At least Rutgers has the New Street corridor, with its broad steps and welcoming gate. When a college really wants to symbolically demarcate its campus from the outer world it will erect gates like Princeton has on Nassau Street.

When a college really wants to separate itself from the outside community it will do as Seton Hall does and wrap its entire campus in fencing. Seton Hall’s fencing is, in my opinion, even more difficult to understand than Rutgers’ and NJIT’s placement of doors. It’s one thing for an urban campus in a high crime area to make entry for outsiders difficult, but Seton Hall is in bucolic South Orange, NJ.

http://campussqueeze.com/static/20-ugliest-colleges-in-the-USA.html

Number 19 on the list, unsurprisingly, is Rutgers University. It’s a shame that one of the oldest and most distinguished educational institutions in NJ has such sorry architecture. I went to Rutgers-Newark for three years — it really does feel like a prison. While I welcome changes like the new law building which actually created a walkable quad and opened into Halsey St, the university has a long way to come to create the architectural perception of partnership with the city.