The Most Beautiful Public College Campuses in America

For some the great unwashed , college is the last time they really have the chance to stop , appear around , and take in the instinctive beauty that surrounds them . Sometimes this is assisted by totally sound and non - toxic substances that enhance that nature , and other fourth dimension it ’s just relaxing in the quad and appreciating the foliage , architecture , and history that environ you for four years . ( Or five , depending on pronounce marrow . )

Of course , foliage and architecture come at a cost . And that ’s a self-aggrandizing part of why many of themost beautiful college campuses in Americaare private schools . But the taxpayers and state lotteries can build up some jolly telling stuff too ! Like these 20 public school with primo , gorgeous campuses .

University of California, Berkeley

Berkeley , CaliforniaCertain topographic point commence with a clear advantage by dint of weather and fix , and in Cal ’s slip both are just about perfect . Many schools also benefit from early infusions of serious money and actual appreciation – and again Cal won the drawing . The seminal fluid of its distinctive neoclassical character were laid in 1898 , when William Randolph Hearst ’s mother manoeuvre an outside plan contender for the campus . From that , the architect John Galen Howard roll up train the construction of 20 newfangled buildings for the campus and launch the computer architecture program . The university ’s signature landmark , the century - old Sather Tower , a 307ft - marvellous clock column that houses a 61 - bell carillon playing , is one of America ’s most iconic campus structures .

College of Charleston

Charleston , South CarolinaThe words “ urban campus ” would be a little deceptive here , since one would imagine a school set among skyscraper . But this school in the heart of Charleston may be the most beautiful and verdant part of an already beautiful city . The campus is cobblestone street and buildings senior than the Carry Amelia Moore Nation itself , and what it lacks in traditional “ quads , ” it more than makes up for in the charm of Southern colonial computer architecture , and dramatic live oak tree trees clothe in Spanish moss .

The Evergreen State College

Olympia , WashingtonA fully grown part of why Olympia isthe most hippie town in Washingtonis this school , the American founding that introduced us to the construct of “ no grades . ” So with no repercussions , you ’re welcome to decamp class and revel the forest - like campus , a tripper more like a hike through Olympic National Park than through the magnanimous college ( by area ) in the state . The campus is so reasonably some student really live IN it , eschewing traditional dorm for woodland treehouses . Oh , and that 3,000 ft beach they ’ve got on Puget Sound ? It ’s clothing - optional .

University of Hawaii

Manoa , HawaiiTruly one of those 360 - degree seat in Hawaii where you’re able to do no wrong . On the wad side , you ’ve got some of the most lush woods abutting an urban area anywhere in the States , ordinarily with a rainbow dawdle overhead . bet makai , you ’ll see the extinct volcano Diamond Head and Waikiki leading to the Pacific breaker . The campus itself sits between metropolis and hobo camp , nest among trees that offer a unsubtle , fly-by-night canopy . Aside from some Asian - influenced structures , the architecture is n’t terribly memorable , but the open spaces – in the verdure of the center , the quad , and the open - air buildings – place you securely in the Hawaiian outdoors , which is where everyone wants to be anyway .

James Madison University

Harrisonburg , VirginiaIf for some ground the track at Platform Nine and Three - Quarters start out running trans - Atlantic routes , it would no doubt end up at somewhere that seem a raft like James Madison . It ’s like someone sink Hogwarts in the Shenandoah Valley , with grand , dismal stone structures dominating a campus of rolled hills set against the Blue Ridge Mountains . The sunset here are as much a part of the college experience as playing Frisbee in front of Wilson Hall . And the unexampled buildings on the eastern part of the campus still keep with the architectural composition , making the campus even more beautiful than it was a decennium ago .

University of Michigan

Ann Arbor , MichiganMichigan ’s one of those rarified elite school where the campus , far from being a fence - off bubble , mingles and blend with Ann Arbor ’s Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree - lined Downtown . A walking down State St , from Yost Ice Arena to the State Theater , has got it all : you ’ll pass off Pizza Bob ’s , the gothic Law Quad , the Hedera helix - brood Michigan Union , the redesigned Museum of Art , one of thebest beer legal profession in AmericainAshley ’s , Angell Hall ’s Doric - style Grecian column , the meadow of the Diag , one of Ann Arbor ’s favored ice cream scoops in Stucchi ’s , and finally , famed designer Albert Kahn ’s iconic carillon chime tower . Now , the Spartans up in East Lansing will tell youtheyhave the finer campus , what with the greenery and the banks of the Red Cedar and all . And it isniceup there . But U of M does riverbank too – the Huron River drift through Nichols Arboretum , one of the most beautiful natural oases you ’ll find on any campus in America . What at last sets Michigan apart from Michigan State – and most every other campus – is how beautifully Ann Arbor ’s Midwestern spell mix the campus . We ’ll just forget about that time that they put that Halo around the Big House .

University of Montana

Missoula , MontanaFew campus bring bookman nearer to their unpaid dreams than the one in Missoula . fix at the base of Mt. Sentinel , the campus encourages students to drop their walk between class ogling said visor , then planning an afternoon in the Rattlesnake National Recreation Area , only 20 minutes away by cycle . Even when they ’re not take in the fully grown sky and gravid tidy sum , student can enjoy 60 unlike styles of computer architecture , from the art deco student union to the Queen Anne Prescott House .

University of Mississippi

Oxford , MississippiWhen you think of great collections of Grecian computer architecture , only one place come to mind : Mississippi . No ? Well , the original campus building , the Lyceum , is a classic blank - columned structure with massive brick wing that anchors an entire historical district within the campus . The Circle , as it ’s known , looks more like an area you ’d bump in DC than Oxford , with recollective , brick buildings stretching throughout . And Ole Miss ’ beauty is n’t specify to the computer architecture , as anyone who ’s spend a Saturday tailgating in the Grove can attest .

University of California, Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz , CaliforniaIn some ways , the University of California at Santa Cruz is stupefy in a glorious hippy time - loop . The campus is basically a twist road , flanked by Redwoods , giving industrial plant lifespan , and a lingering fog of cannabis blow out of dorm rooms . On early mornings , the sun will slice through canopy , puddle this arcadian stoner haven something to savour while everyone ’s asleep . There ’s also the Pacific Ocean – which widen for miles under the campus athletic center – and a population of that deer that roam the campus with impunity . If you may stick out all the reggae and kids waxing poetic about Kierkegaard and Marx , you ’ll find yourself blissing out among the nature . –Sam Blum , News Staff Writer

University at Albany

Albany , New YorkHistorically the standard for a body politic public university arrangement has been California ’s , both in funding and ambition . But do n’t sleep on New York ’s , and do n’t aim through Albany without taking a detour to this unlikely gem of a campus . In his 1999 bookThe Campus as Work of Art , the architect Thomas A. Gaines placed it among the top 10 campuses in America for its design and overall ingathering – and it ’s been handsomely upgraded since . The 2008 expansion of the school ’s Grand Entry Plaza , complete with walk - through fountain , offers enhanced green space , benches , and tree diagram around the existing 50 - year - old architecture , the employment of midcentury modernist Edward Durell Stone . His intent , defend by New York ’s then - governor Nelson Rockefeller , relied on svelte columns and hopeful tones , setting up UAlbany to age graciously . ( Elsewhere , around the same metre , schools opted for a different fashion of the Clarence Shepard Day Jr. , and stern brutalist slab sprouted up American colleges when the sister boom spurred construction sprees . ) Stone tell the schooling ’s student composition in ' 65 : " When all of the wonderful landscaping plan are fulfilled , I believe this campus will liken to Versailles , where there is also corking conventional architectural musical composition . " That ’s the measure the campus has book to for decades since .

University of Florida

Gainesville , FloridaThough most multitude guess this country as a beachy peninsula scrag with murky swampland , its flagship university is none of the above . Yes , OK , the on - campus lake has been rumour to have an alligator or two , but that just adds to the uniquely Floridian tone of the place . The historical campus is file with ruby-red brick building under shady oak Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree and Spanish moss . And as the campus Cascade Range lento down a hillside ( yes , a hill ! In FLORIDA ! ) then gives way to Lake Alice and the pleasant , sub - tropic leafage that surround it .

University of Virginia

Charlottesville , VirginiaThanks in part to its famous rotunda , the UVA campus looks like someone fill Monticello and moved it to Charlottesville . That ’s probably because Thomas Jefferson designed the campus , the only one that ’s entirely a UNESCO world heritage internet site . The neoclassic architecture aside , the campus is 1,682 acres of authoritative Virginia leafage , crap it sense in summer like a public country club during the gloam , a technicolor wonderland .

University of Washington

Seattle , WashingtonAside from thatotherWashington , there is no better place in America to see cherry tree blossoms than at U - dub . The stately , gothic buildings that draw the main quad of campus seem less intimidating when fronted by a sea of frail pink leaves . But even in the summertime and crepuscle , the opinion of Lake Washington from anywhere on campus – and the fact you may tailgate on a gravy boat for football games – make this possibly the most scenic public school in America .

Ohio University

Athens , OhioThough THE Ohio State University gets most of the closet in the Buckeye State , the foxy public campus here is in Athens . It ’s a chef-d’oeuvre of red brick , dot with white columned - buildings and lush foliage . Perhaps the most architecturally fascinating part of campus is The Ridges , a serial publication of buildings on a J. J. Hill above campus that includes the OHIO Ecohouse , a historical construction devote to education in sustainability . Though it ’s nowhere near the water , the campus even shoot a line a “ South Beach , ” a set of sand volleyball courts in a park between bring down schoolroom .

University of North Carolina

Chapel Hill , North CarolinaOutside of Virginia you ’re not break down to discover a public university campus that so beautifully break its storied account . The 729 - acre campus is the old public university in America , and the entire thing was show a home historical site in 1974 . Many of the buildings were designed by famed architect Alexander Jackson Davis , but even those that were n’t are fascinatingly historical . Old East , the UNC ’s oldest residence hall , date stamp all the fashion back to 1793 . And the iconic Old Well , renovate in 1897 , was mock up after the Temple of Love in Versailles . It celebrate green blank in all its word form ; not only is the campus icky with athletics study , it also contains parks , groves , and a cemetery .

University of Vermont

Burlington , VermontNestled on the shores of Lake Champlain in the shadow of the Green Mountains , the campus at UVM is not only surrounded by lifelike beauty , but also boasts the most telling collection of buildings in the state . A trip through the forested walkways on campus bring you past old gothic brick buildings like Williams Science Hall and the Billings Memorial Library . But perhaps the most interesting building on campus is the Old Mill , so named because it look like New England mills of the era . When it burned down in 1824 , the urban center of Burlington actually chipped in so it could be accurately redo .

University of Montevallo

Montevallo , AlabamaThis rural campus between Birmingham and Montgomery could well be the obscure precious stone of Alabama . The campus is awash in classic southerly architecture like Reynolds and Palmer Halls , antebellum bodily structure one would n’t expect in such a remote locus . But the scenic high spot of the campus is in reality about six miles away at the university ’s Ebenezer Swamp , a 60 - acre wetland inquiry center where students study the environmental science of the Cahaba River watershed , or just escape into the wild for a little peace and smooth .

University of Wisconsin

Madison , WisconsinThe water - gazing , pitcher - satiate lam they call Memorial Union Terrace . The Red Gym , all muscle and siege - proof . The nigh 100 vertical feet of Bascom Hill ( It ’s a frigid drumlin ! You ’ll learn that in a course of instruction atop Bascom Hill ! ! ) . These are the handsome hallmarks of UW - Madison . But you might first realize just how unfeignedly pretty the place was when , freshman class , you coin out from the ( overlooked and very gorgeous ) Lakeshore dorms across the glass of Lake Mendota , because it was frozen , and because there were men fish through it hundreds of yard away . MAYBE you ’re imbibe . You ’ll ask them what they were doing ( " fishing " ) , and , wish you ’d had worn a significantly heavier crownwork , then expect back at the coke - touched facade of the campus and guess , Wisconsinly , " Man , this place . This place really is salient . And goddam am I beaming I did n’t go to Michigan . "

College of William & Mary

Williamsburg , VirginiaThough the school is just a endocarp ’s throw from Colonial Williamsburg , one need not go out the campus of America ’s oldest public college to get a serious dose of account . The Sir Christopher Wren building is the Old school day construction still in use in America , and the deep-set garden in the center of the enchanting old campus , designed in the ' 20s , shows off the business leader of a tabula rasa of light-green blank for educatee to flirt on as they will . The campus is full of walking lead and conservation areas , so a day here is as much an escape to nature as it is a story deterrent example . And even in spicy summer months the nuance trees that cover the campus keep it astonishingly nerveless .

University of Colorado

Boulder , ColoradoThough Boulder can bekind of a strange townthere ’s no arguing with its innate beauty , or really any of Colorado ’s . So this campus nestled in the Rocky Mountains is both delicately pose out with cerise brick buildings and its earmark planetarium , and also surrounded by some of the best sights in America . And if the ignition is right at sunset , the colour of the campus buildings absolutely compliment the crown that surround them , cook the whole campus gleam as a natural piece of work of art .

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UAlbany campus