Adding Modern Amenities to Old Buildings Raises Ire at Cambridge

Any facilities administrator or campus architect who has had to add ramps, elevators, heating-and-cooling systems, and other modern features to grand old college buildings will appreciate this article. The Guardian reports on controversies at Britain’s venerable universities, as officials try to balance modern additions with historical sensitivity.

At the University of Cambridge’s Old Schools, people noticed a hole in the floor of the Regent House Combination Room and wondered if maintenance people were fixing the pipes or somesuch. When they found out the university was putting in an elevator, they were appalled.

“It is historically the most important room in the universities of the English-speaking world. It is the cradle of Cambridge’s democracy, our Westminster Hall,” said Anthony Edwards, a fellow of Caius College. “Nothing will persuade me that this would not, in its effect, be a substantial alteration to the most precious room in the university. It would destroy the symmetry of that beautiful room.”

A colleague added, none too kindly, “It looks a bit like a French public loo.”

The newspaper’s reporter, Rachel Williams, points out that the elevator is required by British disabilities-access laws. But the tension between historic consistency and modern values are many. The new focus on green buildings provides its share of challenges, as does outfitting buildings for technology. Historic buildings, as one source puts it, are “both an asset and a liability.”