South Mall

Standing at the base of the tower on the South Mall, this tour stop deepens the gendered understanding of the campus landscape initiated in the discussion of the Women’s Campus. A comparative look at the architectural layout surrounding the tower helps explore the symbolic relationship between buildings and space and how social ideas are constructed into the campus’s architectural landscape.

Although UT’s Memorial stadium may be the campus’ largest gathering spot, the South and West malls also have been the sites of large gatherings including massive protests of 3000 or more. Across the years, student activism has played a key role in university life. Students have demonstrated against wars, human rights violations, apartheid, the destruction of trees, as well as the various forms of discrimination discussed throughout this tour. In recent years, these protests have also included campus carry, the statues, and other politicized issues.

The scenes below are from protests and demonstrations, many of which took place during the vibrant era of student activism throughout the 1960s and early 70’s. The images show gatherings in front of the Main Building, on the West and South malls as well as on Guadalupe Street. The photographs capture students’ use of these spaces to raise awareness, to dissent, and to publicly engage ideas and beliefs often related to University practice. Also included are images of the West Mall seen from Guadalupe Street. These illustrate the reconfiguration of these spaces of protest by the University. Despite the modifications in the landscape, student protest has continued and been a major impetus of change on campus.

Protesters marching in Austin, undated, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History

UT Austin West Mall, 1943, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History

Students walking on the West Mall, circa 1965-1970, UT Texas, Shel Hershorn Collection, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History

View of Tower after shootings; UT Austin West Mall, 1966, Shel Hershorn Collection, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History

Students and supporters of integration protesting in front of Roy’s Lounge near UT Austin, 1965, UT Texas Student Publications, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History

Students demonstrating on Guadalupe Street, 1966, UT Texas Student Publications, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History

Student protest trees destroyed on Waller Creek, South Mall Steps, 1969, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History

Demonstration against the Vietnam War, UT Austin West Mall 1969, UT Texas Student Publications, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History

UT Austin students marching during an anti-Vietnam War protest heading east on 21st street past Jester Center, left, and Gregory Gymnasium, right on UT Campus, circa 1968-1972, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History

Austin Police dispersing tear gas during an anti-Vietnam War protest on UT campus, Guadalupe Street, circa 1968-1972, UT Texas Student Publications, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History

Student protest of Vietnam War on Main Mall. An estimated 3,000 people attended. Daily Texan, May 1970, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History

Students gathering on UT’s South Mall in response to the Kent State University shootings May 4, 1970, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History

Latino students protesting outside of the Main Building, UT Austin West Mall, 1972, UT Texas Student Publications, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History

Students on UT’s West Mall, 1976, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History

Anti-apartheid protesters on the UT’s South Mall asking University to divest financial holdings in South Africa, 1984, UT Texas Student Publications, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History

Anti-Apartheid Protest, UT Austin West Mall 1986, UT Texas Student Publications, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History

Mock South African shanty shack in front of the Main building during Anti-Apartheid protests, UT Austin West Mall, 1987, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History

Protesters in front of the UT Main building, 1992, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History

Members of United Students Against Sweatshops protested at the Main Building, May 2015, Daily Texan Website

Campus carry protest, South Mall, 2016, Daily Texan

So, here we are at the top of the steps of the southern base of the tower. Take a moment to look both north, which means you’re looking at the tower and up the tower and then another moment to look south, which means you’re taking on the fabulous view towards the Capitol to the south.
Take a moment to think about where you are. And then let’s discuss where we are and how it compares to the other places we’ve been. Let’s think about how it is that what we’re seeing here looking south, on the south mall differs from what we saw when we were looking to the west. You can see that the landscape architecture is vastly different. First of all, here we have a clear view of the capitol building south. It’s an enormous, very majestic view. It’s an open view, completely open. There’s an open plaza in front of us. If we remember what we were looking at the top of the west mall steps, there were trees, big oak trees in front of us but even more than big oak trees, there are large planters that stand about two feet high, limestone planters with ground cover within them to the base of the trees and then there’s some more planters and more trees that line each side of the mall from there. And so the mall is fairly obstructed, although quite nice looking.
It’s very green, very lush, very park-like in a certain way but much more cluttered and closed than the south mall. Think about what you see when you’re walking north on Guadalupe beside the university with the campus on your right-hand side. It’s similar to the other edges of the original campus, in as much as there’s a double line of oak trees, however, within those oak trees are relatively high walls that line entire western boarder of the original 40 acres. This is vastly different from what we see looking down the south mall, which is completely open.
Is there some reason why these landscapes are so different? Well, one reason is that the south mall is serving as an entrance to the university so you want to be open and welcoming in that sense. But we can understand the landscape architecture and its purpose a little better if we think about the fact that this landscaping on the west mall was produced in the 1970s and we think about who’s living on the other side on Guadalupe from campus, these are students. Why might the university want to wall itself off in relation to its main constituents, on this west mall?
To answer that question, let’s remember that in the 1960s and 70s, and actually even by the time I got here in the late 1980s, there was a fair amount of student unrest on our campus, including around civil rights, the Vietnam War, South Africa divestment, etc. One of the main things that the university wanted to do is to be able to control unruly students, particularly crowds of them, it wanted to be able to control their entrance to the university.
So, in the early 1970s chairman of the UT regents, Frank Erwin spearheaded a move to wall-off the west side of campus and to obstruct the west mall as much as possible because this had been an area where students had congregated for protests. So, the lovely landscape architecture that you see here, has a political aspect as well. In order words, it’s built so as to be able to control crowds and to keep student crowds from being able to access the campus, amass, and be unruly. We can see from this, that politics can be built into landscapes and landscape architecture.
Now, let’s think for a second about what we saw on the north side of the tower. Is there mall there? Well, no there’s not. What’s over there? Well, there’s a parking lot. On the south side of the tower, we have a splendid formal plaza with a magnificent view and fabulous landscape. There are a number of things to think about in terms of the north side in relation to the south side of the tower.
Let’s think about the buildings on the north side of the tower and why they might be there. The south side is clearly an entrance. The north side is the anti-thesis of an entrance. On the north side, we have a series of buildings, Littlefield, Carothers, Kinsolving, Andrews, Anna Hiss gym and of course Gearing Hall, all originally built for women. So by now, you can see a pattern here. Women’s dorms, women’s gyms, the home economics department, these are all things that have to do with women. In fact, this area of campus used to be called the women’s campus.
Gearing Hall, the centerpiece of the campus within a campus, is a very beautiful building. Built to house, as it says there chiseled in stone, the home economics department. It was designed by Paul Cret, who also was the architect who designed the tower. So, why is the women’s campus located on the north side of the tower, which is the center of the campus? Well, one thing we know is that in our society the realm of women is understood to be the domestic realm, the private realm, the private sphere and women need to be relegated to those spheres to be protected. The south mall is understood to be the front of the campus, it’s the front portion of the campus, it’s the entrance, it’s the public area of the campus, whereas the back is the private area of campus, therefore it’s fitting to have women in a private, more protected area of campus.
Now, let’s think about the forms and structures of some of the key pieces of architecture we’ve encountered. Think about the form and height of the tower in relation to who has offices there. The tower is the seat of power of the university. So, the president has his office there all the vice presidents had their offices in the tower. So, on the one hand we have a tower with its height, its power, its phallic symbolism as the gendered seat of power, the seat of male power of the university.
If you look at Gearing Hall, which is the central architectural piece of what was the women’s campus and you look at its architectural form, you can clearly see how it is gendered as well, anatomically and otherwise. So, what we have here is a clear example of how gender is built into the geographical locations of buildings and the architectural design of the buildings. If gender can be built into geography and architecture, so can race. So, let’s walk down from where we are here on the tower steps of the south mall. We’ll walk across this broad plaza that is below us and as we walk, we want to observe what is to our right and to left, behind and in front of us, observe the buildings and landscape architecture, get a feel for the space that we’re walking through. What is it imparting to us? What is this space reminiscent of? What is this space aspirational of? And when we get to the top of the other stairs, we’ll stop and we’ll consider the situation.

Changing...

Next Stop

7. South Plaza Architecture

1933 architectural planning map of the University of Texas rendered by Paul Philippe Cret, with the location of the South Plaza Architecture tour stop marked.