Bard’s facilities are spread across the college’s 600 wooded acres almost haphazardly, adding to the feeling that this school might actually be a state park rather than a place of learning. As the college has expanded over the past 150 years, new buildings have popped up to accommodate the growing student population. Clearly, however, there’s been no formal vision at work in uniting the motley crew of buildings. What’s left is a hodgepodge of gothic and modern design. Bard’s performing arts center, masterminded by architect Frank Ghery, is ultra-austere. As a slick composition of distended metal and steel overhang, it’s nothing like the ivy-covered stonewall slant of Bard’s older academic buildings. Through a thin tree line on main campus, in the sleek, post-modern Reem-Keyden Center, students are visible in labs and seminars, through its floor-to-ceiling glass exterior. To its left, a deceptive red barn houses the financial aid offices. In total, the campus is an unwitting collection of new and old styles, some of whose sheer awkwardness can, at this point, only be seen as endearing.
Taking a tour of Bard campus, prospective students will be struck by just how different the school’s buildings are from one another. Facilities like Olin Language Center and Stevenson Gymnasium add a bit of concrete and glass to an otherwise organic campus. Each building serves its own unique purpose, no matter how out of place it may look. The Campus Center provides students with an Internet café, a game room, and a movie theater, while other buildings supply computers, classrooms, and art spaces accessible to all Bardians.