Campus Architecture
In 1916, only two years after the school opened, the original buildings were destroyed in a fire. The school was rebuilt on its present site in 1917. Kathleen Worrell, wife of the school’s first dean Stephen H. Worrell, had seen pictures of Bhutanese buildings in National Geographic. Noting the similarity of mountainous Bhutan (which is in the Himalayas) to the location of the campus, she suggested that the new buildings be in the style of Bhutanese dzongs (monastic fortresses), with massive sloping walls and overhanging roofs. This idea was enthusiastically accepted by all.
Prominent El Paso architect Henry Trost designed the first four buildings. All buildings since then have followed this style, including a fifth by Trost in 1920, and three more by his firm in 1933-1937. While the early structures only copied the general appearance of a dzong, recent buildings incorporate internal elements of the dzong form as well.
The Kingdom of Bhutan has honored UTEP's appropriation of their country's style. Prince Jigyel Ugyen Wangchuk has visited the campus, and in 2009 the Kingdom presented UTEP with a hand-carved wooden temple to be erected on the campus.
The "Himalayan" style of UTEP's campus made it an appropriate site for the Chenrezig Himalayan Cultural Center of El Paso, a Tibetan Buddhist facility.
Read more about this topic: University Of Texas At El Paso
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“I don’t think of form as a kind of architecture. The architecture is the result of the forming. It is the kinesthetic and visual sense of position and wholeness that puts the thing into the realm of art.”
—Roy Lichtenstein (b. 1923)