he serene appearance of the exterior belied the splendors within. Beyond the great portal a richly ornamented columned entrance hall opened, not into customary dark, narrow corridors, but into a vast light-filled, multi-story arcaded space, like the courtyard of an Italian palazzo, but roofed over by an expansive leaded glass skylight from the center of which hung a splendid chandelier. This great room was light in tone, accented with marble and terra cotta trim in the soft buff tints of the exterior, with antique red painted palmettos and borders in the cove of the ceiling. White glazed brick arcades formed the walls of the court, while the floor formed an oriental carpet of tile under foot. On the right a museum, and on the left a library, opened the world of culture and history to the students while directly ahead, an auditorium seating 1,000 made it possible to bring great speakers and artists to the Institute. Broad flights of marble stairs provided access to the corridors that surrounded the court from which classrooms, laboratories, and drawing studios opened in the east and west wings. The result was a new paradigm of the academic building, not the ecclesiastical cloister removed from urban life, but rather the market square at the crossroads of the town center. Because of this splendid court, Drexel has had life at its core ever since, as the banners and placards at test in its sometimes messy but always vital center.

Though seemingly extravagant in so functional a structure, the Great Court, ornamented with casts of classical statuary, had a noble purpose. Here the buildings designers challenged the imagination of the students and faculty and demonstrated that even the modern world of science and technology should not be devoid of aesthetic delight and cultural content. This space, more than any other feature, hinted at the future and perhaps at the most famous Utopian image of its time, the great glass-domed interiors of the visionary landmarks of the year 2000 described in Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward of 1887. In this Utopian novel, Bellamy preached new goals of sexual equality and mutual appreciation of all work- very much the didactic theme of the new Institute.