Poly's Revolutionary Architecture

When the trustees of the newly formed Polytechnic Elementary School needed an architectural plan for the school set to open in October 1907, they turned to Myron Hunt, who had three children enrolled in Poly’s parent institution, the Throop Polytechnic Institute. Hunt and his partner Elmer Grey, who later designed projects as wide-ranging as the Rose Bowl, Henry Huntington’s home, Occidental and Pomona Colleges, and Huntington Memorial Hospital, were influenced by the arts and crafts movement, which emphasized simplicity and quality, in drawing up Poly’s original buildings. Wide corridors, unfinished posts, and extensive use of glass characterized the campus plan. In a 1984 Caltech Baxter Hall retrospective on Hunt, the catalogue noted that his plans for Poly were “revolutionary” as virtually all schools were designed as brick boxes with a central corridor and classrooms on each side.