Philosophy and Architecture:
Edward Sovik's Vision of the St. Olaf Center

A college is an educational institution, and ideally the educational process ought to be going on informally as well as formally on the campus. The subject matter can be values and relationships as well as facts and data. We think it will be extremely important that the general concept and the details of this building reflect the kind of education the college professes, and the kind of culture it represents.

This building should provide not only good shelter and utility, but also should stimulate the senses by its scale, spaces, colors, textures, details, and contents. It should thus be a building not only for the body but also for the mind. Our thesis is that, if you surround students with the right kind of buildings, you will help teach them to value quality but not luxury, to value vitality and imagination together with a sense of continuity, to value thoughtfulness and thoroughness rather than novelty and cleverness.

There are explicit ways in which the educational values can be achieved also. We conceive of a bookstore, for instance, where books become the major display feature, and the notions department the minor one. This ought to help stimulate the students to start building their personal libraries, which is a part of the educational process. We conceive, also, of designing public spaces so as to receive exhibits of art. Another possibility is the development of murals or carvings related thematically to the academic process. St. Olaf has a cultural heritage which ought to be represented in the planning.

— From the response of Ed Sovik ’39 to the solicitation of building proposals, March 9, 1957