Editing Cope and Stewardson (section)

== Collegiate Gothic ==

Cope and Stewardson developed Collegiate Gothic as an American approach to campus architecture, adapting English medieval university buildings to American educational institutions. The style drew from Oxford and Cambridge colleges, with their enclosed quadrangles, Gothic details, and accretion of buildings over time. Rather than literal copying, Cope and Stewardson created an American interpretation that expressed continuity with European educational traditions while serving the specific requirements of growing American universities.<ref name="tatman"/>

The Quadrangle dormitories at the University of Pennsylvania (1895) established the approach that would define collegiate architecture for generations. The complex's varied buildings, organized around courtyards and connected by passages, created community through architectural form. Gothic details—pointed arches, bay windows, carved ornament—provided visual richness without academic pedantry. The buildings' success at Penn led to similar commissions at Princeton, Bryn Mawr, and Washington University, spreading Collegiate Gothic across American higher education.<ref name="cram"/>