance to a great institution. When we turned right on Washington Road, however, the vibe abruptly changed as we drove past grassland with stately rows of elms on both sides of the road.

I left Princeton after that academic year, and did not return until 1970, when I became a graduate student. For the next three years, I commuted daily to the School of Architecture via Washington Road. The gas stations were still there, as were most of the stately elms, but work had started on dredging Lake Carnegie, and berms were constructed on the south side of Washington Road to hold the sludge.

Cutting to today, in 2012 we returned to the area, and I began to use Washington Road again. Only one of the gas stations was still pumping gas and two others have been demolished. The experience of approaching the campus via Washington Road had evolved. The north side sprouted athletic fields and parking. The south side added a muddy intersection midway between Route 1 and the canal, with industrial-type buildings peeking above a low berm. Today, the north side features seemingly random development including undistinguished housing for graduate students and a huge parking garage so ashamed of itself that it wears a veil.

There are a couple of points to this story. First, that Washington Road is, in architect-speak, a major “ceremonial” entrance to the campus and often frames the first exposure to Princeton. Second, we can’t freeze the campus into the past. I am not advocating keeping Washington Road as it was. However, planning for the West Windsor campus should consider how visitors to the main campus see this one-kilometer section of Washington Road and work to make future development and landscaping there more consistent and emblematic of the University, including while it is still a work in progress.