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THE ARCHITECT

In 1928, the Caltech Board of Trustees selected Gordon Kaufmann, an Englishman who had arrived in California in 1914, to design The Athenaeum and adjacent campus dormitories. Kaufmann had already won recognition for his designs for Scripps College and La Quinta, a hotel complex near Palm Springs.

Kaufmann was a leading practitioner of the "California style" of architecture, an eclectic, freely interpreted Mediterranean style well adapted to the climate and lifestyle of Southern California. Kaufmann's design, reminiscent of a Renaissance villa, underscored the founders' interest in creating a setting where members, including faculty and graduate students, would be exposed to broad intellectual, cultural, and social influences that would enhance their capacity for leadership and service. The architecture reflects the founders' interest in the arts and humanities as well as science and technology .

Kaufmann created a lovely series of rooms and porticos, courtyards, and stairways that serve both large and small groups.