Artistry and Architecture: Coming Book Opens New Lens to Look at Campus

Chronicling a campus consists of the large challenge of capturing little-noticed details and unlooked-for landscapes.

A soon-to-be-released book,

University of Cincinnati|Architectural Transformation: Tradition and Innovation

, takes on that challenge in a series of rich images designed to compel the mind’s eye to refocus on the familiar and to reflect on the transformed – and transforming – campus environment.

The coffee-table book represents the years’ long work of Ohio photographer Robert Flischel, with text by New York architecture critic Jayne Merkel and UC historian Kevin Grace. Flischel was a long-time photographer and contributing editor with Ohio Magazine and has served as  contributing editor and photojournalist for a wide range of books and periodicals. His photos have appeared in Life, Time, The Smithsonian and National Geographic Traveler among others. Past major projects include photographic books on Cincinnati and on the Cincinnati Public Schools.

Said Flischel, “I began the UC project because I knew the university had a great, a remarkable story of transformation to tell. I knew the university from almost 30 years ago when I attended some night classes here. Then, it was a city college. Now, it’s a truly national one.”

He added that the last three years of shooting should count toward some sort of special master’s degree… perhaps one in phys-ed, since Flischel contended, “Photography is very physical, very demanding. For almost three years now, I’ve been here as early as 6:30 a.m. and sometimes till late into the evening, always calculating what would make for the best shot, especially after a cold weather front had moved through. Those always produce a dramatic edge of light in their wake. And that’s the time when a photographer needs to attack, attack, attack.”

“Needless to say,” he confessed, “I’m always obsessed with the next great shot. I’ll wake up in the middle of the night either convinced that I have – or horrified that I don’t have – the best of images possible.”

Readers will be able to decide that for themselves when University of Cincinnati|Architectural Transformation: Tradition and Innovation becomes available in local bookstores – including the university’s bookstore – this fall. A preview of a handful of images and text is currently available online.

While the book includes an overview of the UC campus, specific chapters focus on individual buildings, including

• Albert H. Vontz Center for Molecular Studies
• Baldwin Hall
• Braunstein Hall
• Campus Recreation Center
• Carl Blegen Library
• College-Conservatory of Music
• College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning
• College of Medicine
• Engineering Research Center
• Joseph A. Steger Student Life Center
• McMicken Hall
• Richard E. Lindner Varsity Village
• Tangeman University Center
• Teachers College
• University Pavilion
• Van Wormer Hall
• Wilson Auditorium

The remarkable photographs are offset by brief descriptions of each building, descriptions that incorporate little-known points regarding campus. For instance, McMicken Hall’s tower was inspired by one on the College of William and Mary campus, while Tangeman’s tower reflects on Independence Hall in Philadelphia. The symbolism was intentional: UC was to be a specifically American university.

• More information regarding UC's transformative Master Plan is available online.