Archways to inspiration

Royce Hall. Modeled after a church, named for a philosopher. You reach it via brick walkways and tiled terraces, through sculpture gardens and sleek lawns. No matter which route you take or what other buildings you pass along the way, when you reach Royce Hall, the feeling is, “Of course.” Of course it’s here, at UCLA’s heart. Shelter. Asylum.

One of the university’s original four buildings, the hall was built on a sheep pasture, long since given way to an elegant quad. Setbacks suffered in the 1994 earthquake have been meticulously repaired. Columns and colonnades, porches and porticoes, arches and bell towers -- even the language of the place is satisfying. Presidents walked here. So did Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Close up, Royce Hall’s vast size vanishes and its details emerge: patterned brick and leaded windows, terra cotta, vaulted loggias whose murals depict the seals of Europe’s ancient universities and some of history’s renowned thinkers. Who knew, when architect David Allison drew his inspiration from a 12th century Italian church, that Royce Hall would satisfy the needs of 21st century visitors? All of those who, over the decades, have found respite on a porch or leaned against the sun-warmed stone or, on reading one of the inscriptions carved into the walls, have turned their thoughts from work or traffic or GPAs to the greater world around them.

-- Veronique de Turenne