When Laura Lindsay was an LSU student in the sixties, the quadrangle—now known as the Quad—was not much more than a vast lawn dotted with live oaks. “When it rained, we’d take off our shoes and wade through the mud,” she recalled. “There were not as many walkways then, and they weren’t always where they needed to be.”
Today the Quad is a thing of beauty. “In the spring it’s magnificent, with the azaleas blooming and the canopy of the live oak trees,” Lindsay said.
Lindsay, a consultant living in Baton Rouge, is professor emerita in the Manship School of Mass Communication at LSU. In more than thirty years at the university, she has served as faculty member, program director, associate dean, dean, vice provost and provost.
She was pleased that Country Roads readers picked the Quad as their Favorite LSU Landmark from the several possibilities she nominated.
“It was landscaped and redesigned in the 1970s and 1980s when Paul Murrill was chancellor,” she said. “It was a student-faculty effort. It made a huge difference. When I was there, people didn’t hang out in the Quad, but after they did the landscaping and added more walkways and seating areas, it became a huge gathering place for students.”
The Quad is featured in the book The Treasures of LSU, published by LSU Press in 2010 as part of the university’s celebration of its sesquicentennial. Lindsay edited the book, which she described as “a labor of love.”
“I headed the organizing committee to review submissions,” she said. “Faculty, staff and students turned in photos of their nominations for treasures, plus a rationale for why they should be selected. If your treasure was selected, you wrote an article about it. Four fabulous photographers took the pictures. They read the articles and then photographed the treasures. The project took three years. We started work in 2007 and the book came out in September 2010.”
Lindsay is equally proud of her other four nominations for favorite landmarks. “The Claude Shaver Theatre was renovated and taken back to its original 1930s look. The museum at the Shaw Center has great views of the city.
“The new visitor’s center has changed the whole face of the Rural Life Museum. People use the space for large group gatherings and retreats. It’s a great place. The Student Union first opened in 1964 when I was a freshman. It has been a gathering place for decades and was recently remodeled. It is really an amazing place.”
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