Mills College - Architecture

There are a number of interesting buildings around campus, including a new education complex and a number of Julia Morgan buildings but I haven't had a chance to shoot them yet. This is a shot of the bell tower (El Campanil), recently refurbished (the bells sound great!). It's the first use of reinforced concrete west of the Mississippi - 1904 according to the plaque, so it's a darn good thing it was reinforced or in 1906 it would have gotten pretty ugly.

That's "Disco" in the foreground, the back of Mills Hall (1871) in the background. I got really lucky with this shot because there are usually sunbathers in this grassy area, and even though I took this during a break and there weren't many students around just after I took this shot people plopped down right in the center of the frame.

This is the "new" social sciences building. It's been around for years and served many purposes but recently had a major renovation. I like the way that you can have a building serve many purposes over the years and with a little reconfiguration it works just fine. Speaking of which, the old social sciences building was Kimball House. It's a pretty little Victorian right on the edge of campus. Apparently in the 1890s J.S. Kimball had four (!) daughters at Mills and built them a little house down the street. After they graduated it was sold. In the 1920s Mills purchased the home and moved it on-campus, where it was used for a number of purposes.

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