This is the B. B. Moeur Activity Building dating from 1938, architects Lescher & Mahoney, which is the only adobe building on campus. First built on the edge of campus as a student activity center and gymnasium.

It's named for Dr. Benjamin Baker Moeur, a profanity-slinging baby doctor who became Arizona's eight governor, and who distinguished himself in office by (a) refusing to listen to Walter Bimson when Bimson tried to avert a run on Arizona's banks on March 2, 1933 because he was sleepy, and (b) taking military action against California a year later with the "Arizona Navy," the last time in American history one state has taken up arms against another.

The outside of this building has the greatest vibe. It's got a shady rose garden on one side, it has magnificent scale, the WPA was in charge of construction, built with bricks from earth excavated on site, and there's something about the relationship of those casement windows and the ground that seems Texan to me. It originally came with hand-crafted pine furniture and hand-woven curtains and upholstery. There were murals themed on modern dance and women in athletics. Picture yourself in 1940 Tempe, this sounds like a wonderful dude-ranch-college hangout experience roughly analogous to sharing a joint with Mary Colter. Or something like that.

All of those interior features and amenities have been cleanly wiped away, so don't go in.

The 1948 Agriculture Building, the one with SCIENCE chiseled into the top with a charming eager pride, and the names of scientists chiseled across the bottom: HIPPOCRATES, LEEWENHOUK, LINNAEUS, VESALIUS, DARWIN, MENDEL, LAVOISIER on the left, CURIE, FARRADAY, GALILEO, BACON and er three others (sorry) on the right.

It almost vibrates with postwar optimism and faith-in-Science and all that.

It currently houses "classrooms and units from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. American Indian Studies, American Indian Student Support Services, the American Indian Policy Center (and) The Consortium for Strategic Communication, a research unit of the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication". And that, of course, is why it's called the Agriculture Building.

Architects Lescher & Mahoney. Sculptor of these three cute panels is unknown.

Cartmell and Rossman, reSPECT!

Cartmell and Rossman built three residential towers in a row, over on the north side of University, Palo Verde East (1962), Palo Verde West (1964), and this large object, Manzanita Hall, 16 stories, housing 900 students, dating from 1966, the largest dorm on campus, for a long time the tallest building in Tempe, notorious, party central, showing its age.

Undeniable that Bill Cartmell and Wendell Rossman produced structurally advanced buildings, on that edge between architecture and engineering. The one that hit the Italian press was the thin-shell-concrete St. Maria Goretti Catholic Church from 1972; as of February 1975 Rossman claimed fifteen concrete shell buildings. Their single VNB branch, the Los Arcos branch, is experimental because it makes the load-bearing struts pretty and puts them out front, exo-skeleton style, and Rossman has a number of architectural engineering patents.

So my understanding of Manzanita Hall is that there's more space for the pleasure and pain of dorm living inside, because those W's outside are serious structural members. And it describes a big brave curve.

With all those triangles it at least looks sturdy, you know what I mean? Like a really high-quality cardboard structure.

All three of these buildings are stylish, or were once. PV East and PV West both have futuristic circular pods attached for communal amenities. Judging from the remnants of the landscaping and the pedestrian bridge to campus, and the curvy walkways, it doesn't take much imagination to conclude that, at one moment, maybe 1963, there was a coordinated Modernist vision of this residential section north-of-University, laid out kind of like a World's Fair of Student Life.

There's not much pride around here now. Of course you expect all old dorms to be worn and torn, infused with the lingering odors of academic desperation and hormonal rage, let's not even think about touring the rooms with a black light, but it's worse than that. An entertaining and depressing 2001 New Times article describes Manzy Hall as "a 15-story salute to the wondrous versatility of duct tape".

And PV East and PV West -- well, I've seen buildings bitched-up before, but never so proudly bitched-up, with an extra story of unpainted metal sheds mounted on top.

Now this, this, is easily the highlight of this tour, because it's unexpected. This is the interior courtyard of the four-story 1959 Social Science Building, designed by Ralph Haver. Nothing about the exterior of this building hints at this beautiful core.

This is one of two buildings on campus with interior courtyards like this. The other one is the 1962 H.B. Farmer Building, sometimes known as the "Farmer Education Building", which would be a funny old joke if Arizona had soil, which also has a central atrium open to the sky, also has a fountain and greenery inside, is also four stories. (The Farmer building was designed by local architect Ed Varney whose office, I found out tonight, was responsible for the original Sun Devil stadium, the original Federal Courthouse downtown, and the original Valley Ho resort in Scottsdale. More people should know about Ed Varney, probably.)

The Farmer Building is good, and intriguing. This building is great, and amazing. This interior courtyard and these concrete panels kick ass.

The patterns on the panels vary story by story and catch the sunlight differently, and are faintly ridiculous but not quite a joke. The proportions of the ground-level openings (generous, for llow good ventilation) and the central void, the alternating panels, right down to the landings and the railings and the undersides of the landings, are amazingly controlled and presented and highly rhythmic. This hidden outdoor room is time-travel to 1959 Phoenix and a seriously valuable chunk of mid-Century architecture on its own merits.

The fourth story of this building has been condemned for some time (as of October 2007) but the university appears to have made a committment to renovate it.