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The first impression of 14 decades of ISU architecture
is one of remarkable growth, variety, and change.
ISU has been both praised and criticized for being a
conservative institution, in general and sometimes in
its architecture. For example, ISU established Illinois’
first art gallery and the first school for teacher education,
and constructed some of the most compelling campus architecture
and design—but too often the deep history and complexity
of the relation of the old and new, the interdependence
of the perceived radical and perceived conservative,
at ISU goes unnoticed.
The architecture of the University’s campus—meaning
not just the buildings, but the entire ensemble of topography,
space, and landscape—developed into far more than the
founders of Illinois State University ever could 
have imagined. This change epitomizes the history of
other American universities and colleges as they have
responded to population growth and new ideas about the
nature of higher education. The architecture has changed
as well, as do new ideas about form and style.
After WWII, America and Illinois State University became
suburbanized. The causes at Illinois State were several:
growth, societal changes, and the rapid growth of enrollment.
This was initially due to the veterans returning from
the war to take advantage of the GI Bill; their children,
the so-called baby boomers, followed them in the 1960s.
Changes likewise occurred in the planning and design
of buildings. New architectural winds accompanied the
suburban campus. Modernism in its many varieties set
the American style, including the University. In some
cases attempts were made to create continuity between
the various modern buildings but, many of the buildings
were conceived as singular objects, each isolated in
its environment. Many of the fragments of the old University
disappeared as the evolving University claimed a number
of architectural victims.
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