Walking Tour
Welcome to the Atlanta campus of Emory University. It would take several days to see all the facilities on Emory’s 630-acre main campus, where Emory College, the University’s seven professional and graduate schools, numerous research and health care facilities, libraries, computer labs and recreational offerings are located. Nevertheless, we have created a walking tour that will give you a glimpse of life on this campus. It should take you about an hour and fifteen minutes to complete.
Many of the facilities on the tour have been recently constructed or renovated, with an eye toward maintaining Emory’s original Italianate architectural style. As we continue to expand and improve our campus, we are leaving as much green space in place as possible as well as creating pedestrian-friendly walkways and gathering places for students, faculty, and staff.
Our tour begins at the Oxford Road Building, located on the edge of campus near Emory’s main gates. This building, opened in 2010, houses the Office of Undergraduate Admission and Emory’s Barnes and Noble Bookstore, where students and visitors can peruse through a wide selection of Emory apparel, best sellers, and textbooks. The building also contains the University Living Room, a common space for all students of the University to gather and share, as well as a Starbucks - the largest collegiate Starbucks in the nation.
Leaving the Oxford Road Building, you will pass through Anne Register Jones Courtyard, which is bordered by the Boisfeuillet (pronounced Bo-fill-lay) Jones Center (directly in front) and the Math and Science Center (to the left). Commonly referred to as the B. Jones Building, this building is named for the late Emory alumnus, administrator, and trustee who also held a top post in the Kennedy Administration. The center contains the Career Center, Office of Financial Aid, Student Financial Services and Student Records.
The Math and Science Center, dedicated in 2002, is home to the departments of Mathematics, Computer Science, Physics, and Environmental Studies. This innovative facility also features a planetarium and a research-grade rooftop telescope and astronomy observatory. The center was designed using “green” building principles, incorporating energy and water conservation and recycling into its design and construction.
Continuing across the street, you will walk past White Hall and the Administration Building on your way to the Quadrangle. White Hall, named for an alumnus and former Emory President Goodrich C. White, is one of the primary lecture-style classroom buildings for Emory College’s 5,500 undergraduates. To your right is the Administration Building, which houses the Office of the President of the University, Dr. James W. Wagner, the Provost, Earl Lewis, and various other deans and administrators. Additionally, this building houses Emory’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Admission Office and the Office of Disability Services.
Beyond the Administration building lays the academic heart of Emory’s campus, the Quadrangle. The rolling hills of Georgia’s piedmont region reminded Emory’s original architect, Henry Hornbostel, of northern Italy, so the Quadrangle buildings were constructed in the Italian Renaissance style out of pink and gray Georgia marble with red tile roofs. This picturesque area on campus is home to the oldest buildings on campus, as this is where the first buildings were constructed when Emory made its historic move to Atlanta at the turn of the 20th century. Throughout the day, especially with great weather, you will find many undergraduates out and about on the Quad, whether they are just passing through on their way to class, playing Frisbee or football with their peers, or gathered together engaging in their professor’s lecture when class is held outside. Additionally, this is the site of the infamous Coke Toast that welcomes students to Emory during Orientation of their freshman year and Commencement is held on the Quad with great fanfare each May.
Continuing on the quad, you will pass the Margaret A. Pitts Theology Library on the left, one of the three largest theological libraries in the nation and a great place to study on campus. Directly across the quad from Pitts, you will see a seemingly mirror-image of the building in Michael C. Carlos Hall, home to the Art History department.
Attached to Michael C. Carlos Hall, you will find the Michael C. Carlos Museum, the largest collegiate museum in the Southeast. Renowned architect Michael Graves designed the interior renovation of Carlos Hall and the main museum building. The museum showcases a distinguished collection of ancient art and archaeological objects from Egypt and Nubia, the Near East, the Americas, Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, as well as classical artifacts from Greek and Roman sites and special exhibits from some of the world’s great museums. If you want to take a break at this point, the museum’s Café Antico on the third floor is a great place to have a bite to eat.
Bringing your attention back to the opposite side of the quad, you will see Cannon Chapel off to the left. Designed by architect Paul Rudolph, whose father was a member of Candler School of Theology’s first graduating class in 1915, Cannon Chapel is the site of weekly religious worship services and other programming. Today students from many religious backgrounds practice their faiths on campus. Feel free to go inside and take a look around.
Continue walking and to your left you will see the Loula Walker and Ely Reeves Callaway Sr. Memorial Center, named for the parents of Emory alumnus Ely Callaway of Callaway Wine and Callaway Golf fame. Built in 1919 as the physics and chemistry buildings, the center now provides office and classroom space for several departments in the humanities, including the classics, English, foreign languages, religion and women’s studies.
At the head of the quad is Candler Library, originally completed in 1926 and named for Asa Griggs Candler, who donated the land for Emory’s move to Atlanta and Druid Hills in 1915. Adjacent to Candler library, you will see the last of the buildings on the quad, Bowden Hall. Bowden, and the Rich Building behind it, house the departments of history and philosophy. Bowden Hall was named after the Chairman of the Board of Trustees who defended integration against the State of Georgia’s wishes. Georgia threatened to take away the school’s tax-exempt status if it integrated and Henry Bowden took the state to court.
Facing Bowden Hall, take a left and you will be situated in front of the Robert W. Woodruff Library, the main of seven libraries on campus. Access to Woodruff Library is usually restricted to students, faculty and staff. When you enter, let the attendant know you are a campus visitor and would like to look around. For a great bird’s eye view of the campus and a fabulous view of the Atlanta skyline, take the elevator up to the 10th floor of the library and access the wrap-around balcony through our Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books Library (MARBL) section.
Leaving the library, turn right and continue up to the top of the hill. Up to the right lies the Goizueta Business School, completed in 1997 and named for the late Roberto C. Goizueta, former chair and CEO of the Coca-Cola Company and Trustee of Emory. The business school offers undergraduate, masters, and doctoral degrees, as well as executive education. The business school is consistently ranked as one of the top in the nation for all of its programs and offers students unparalleled access to resources on and off Emory’s campus.
Beyond Goizueta is the Donna and Marvin Schwartz Center for Performing Arts. Completed in 2003, the Schwartz Center houses the renowned 825-seat Emerson Concert Hall, a dance studio, theater lab, multiple classrooms and rehearsal spaces. This space is home to more than 250+ arts events each year, most of which are free to students.
Continue down to your left and you will pass the Emory Hospital. Emory Healthcare, including Emory University Hospital and the Emory Clinic, is one of the finest healthcare systems in the nation. As the hospital is centrally located on Emory’s main campus, students have access to the facilities not only for health purposes, but also for experience in shadowing and researching. In addition to the Emory Hospital, Emory is also affiliated with Children’s Hospital of Atlanta, Egleston (across Clifton Road), the Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University Hospital Midtown, as well as Grady Memorial Hospital.
To directly service students’ health needs, Emory University Student Health Services (EUSHS) is located at 1525 Clifton Road and provides a wide variety of outpatient clinical and health education services designed to meet the needs of Emory students. During fall and spring semesters, EUSHS offers a Saturday urgent care clinic. An EUSHS physician is also on call for after-hours telephone consultation regarding urgent medical problems and concerns.
Up next on your right, you will find Cox Hall. Cox Hall food court is one of the campus’s primary dining spots: here you will often find students from all of Emory’s schools grabbing a quick bite to eat or dining with friends. Cox Hall’s second floor houses an ultramodern computer lab. The facility was designed to create not just space where students can type papers but also a space where they can eat and socialize with friends, utilize the classrooms and meeting spaces, or make an iMovie for class. The space contains more than 80 computers, all of which are dual-boot iMacs.
As you pass by Cox, you are now entering Asbury Circle – a central hub of campus and home to Wonderful Wednesdays. Wonderful Wednesdays is a tradition that students have revived by having a campus event in Asbury circle most Wednesdays. Each week a different campus organization sponsors the event and may assign a theme. Wonderful Wednesdays of the past have featured a petting zoo, a bouncy castle (c’mon, they’re not just for kids!) and ice-cream tasting. They’re always wonderful. And they’re always on Wednesday!
To the left of Cox Hall is the R. Howard Dobbs University Center, a central campus gathering spot fondly known as “the DUC,” pronounced “duck.” The building perfectly highlights Emory’s blending of the old and new, with a 1986 addition attached to the original façade of the old student center, still visible in the busy Coca-Cola Commons. The DUC houses a dining hall, the main Emory bookstore, a credit union and numerous ATMs, the University Post Office, the Mary Gray Munroe Theater, Harland Cinema, a game room, the offices of Campus Life staff, and many student organizations.
Continue left along Asbury Circle to Few and Evans halls. Two of Emory’s newer residence halls, Few and Evans are exclusively for freshman residents. These “green” housing spaces incorporate features such as solar-powered cistern pumps, an energy-recovering air conditioning system and energy monitors that display consumption throughout the buildings. Few and Evans contain plentiful program and multipurpose space, including a media den, a demonstration kitchen and indoor storage for 43 bicycles. The residence halls are home to one of Emory’s newest living-learning communities: Living Green: Sustainability in the 21st Century.
Across Asbury Circle from the DUC is Dobbs Hall, completed in 1916 as the first residence hall on campus. It is still prized by students due to its prime location—roll out of bed and you can still make your freshman English class in five minutes. Next door is the George W. Woodruff Physical Education Center, or “WoodPEC” - a spot where community members, including 80 percent of Emory students, come to work out, take physical education classes, and participate in all manner of sports both competitive and recreational. Visitors should tell the attendant they are touring the campus and would like to look around. The WoodPEC offers several basketball courts, racquetball courts, a dance studio, cardiotheater, an indoor track, a rock-climbing wall, an Olympic-size pool, weight machines and free weights, and indoor and outdoor tennis courts and tracks. For the last several years Emory has finished in the top 10 nationally in the NACDA Directors’ Cup standings for best all-around athletics program in NCAA Division III.
Leave the WoodPEC and begin your stroll back to the Office of Undergraduate Admission. Along the way, pass by the School of Theology, the Center for Ethics, and Cherry Logan Emerson Hall. Completed in 2001 and named for the Emory benefactor and chemistry alumnus, Emerson Hall blends contemporary windows and gray columns with Emory’s trademark marble and red tile roof to serve as a bridge between modern and traditional campus architecture. Also at this juncture is the Sanford S. Atwood Chemistry Center, named for the former University president and home to the Department of Chemistry and its labs, classrooms and library.
Located next door to Atwood Hall, the Psychology Building houses Emory’s newest classroom, office and laboratory space. Part of a science commons comprising the Math and Science Center and the Chemistry Building, the building houses all of the offices and labs of Emory’s Department of Psychology, ranked eighth in the nation by the Chronicle of Higher Education in 2007 for the amount of research it produces. The building incorporates new technologies involved in the study of the human mind and behavior including functional magnetic resonance imaging, one of a handful of academic psychology facilities to do so.