Why Braniff Fountain works where Frassati’s doesn’t
Braniff fountain is not a pretty fountain. Some might even call it ugly, given its boxy design, occasional lack of water and general dirtiness.
Frassati’s, on the other hand, is a lovely part of campus. It’s clean,light and pleasant, and while it may not be aesthetically stunning, it certainly adheres to current aesthetic standards .
Despite their respective “ugliness” and “pleasantness,” many students I’ve talked to genuinely adore Braniff Fountain, and are at best neutral towards Frassati’s.
The dislike of Frassati’s could be attributed to the fact that people simply don’t like change. Perhaps nostalgia, and nothing more, makes students resist renovations. After all, future students won’t have a problem with Frassati’s replacing the bookstore, just as current students don’t care that CFH has replaced the old Carpenter Hall.
However, the concerns about areas like Frassati’s go beyond “it’s new and different.” By contrasting Frassati’s and Braniff Fountain, his article is an attempt to explain exactly what those concerns are.
One of Braniff Fountain’s most praiseworthy aspects is simply that it matches. The boxy structure complements Braniff’s general boxiness, and the details on the side of the fountain balance out the details on the light fixtures.
The warm brick of the fountain also matches the campus at large. UD’s brown-brick aesthetic is an integral part of our campus, and the more that it is taken away, the less cohesive our campus will be.
While Frassati’s and aesthetically similar places like SB Hall and CFH are neat and modern, they’re not “UD buildings” like Braniff, Haggar and the Church of the Incarnation are. UD is a Braniff school, not a CFH school. Renovations that don’t work with our campus work against it, making it less cohesive overall.
Besides being less unified, our campus loses its culture. Frassati’s follows modern aesthetic principles, but it doesn’t really do anything else. Especially on college campuses — where community and culture are deeply important — character and uniqueness matter more than “niceness.”
This is why I appreciate Braniff Fountain and similar parts of campus. While not “nice” like Frassati’s, the fountain has character — and character is why it matters to students.
Braniff Fountain, while not as iconic as the Cap Bar or the Mall, is still important to campus culture. For example, it featured in film fests (the 2023 “The Godfather” parody) and student-led plays (the 2024 production of “Taming of the Shrew”).
We use it in these stories because it’s interesting and unique to UD, like a good inside joke. The character of the fountain gives it importance on campus.
The importance of UD’s aesthetic character is why I genuinely adore the redesign of the Rathskeller. I think this redesign is a fantastic example of how changes should be done on campus. The Dumb Ox looks classier and more put-together than the old Rathskeller, while still preserving and even adding to the character of UD with its brown-and-green color scheme.
I also appreciate the outdoor auditorium in front of the Church of the Incarnation. It adds to campus rather than clashing with it, blending nicely with the hill and contributing to a previously-unused part of campus.
Areas like CFH and Frassati’s don’t really mean anything to students. The extra space is nice, but that’s it — there’s simply nothing else to care about. It’s good and important to continuously renovate and improve, but it’s equally important to do it with care.
This is especially relevant to Frassati’s, because Frassati’s did more than shrink down the bookstore — it shrunk the Cap Bar. The Cap Bar used to be a thriving area for the community. It was THE place for talking, studying or some unholy combination of both.
On admissions tours, the Cap Bar was always pointed to as a center of our culture and community. Now, there is seating near it but not at it — the Cap Bar itself is just a place you walk through.
“Cap bar culture died with Frassati’s,” said senior English major Christi Bales. She further explained that nobody drinks their cap bar drinks in Frassati’s — whether it be the modern aesthetic, the lighting or the cool tones, Frassati’s does not lend itself to catching up with friends.
I’m not against change, but some changes seem to come at the cost of our culture. What is modern now will be outdated later. When we focus too much on making our campus fit modern aesthetics, we lose what makes our campus our campus. Changes to campus should make UD more like UD, rather than making UD more like an airport.
Campus can be made more beautiful, but character is the way to that beauty. Character is what gives our campus culture. If and when more renovations come, they should work with the campus we have rather than trying to change it.
Mary Cavanna is a Junior English major and Art concentration. She is a leader for Blessed is She and has a PhD in Braniff.