The UCLA campus sits north of Westwood Village on a 419-acre area. The university was founded in 1882 in downtown Los Angeles, but moved to the Westwood site in 1925 not long after becoming an accredited state school. Early campus planners were inspired by the hillside setting and the Southern California climate, designing 40 cinnamon-colored brick and stone buildings in the Romanesque style of northern Italy. UCLA today is the largest of the University of California’s schools, enrolling close to 40,000 students a year.[1]
Attractions
Mathias Botanical Garden
The Mathias Botanical Garden at 405 Hilgard Avenue is a bucolic seven-acre garden of redwoods and fern groves.[2] It was established in 1930 and now features about 4,000 species of tropical and subtropical plants.[3]
Royce Hall
Royce Hall crowns the highest point on the campus, Royce Quadrangle, a spacious plaza surrounded all around by Italian-themed structures – among the university’s oldest buildings. Royce Hall was designed to pay tribute to the Basilica of San Ambrogio in Milan. Inside, there are classrooms as well as a theatre seating more than 1,800 people.
The library inside, Powell Library, has an octagonal dome modeled after the San Sepolcro in Bologna and an entranceway that mimics that of the Church of San Zenove in Verona. The interior is terra-cotta-tiled with ornate ceilings above. The highlight of the Royce Quadrangle might well be Pauley Pavilion, the 12,500 seat arena and home of the UCLA basketball team. The heart of Royce, however, is the 6-foot high, 10-foot long Bruin Bear, a two-ton bronze statue of the university’s symbol and mascot.[4]
UCLA Fowler Cultural Museum
The UCLA Fowler Cultural Museum is open all year and is housed in a three-story brick building. It is one of the nation’s leading university-based museums of anthropology. It features the Francis E. Fowler Jr. Collection of Silver, a permanent display of hundreds of silver objects around the world. There are other galleries that display more than 750,000 art and artifacts, including Southeast Asian textiles, African objects, and Latin American art.[5]
Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden
The Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden is at the intersection of Wyton Drive and Hilgard Avenue, the campus’ northeast corner. The garden, encompassing five acres, showcases more than 70 works by such leading sculptors as Rodin, Hepworth, Matisse, Calder, Moore, and Noguchi. The garden’s Wight Art Gallery also has a changing visual arts exhibit.[6]
References:
Dickey, Jeff. Los Angeles, 3rd Edition. Rough Guides, 2003. ISBN: 1843530589.
Michelin Travel Publications. California. Greenville: Michelin Travel Publications, 2001. ISBN: 2060001315.
[1] Michelin, 164
[2] Dickey, 120
[3] Michelin, 165
[4] Id. at 164-65
[5] Id. at 165
[6] Id.
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