| Killian Court | |
|---|---|
 The court in 2008 | |
 | |
| General information | |
| Town or city | Cambridge, Massachusetts |
| Country | U.S. |
Killian Court is part of theMassachusetts Institute of Technology campus, inCambridge, Massachusetts, United States.[1]
Bosworth's plan was notable for rejecting the prevailing conventions of separated buildings and retreat from the urban area, as was found in other new American campuses. The Great Court, renamed Killian Court in 1974 after PresidentJames Rhyne Killian, faces the river and the Boston skyline and "emphasizes the institution's openness to the urban environment and fulfills Maclaurin's ambition."[2] Killian Court was originally hard-paved, but was converted into a park-like area of grass and trees in the late 1920s. Bosworth had planned to install a three-story-high statue ofMinerva at the center of the court, but funds for this embellishment were never appropriated. Today, Killian Court is the site of the annualCommencement ceremony, and is otherwise used for studying, relaxing, and playingFrisbee games in good weather.
Thefriezes of the marble-clad buildings surrounding Killian Court are carved in large Roman letters with the names ofAristotle,Newton,Franklin,Pastevr,Lavoisier,Faraday,Archimedes,da Vinci,Darwin, andCopernicvs; each of these names is surmounted by a cluster of appropriately related names in smaller letters. Lavoisier, for example, is placed in the company ofBoyle,Cavendish,Priestley,Dalton,Gay-Lussac,Berzelivs,Woehler,Liebig,Bvnsen,Mendelejeff [sic],Perkin, andvan't Hoff.[3] The names are carved in the classicRoman square capitals using theLatin alphabet, with "V" instead of "U"; also, "I" should have been used instead of "J", since the latter letter of each pair did not exist in ancient times. Inexplicably, the letter "J" is used anyway, along with "W", which are both blatantanachronisms in thetypographic styling of the inscriptions.
Media related toKillian Court at Wikimedia Commons42°21′32″N71°05′29″W / 42.35877°N 71.09148°W /42.35877; -71.09148
 | ThisMiddlesex County, Massachusetts geography–related article is astub. You can help Wikipedia byexpanding it. |