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{{Short description|Plaza located at Yale University}}
{{more footnotes|date=March 2017}}
[[File:Yale-University-Commons-Building-Schwarzman-Center-Hewitt-Quadrangle-Beinecke-Plaza-New-Haven-Connecticut-Apr-2014.jpg|thumb|Commons and the Hewitt Quadrangle]]
'''Hewitt University Quadrangle''', commonly known as '''Beinecke Plaza''', is a plaza at the center of the [[Yale University]] campus in [[New Haven]], [[Connecticut]]. It is the home of the university's administration, main auditorium, and dining facilities. The quadrangle was created with the construction of the university's Bicentennial Buildings and Woodbridge Hall in 1901. Until 1917, it was known as '''University Court'''. The completion of the [[Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library|Beinecke Library]] created subterranean library facilities beneath the courtyard, establishing the present appearance of the paved plaza and sunken courtyard.

==Buildings==
[[Image:Hewitt.png|right|thumb|Figure-ground diagram of Hewitt Quadrangle]]

===Bicentennial Buildings===
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| image1= Yale-Bicentennial-Rotunda.jpg
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The Bicentennial Buildings–University Commons, the Memorial Rotunda, and Woolsey Hall–were the first buildings constructed for Yale University as opposed to one of its constituent entities ([[Yale College]], [[Sheffield Scientific School]], or others), reflecting a greater emphasis on central administration initiated by Presidents [[Timothy Dwight V|Timothy Dwight]] and [[Arthur Twining Hadley]].{{sfn|Kelley|1974|pp=318}} Constructed in 1901-2 for the university's bicentennial, the limestone [[Beaux-Arts architecture|Beaux-Arts]] buildings linked the College buildings on the [[Old Campus]] with the [[Sheffield Scientific School|Sheffield Scientific]] buildings on [[Hillhouse Avenue]].{{sfn|Pinnell|1999|pp=115}} They were designed by [[John M. Carrère]] and [[Thomas Hastings (architect)|Thomas Hastings]] of [[Carrère and Hastings]].

The University Commons, simply known as "Commons" on campus, is a timber-trussed banqueting hall.{{sfn|Pinnell|1999|pp=115}} It served as the university-wide dining hall until the completion of the [[residential colleges of Yale University|residential colleges]], [[Sterling Law Building]], and [[Hall of Graduate Studies]] in the 1930s.

Woolsey Hall was the university's first large secular assembly hall, with 2,691 seats.{{sfn|Pinnell|1999|pp=115}} It holds one of the largest organs in the world: the [[Newberry Memorial Organ]], a 1928 [[Ernest M. Skinner|Skinner organ]].

The Rotunda, with tablets on the walls commemorating Yale's war dead is a double-sized, domed, colonnaded version of [[Bramante]]'s ''[[San Pietro in Montorio|Tempietto]]'' built in 1502 on the site of St. Peter's martyrdom in Rome. Above the memorial is the President's Room, used for donor and ceremonial receptions.

===Woodbridge Hall===
Also completed in 1901, Woodbridge Hall is the main administrative building of the university. The [[List of Presidents of Yale University|Office of the President of the University]] has been stationed on the building's second floor since the administration of [[Arthur Twining Hadley]]. Adjacent is the Corporation Room, the boardroom of [[Yale Corporation|Yale's governing body]]. The building is named for [[Timothy Woodbridge]], one of the ten founding ministers of the school, whose names of are engraved on the building's facade.

===Beinecke Library===
The visible portion of [[Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library]], on the east side of the plaza, designed by [[Gordon Bunshaft]], is like the visible portion of an iceberg. With three underground levels extending under the plaza, most of the library is hidden.

==Sculpture==
[[Image:YaleCenotaph.jpg|thumb|right|Yale University World War I Cenotaph]]
Before the colonnade of the Commons is a memorial [[cenotaph]]. Its inscription reads:
{{blockquote|In Memory of the Men of Yale who true to Her Traditions gave their Lives that Freedom might not perish from the Earth. 1914 Anno Domini 1918.}}

Behind the cenotaph, one can see inscribed the names of [[World War I]] battles of [[Battle of Cambrai (1917)|Cambrai]], [[Meuse-Argonne Offensive|Argonne]], [[Battle of the Somme|Somme]], [[Battle of Château-Thierry (1918)|Chateau-Thierry]], [[Third Battle of Ypres|Ypres]], [[Battle of Saint-Mihiel|St. Mihiel]] and [[Second Battle of the Marne|Marne]]. Woodbridge Hall, located on the west side of the plaza, was designed by the firm of [[Howells & Stokes]] and is French Renaissance in style. It contains the central administration of the university. The building was named for Reverend Timothy Woodbridge, one of the founders of Yale College.

The Beinecke Library's sunken courtyard, visible but not accessible from the plaza, contains [[Isamu Noguchi]]'s sculpture ''The Garden (Pyramid, Sun, and Cube)''. The three marble sculptures represent time, the sun, and chance. [[Alexander Calder]]'s sculpture ''Gallows and Lollipops'' stands on the plaza. The [[Claes Oldenburg]] sculpture ''Lipstick Ascending on a Caterpillar Tread'' (now located in [[Morse College]]) was once on the plaza.

==Use==
{{unreferenced section|date=March 2017}}
As the symbolic heart of the university—and as the space in front of the administration building—Beinecke Plaza is occasionally the site of rallies and protests. These have included labor rallies held by the [[Federation of Hospital and University Employees]] and their supporters. Student protests have included a 16-day occupation of the plaza by Students Against Sweatshops in support of an ethical licensing policy (spring 2002). Most notable was the 1986 construction of a shanty-town erected to demand Yale's divestment from [[apartheid]] [[South Africa]]. After students erected the shanty-town, designed to mimic a [[Soweto]] shanty and named after [[Winnie Mandela]], the university administration ordered its removal and demolished it. The destruction of the shanty-town, which required the arrest of dozens of protesters, unleashed an outpouring of anger and demands that the shanty-town be recreated. Eventually the university relented and the town was resurrected, only to be burned down by an irate alumnus two years later and replaced by a "memorial wall".

In April 2024, students under the moniker Occupy Beinecke maintained a weeklong daytime occupation and a weekend overnight encampment of the plaza, calling on Yale to divest its endowment from weapons manufacturers.<ref name=":0">Yu, Isaac; Park, Ellie; Arora Seth, Anika; Lin, Karen; Reich, Josie; Bober, Dylan (April 30, 2024). "Pro-Palestine protests and arrests at Yale: a visual timeline". ''[[Yale Daily News]]''. Archived from the original on May 28, 2024. Retrieved May 28, 2024.</ref> The encampment was forcibly cleared by Yale and New Haven police after three days with 48 protesters arrested, but the protest was one of the first in a global wave of [[2024 pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses|pro-Palestinian encampments on university campuses]].<ref name=":0" />

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

===Bibliography===
* {{Cite book|last1=Ossman|first1=Laurie|title=Carrère & Hastings: The Masterworks|last2=Ewing|first2=Heather P.|publisher=[[Rizzoli Libri|Rizzoli]]|others=Photographs by Steven Brooke|year=2011|isbn=978-0-8478-3564-5|location=[[New York City|New York]]}}
*{{cite book |last=Pinnell |first=Patrick |title=The Campus Guide: Yale University |publisher=[[Princeton Architectural Press]] |year=1999 |isbn=978-1-56898-167-3|location=[[New York City|New York]]}}
*{{Cite book|url=https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1002&context=yale_history_pubs|title=Buildings and Grounds of Yale University|publisher=Yale University|year=1979|editor-last=Carroll|editor-first=Richard C.|location=[[New Haven, Connecticut|New Haven]]}}
*{{cite book |last=Kelley |first=Brooks Mather |title=Yale: A History |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |location=[[New Haven, Connecticut|New Haven]] |year=1974 |jstor=j.ctt32btbf |isbn=978-0-300-07843-5 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt32btbf|url-access=subscription}}
* {{cite book|last=Holden|first=Reuben A.|title=Yale: A Pictorial History|year=1967|isbn=978-0-300-00565-3|location=[[New Haven, Connecticut|New Haven]]|publisher=[[Yale University Press]]}}{{coord|41.3115|-72.9268|display=title}}

{{Yale}}

[[Category:Yale University]]

Hewitt Quadrangle - Revision history

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