A present Fellow of Trinity once observed that the architecture of the College reminded him of the music of Handel. One sees this at once the beautiful West Front, the porticos of Sir William Chambers in the Front Square, the gracious lines of classical architecture (Maxwell, 1956, p. 1).
Professor Constantia Maxwell, professor at and historian of Trinity College Dublin, chose to begin her history of the College with a reference to its stately architecture, with its eighteenth century neoclassical restraint, which she goes on to contrast to the turbulent late sixteenth century, in which the College was founded.
Indeed, the architecture of the College is what first and most directly impresses the visitor. Its academic tradition is no more obviously visible than that of any other university. The treasures of its library, which include the Book of Kells, can only be discovered by a leisurely examination of its stacks and collections. But its architecture immediately captures the visitor's attention. The main entrance to the campus is through the great, porticoed West Front. On passing through this structure, the visitor enters
... a vast open square ... of granite and brick, cobblestones and lawn, trees, sky, and (usually) quietness, the spacious formality of which is unparalleled in the Collegiate architecture of the British Isles (McParland, 1976, p. 1166).
College campuses are one of the most distinctive types of architectural entity. Commonly a college or university campus is formed of a whole complex of buildings, often of different dates and in different styles, organized along the sides of quadrangles or squares, forming as a whole an "urban space" entirely different in its principles of organization from the grid of city blocks separated by streets that forms the typical urban landscape. To pass from the city into a college campus is to enter a different world, a world of pedestrians or bicycle riders...