Lady Eaton College
Japanese influences are evident throughout Lady Eaton College. Two low zigzagging arms reach out from a pivotal administration area to embrace a semi-enclosed court yard. Inside, there is a meditative air and a warmth to the central sunken meeting room. The modest, human proportions of the building situated at the base of a drumlin lend themselves to quiet reflection. This college is also built of concrete but warmed by wooden-roofed walkways. The exterior construction design used board-marked smooth concrete rather than the expensive rubble aggregate used for Champlain College and the library.
Lady Eaton College, like Champlain College, is noted for its orientation towards, and its anchorage within, the landscape. Thom allowed nothing to interfere with the smoky illusion of a concrete building spread along the base of the drumlin. Arthur Erickson wrote in Canadian Interiors (June 1969) that "the gentleness of the terrain is echoed in his compositions, in the way the buildings fold in upon themselves around their intimate courtyards..."
Thom banished his parking lot to an area sheltered by trelliage from the courtyard at Lady Eaton College. As with all his buildings, the car has been "virtually excluded" and "pocketed into small lots so that it seems a diminutive service, rather than an aggressive threat to the university." (Erickson, 1969).
Excerpts from the press release announcing the building of Lady Eaton College, 30 June, 1965
The first new college for women on the permanent site of Trent University is to be named Lady Eaton College, it was announced today by the President and Vice-Chancellor, T.H.B. Symons. The name honours Flora McCrea Eaton, one of the original honorary sponsors of Trent University and a native of the Trent Valley, who has maintained close ties with the area and an active interest in the University.
Lady Eaton College will be a residential and teaching college for about 259 women including both resident and non-resident students, a number of graduate students, and members of the teaching and administrative staff. Preliminary plans for the College include lecture and seminar rooms, tutorial offices, library, common rooms, and dining hall. In addition to residential accommodation, Lady Eaton College will contain some special facilities for non-resident students, living in Peterborough and the surrounding area, who will be active members of the College. Detailed planning for the College is now being done by a committee of the University staff under the chairmanship of Professor Robert Chambers.
Lady Eaton College will be the second of the series of residential and teaching colleges which Trent University plans to build on its 1400-acre campus at Nassau on the Otonabee River on the northern outskirts of Peterborough...
Peterborough
Ontario
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Photo credit: Parks' Peterborough |
... the college... is the basic building block of the campus. It is at the core of Trent's basic philosophy of education... Every member of the university will belong to a college. Each college will represent every discipline, and each college will to a great extent be autonomous... Ron Thom |
Photo credit: Roy Nicholls Photographer |
"The
Pit"
Photo credit: Parks Studio |
Lady
Eaton College at the foot of the drumlin
Photo credit: Parks Studio
Original Plans for Lady Eaton College
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Description of Structure The building is a simple load-bearing wall and poured concrete slab system. Rooms of the resident wings are wood frame construction with built-up asphalt roofing. The roofs over the series of rooms that comprise the Dining Hall, and a similar roof over the Senior Common Room, are of wooden fan truss construction on a central support. Materials and Finishes It is intended to construct all exterior load bearing walls of rubble aggregate concrete. The use of precast concrete panels for the walls is being considered. Interiors of walls and non-structural interior partitions, which are of clay tile, will be rough cast plaster, unpainted. Floors are carpeted throughout for ease of maintenance and sound insulation, except in the Dining Hall or areas where traffic is heavy such as the Gallery. The floors of washrooms and other service areas are vinyl-asbestos tile. Windows are painted steel, with patented sealed double glazing used throughout. Ceilings are exposed smooth finished concrete, except in the upper store of the residence wings where plaster is used. The covered walkways have flat wood frame roofs with built-up asphalt roofing, supported on rubble aggregate concrete pillars from one side of the walkway only. These light flat roofs will be used in other parts of the College such as the Dining Hall, Junior Common Room and Library, in contrast to the load-bearing walls of the residence wings. The Principal's House is of wood frame construction, and has similar light wooden roofs to those of the main college buildings. Rubble aggregate concrete will be used in a minimum number of areas, such as the fireplace.
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(Taken from a report prepared by Thompson, Berwick, Pratt, R.J. Thom, Architect, 26 May 1966. Some of the design elements were changed as construction progressed; for example, no separate Principal's House was built, and rubble aggregate construction was abandoned in favour of smooth concrete for this Thom building.)
