Home of the Bulldogs
Yale University
Yale's central campus is the finest collection of Collegiate Gothic in America: most of it was designed by James Gamble Rogers in the 1920s and 1930s, with acid poured on the stone and windows deliberately cracked to make the new buildings look centuries old.
- 7Buildings
- 3Traditions
- 1921Oldest · Harkness Tower
- 1977Newest · Yale Center for British Art
Campus map and Look Around
Tap a numbered pin to see that building from the street with Apple Look Around.
Planning the visit
- Fly intoBradley International Airport (BDL)
Bradley, near Hartford, is about an hour's drive north of New Haven. Many visitors also fly into New York and take Metro-North's New Haven Line straight to Union Station.
- Getting aroundWalking / Yale Shuttle
The central campus is compact and best seen on foot. The free Yale Shuttle loops between the colleges, the Science Hill and the medical campus.
- Colors and teams
Campus life has its own vocabulary: undergraduates belong to one of fourteen residential colleges, and the bell tower everyone meets under is simply 'Harkness'.
7 buildings to stamp
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Photo: ajay_suresh, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons Sterling Memorial Library
120 High St, New Haven, CT 06511
Designed to look like a Gothic cathedral, Yale's main library has a nave, side aisles and a circulation desk where the altar would be. Its book tower holds millions of volumes behind the stained glass.
- Built
- 1931
- Architect
- James Gamble Rogers
- Style
- Collegiate Gothic
- Today
- University Library
-
Photo: Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Harkness Tower
Memorial Quadrangle (Branford College), New Haven, CT 06511
Yale's bell tower rises 66 metres over the Memorial Quadrangle, a masonry Gothic spire built between 1917 and 1921 in memory of Charles William Harkness. It now anchors Branford College and is the landmark everyone on campus navigates by.
- Built
- 1921
- Architect
- James Gamble Rogers
- Style
- Collegiate Gothic
- Height
- 66 m (217 ft)
- Stories
- 9
- Today
- Bell tower
-
Photo: ajay_suresh, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library
Hewitt Quadrangle, New Haven, CT 06511
A windowless box of translucent Vermont marble, just 1.25 inches thick, so daylight seeps through the panels in a soft amber glow. Inside, a six-story glass tower of rare books stands at the heart of the building.
- Built
- 1963
- Architect
- Gordon Bunshaft (Skidmore, Owings & Merrill)
- Style
- International Style
- Today
- Rare book library
-
Photo: Ragesoss, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Yale University Art Gallery
1111 Chapel St, New Haven, CT 06510
The oldest university art museum in the Western Hemisphere. Its modernist main building, finished in 1953, was one of Louis Kahn's first works and the commission that transformed his career; it links to the older 1928 gallery and Gothic Street Hall.
- Built
- 1953
- Architect
- Louis Kahn
- Style
- Modernist
- Today
- Art museum
-
Photo: ajay_suresh, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons Yale Center for British Art
1080 Chapel St, New Haven, CT 06510
Louis Kahn's last building, finished after his death and opened in 1977: matte steel and reflective glass outside, travertine, white oak and Belgian linen inside. Its galleries hold the largest collection of British art outside the United Kingdom in soft natural light.
- Built
- 1977
- Architect
- Louis Kahn
- Style
- Modernist
- Today
- Art museum
-
Photo: Carol M. Highsmith, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons David S. Ingalls Rink
73 Sachem St, New Haven, CT 06511
Everyone calls Eero Saarinen's hockey rink 'The Whale' for its swooping humpbacked roof, hung on cables from a single arching concrete spine. Completed in 1958, it seats 3,500 fans under a ceiling 23 metres high.
- Built
- 1958
- Architect
- Eero Saarinen
- Style
- Modernist
- Today
- Hockey rink
-
Photo: Ɱ, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons Rudolph Hall
Chapel St & York St, New Haven, CT 06511
One of the earliest and best-known Brutalist buildings in America, Paul Rudolph's home for Yale's architecture school packs more than 30 floor levels into seven stories of ribbed, bush-hammered concrete.
- Built
- 1963
- Architect
- Paul Rudolph
- Style
- Brutalist
- Stories
- 7
- Today
- Yale School of Architecture
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3 traditions to check off
Stamped! keeps these as a checklist, so you can tick each one off on the visit.
Rub Woolsey's Foot
Generations of students have rubbed the protruding foot of the bronze statue of President Theodore Dwight Woolsey on Old Campus for good luck. Visitors can give the shiny foot a rub too.
Hear the Harkness Carillon
Students in the Yale Guild of Carillonneurs play the carillon in Harkness Tower twice a day during the school year, at 12:30 and 5:30 p.m., plus Friday concerts in summer. Visitors can listen from the streets and courtyards nearby.
Visit the Women's Table
Maya Lin's 1993 Women's Table in front of Sterling Memorial Library is carved with a spiral of numbers showing how many women studied at Yale each year since 1701. Visitors can walk up and read the spiral.
Know Yale University well?
Students and alumni know the traditions best. Suggest one we're missing, a building worth a stamp, or a fix. Every suggestion is checked against a source before it goes into the app.
Stamp all 7 on your visit.
Tour Yale University in 3D before you go, add it to a college road trip and earn a passport stamp at every building. Free on iPhone and iPad.
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