Duke University is one of the most beautiful campuses country, according to Travel and Leisure Magazine's top 30 list.
Designed by Julian Abele, one of the country's first prominent African American architects, Duke's chapel and its surrounding gothic wonderland have garnered widespread recognition, according to Travel and Leisure. Among its newer additions, there is the glass-walled Karl and Mary Ellen Von der Heyden Pavilion as well as the Rafael Viñoly-designed Nasher Museum of Art, according to the magazine.
The criteria for selecting the finalists out of the approximately 2,600 four-year academic institutions was based on landscaping, architecture and surroundings. These three factors were present in each listed school in various combinations, however, the one's with the most visibly successful results earned the title of being one of the country's best looking schools.
“If you ask freshmen why they chose their colleges, they usually say one of two things,” Baltimore architect Adam Gross, who’s worked on projects at the University of Virginia and Swarthmore, told Travel and Leisure. “Either they got a good financial aid package or they thought the campus was beautiful.”
The winning schools varied from modern-style architecture to idyllic landscaping and colonial buildings.
Other U.S. News and World Report top 20 universities included on the list include Stanford University, University of Notre Dame, Rice University, Cornell University, Princeton University, Yale University and Vanderbilt University.
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