School Days, Part II: Korea University

Along with SNU and Yonsei, Korea University is widely regarded as one of Korea’s top three universities. For those counting, it’s also the alma mater of both current Korean president Lee Myung-bak and current Seoul mayor Oh Se-hoon. Its history goes back to 1905, and it is home to two beautiful pieces of early modern architecture, the Main Hall and Central Library.

History

Korea University occupies a place of honor in the history of Korean education. The school was founded as Bosung College in 1905 by Yi Yong-ik, a leading pro-Russian, anti-Japanese minister in the Daehan Empire government. The idea was to “Save the nation through education.” Well, it didn’t work, and the Japanese took over the country anyway, but Bosung College still goes down as the first modern higher educational institution founded by a Korean (as opposed to Yonsei and Ewha, founded by Americans, and SNU, founded by the Japanese).

Japanese interference and poor management led to financial difficulties, and in 1932 the school was acquired by Kim Song-su. I’m just going to copy-and-paste what I wrote about Kim in my post about Choong Ang High School:

Kim Song-su.

Educator. Journalist. Statesman. Father of Korean capitalism. Early proponent of liberal democracy in Korea.

And, depending on your particular point of view, big-time Japanese collaborator.

Anyway, Kim — who was born into a family of wealthy Jeollabuk-do landowners in 1891 — purchased Choong Ang High School in 1915, just after returning to Korea with a degree in political economy from Japan’s Waseda University. He founded the Dong-A Ilbo in 1920, and bought Korea University in 1932 (which, like Choong Ang High School, had been founded to promote Korean education, and like Choong Ang High School, had fallen into management difficulties). He spent the war years promoting the Japanese war effort (or so he is accused), but after Japan’s surrender, he ended up an adviser to the US Military Government in Korea. He eventually founded the Korea Democratic Party (the ancestor of today’s Democratic Party) and became Korea’s second vice president in 1951 before resigning the next year over President Syngman Rhee’s dictatorial tendencies (or because of a stroke). He died three years later in 1955.

Kim moved the school to its present location in Anam-dong, employing Korean architect Kim Dong-jin — the son of a late friend — to build a wonderful Gothic Revival campus of the type loved by American university architects.

In 1946, Bosung College became a full-fledged university, and changed its name to Korea University.

Front Gate

Pretty old as far as front gates go, completed in 1971.

Kim Song-su Statue

Anybody wanna play “spot the Japanese collaborator?”

The statue dates from 1959, and has survived at least one attempt by students to pull it down, in 1989 (which required police intervention).

Main Hall

Gotta love those decorative buttresses along the central tower.

From the Cultural Properties of Seoul:

Once the main building of Boseong School, the building was completed in September of 1934 after a year’s building work on a site purchased by Kim Seong-su in the previous year. A three-storied steel-concrete structure with a garret, the building was constructed by a Japanese builder Hujita Kogiro according to the design by Park Dong-jin.

Park carried out an extensive research on university buildings in the West before making his design for this building. He particularly focused on the harmony between the building and the surrounding natural environment, effective use of construction materials and practicality in the use of floors. It is said that Kim Seong-su actively participated in the design of the building.

Standing against a leafy wood, the building is in a symmetrical H-shaped form. The rooms facing the south are mainly offices and meeting rooms while the rooms in the garret are used as study rooms for professors. The building shows various Gothic elements such as Tudor arches (1st fl.), twin arch windows (3rd and 5th fl.), rectangular windows (2nd and 4th fl.), flat buttress, dormers and top decorations. The building is often regarded as a symbol of private institution for advanced learning established by Korean nationalists during the Japanese colonial rule of Korea.

Kim obviously liked what Park gave him, because after Korea University was done, he employed him again to build the Main Hall of Joong Ang High School in similar style. For that matter, Park himself must have liked what he did, because it seems everything he did afterwards — including Korea University, Joong Ang High School, Dongdaemoon Presbyterian Church and Young Nak Presbyterian Church — was done in the same Tudor Gothic style. To be fair to Park, the party line is that he sought to use the framework of Gothic Revivalism to capture Korea’s national spirit. No, I don’t really buy it, and lest anyone forget, Park was employed by the architecture bureau of the Government-General. Still, he was one of Korea’s first trained modern architects, and when you visit Korea University, you should remember that it’s a school designed by Koreans for Koreans with Korean capital… collaborator or not.

UPDATE: OK, Park Dong-jin’s life probably deserves a better look — his story is very much a product of his times.

Park was born in what is now North Korea, and attended Osan High School in Chongju, also in what is now North Korea. In 1918, he entered Gyeongseong Special Industrial School (now SNU’s engineering school), but the following year, he was arrested for participation in the March 1 Independence Movement and imprisoned for six months.

After his release, he wandered around Manchura and elsewhere before reentering Gyeongseong Special Industrial School, finally graduating in 1924. After graduation, he went to work for the Government-General, becoming an assistant architectural engineer and then, in 1937, a full architectural engineer.

From 1933 to 1937, he worked on what is now Korea University. In 1939, he founded his own architectural firm, which he ran until 1950. In 1951, he went to work as a professor at what is now Yeongnam University in Daegu, and in 1953, he opened his own architectural research center. He was given an award by the Architectural Institute of Korea in 1976 before passing away in Los Angeles in 1981.

Central Library

The Central Library, meanwhile, was completed in 1937. From the Cultural Properties of Seoul:

The building of Central Library in Korea University began to be built in June, 1935, and completed in September, 1937. The building consists of a three-story main building and a five-story tower. This steel-concrete structure whose total floorage is 4,089㎡ was designed by Park Dong-jin (1899~1980).

The building, an L-shaped structure, contains study rooms for professors (1st fl.), main reading hall (2nd fl.), bookroom (3rd fl.) and exhibition rooms (other floors). As a Gothic style structure, the building shows the characteristic elements such as pointed and round-arched windows, turrets, and flat buttresses.

What’s not mentioned here is that in designing the structure, Park apparently referenced the library of the alma mater of then-Bosung University professor Oh Cheon-seok, Duke University. So, if you’re a Dukie, and you think this building looks oddly like the library of your school, there’s a reason.

Old Class Hall

Probably also designed by Park Dong-jin, this hall was built in 1957… and looks it.