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As you walk around the main quad of Davidson College it’s hard to distinguish which buildings are old, and which are new. The continuity of the architecture, with red bricks and white facing, gives the college a consistently quaint feel. Although it seems like each building has been here from the beginning, GIS can help determine which buildings actually have historical value, and which do not. Because historical value isn’t the only measure of value, I have also included my own personal value in this analysis (measured by weather or not I have been to the building).
To measure value I have georeferenced a map of Davidson College in 1915 with Mecklenburg county buildings data. I then clipped the shape file so only Davidson buildings were included. I assigned each building a value from 1-4 depending on their combined historical and personal value. Buildings with a value of 4 have been there since 1915 and I have visited them. Buildings with a value of 3 have not been there since 1915 but I have visited them. Buildings with a value of 2 have been there since 1915 and I have not visited them. Finally, buildings with a value of 1 have not been there since 1915 and I have not visited them.
The above image shows the effectiveness of Davidson College planning. Of all of the buildings, only two have no historical value or value to me. Although I do not accurately represent all Davidson Students, I have been here for four years, so hopefully visited more buildings than not. Using GIS I show that the main campus of Davidson College is highly populated and contains many buildings with high levels of value. It would be interesting to compare this map to a similar map of the newly acquired areas of Davidson’s campus. It would also be interesting to map these measures of value of different students involved in different areas around campus. These maps might show us weather or not Davidson is designed effectively for the diversity of students. The historical map demonstrates how Davidson has managed to keep numerous buildings that are frequently visited (renovated or not) for 100 years.