A Look At The Varsity Apartments

There are things that you walk right by and never photograph. The varsity apartments were one of those things for me. The ivy that covered the walls always looked good, but I always thought that I should wait for another day and different light. Of course the building has been cleaned up, and the ivy is now gone. Part of the fun of this series is for me to take a closer look at those landmarks before they change and/or are gone.

The Varsity Apartments

The Varsity Apartments were built with the garden apartment movement in mind. Instead of getting the most out of the space as with normal apartments the garden apartment tried to give each resident fresh air and a window looking out. The varsity was designed by Walter Scholer with that in mind. When this building opened in 1928 it had an interesting mix of Purdue students, faculty, and then people from everyday walks of life. By the 1940’s the building was occupied by mostly students. This would have been amazing to see this building back then. The front parking lot where I made these images from would have been a courtyard with grass. The ivy would have been fairly new as well. In 1928 when these apartments opened you could have walked over to the Purdue Memorial Union which was just completed four years earlier. This was an amazing time on campus, and Walter Scholer was leading the way. I have a feeling as this project moves on that I will learn more and more about Mr. Scholer.