Shown immediately below are three scenes from the University of Texas El Paso (
UTEP): The Health Sciences and Nursing Building, a
recent (2011) addition to the campus...
...the Undergraduate Learning Center...
...and a collection of buildings...
Photographed earlier this spring by my Texas Tech colleague Dana Weiser* , the UTEP campus is rich visually, with its vivid colors, mountain backdrop, and unique inspiration for its buildings. The latter, as Dana enthusiastically explained to me, is
the influence of the small Asian nation of
Bhutan on how the campus was originally built. According to the article, "
Bhutan on the Border," from the UTEP website:
...the university’s architecture has been shaped by... Bhutan, the last of the three Forbidden Kingdoms hidden deep in the Himalayas, between the great Tibetan plateau and the plains of India.
UTEP was founded in 1914 as the Texas State School of Mines and Metallurgy, and the inspiration for its architecture is credited to Kathleen Worrell, wife of the School's first dean, who was fascinated with an 88-page photo-essay on Bhutan that appeared in the April 1914 issue of National Geographic magazine.
Bhutan has also provided structures as gifts to UTEP. According to this
2014 article, a Buddhist Temple "... was given to UTEP by the people of Bhutan after it was built for the Smithsonian Folklife Festival that took place in Washington D.C. in 2008. It was later shipped to El Paso and kept in a warehouse until money was raised to place it on campus." Here is a photo Dana took of the Temple...
UTEP was also known previously as Texas Western and, under that name,
made sports history in 1966,
winning the NCAA basketball championship with an all-African-American starting lineup, beating the University of Kentucky, which did not have its first Black basketball player
until 1971. How Texas Western coach Don Haskins built that team was the subject of the major motion picture
Glory Road. In fact, the current basketball arena, built in 1977 and
named after Haskins in 1998,
sits on a street called Glory Road.
So let's look at a bunch more UTEP buildings, characterized for the most part by low-pitch gable roofs, sometimes stacked in multiple tiers. In addition, numerous bright-color brick mosaics are embedded into buildings, brightening the campus tremendously. The first example occurs below with the UTEP library, with such mosaics featured near the top of the tower portion.
The library, whose exterior is shown here sequentially to capture the long length of the building...
...has some of the
biggest and smallest books in the world...
... as well as some very old ones, including this one, printed in 1495...
... and some very intricate artwork, including this cabinetry with the banner above it (captured in two images, to keep the photos a little larger and preserve detail)...
Public art appears outside the library, as well, as shown here in the form of the "
Texas Wedge." This work consists of poles of aluminum, not wood, as it might appear to some.
Dana was also able to take some photos from the library roof (I don't know if she was singing "
Up on the Roof" while doing so). If it seems that Dana has inside connections to the UTEP library, she does, as her sister is a librarian there!
Next is Old Main, the
oldest building on campus, shown first from somewhat of a distance and then closer up...
Next is perhaps the tallest edifice on campus, the
Education Building, with its central tower...
The Education Building looms large in the distance, including from the Psychology Building, shown next...
As implied by the dates listed above, UTEP celebrated its centennial in 2014. The following picture shows part of Centennial Plaza, which actually has
two circular lawns.
This
page on the university website displays design plans for refurbishing the campus in connection with the centennial; this plan presumably has been implemented, in part or in whole, in the three years since 2014.
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*When Dana agrees to photograph a campus, she'll really immerses herself in the task. See the
extensive UC Berkeley photo essay she contributed last year.
