Wu Hall celebrates 25th year with gala

Butler College sponsored the panel, which featured University trustee and the building’s namesake Gordon Wu ’58, former University Architect Jon Hlafter ’61 and Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, who designed the building. The panelists spoke of the inspirations, design goals and challenges of making the hall part of the University campus.

Wu, who bankrolled the project, said he was proud of the result.

“I’m very happy,” he said. “I really believe this building adds to the quality of the underclassman [experience].”

“It has been beautifully maintained,” Venturi added.

Wu said he was motivated to donate the building by a desire to improve life for underclassmen.

“We want to nurture the young minds to be able to find a better place,” he explained. “When I was a freshman and sophomore, the food was nothing to write home about. Underclassmen also need good nourishment.”

The completion of Wu Hall in 1983 was crucial to implementing the residential college system on campus. Former University president William Bowen GS ’58 said at the time that dividing the underclassmen into residential colleges would improve their experience, Wu explained.

As previously existing buildings were divided into residential colleges, the University saw the need for a new dining hall, Hlafter said. He called Wu Hall a “dining and social centerpiece” for the residential college system.

Wu said that he had no idea what the hall would look like until it was finished. He explained, though, that “anything coming from Princeton [was] fine with me.”

Venturi and Scott Brown put a great deal of thought and effort into the design process.

“I wanted to contrast the building to those around it,” Venturi said. He compared Wu to a red tie on a gray suit.

To achieve that contrast, Venturi’s firm employed ornament in the form of bay windows and the black-and-white marble design above the entrance. The building’s red brick was intended to match the facades of nearby buildings.

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Adding to the conversation about design staples, Scott Brown discussed the presence of chapels within halls. “Every building needs a chapel … a place of heightened emotion,” she said. To Scott Brown, Wu’s chapel lies in its large, “semi-religious” bay windows.

Wu added that he thought the building “still has the human element,” though.

Hlafter recounted the history of Wu’s construction, which presented many design challenges, he said.

“It had to take place on a shoestring budget,” he explained, “with virtually no changes to [surrounding] dormitories.”

Wu had to share a kitchen with the Wilson dining hall, and the site had a significant difference in height, he noted. “Many people thought it would be impossible to put a building on this site.”

It was a “challenging and difficult project,” Venturi added.