The buildings of Nuffield College, one of the colleges of the University of Oxford, are to the west of the city centre of Oxford, England, on the former site of the largely disused basin of the Oxford Canal. Nuffield College was founded in 1937 after a donation to the university by the car manufacturer Lord Nuffield. He rejected the initial designs of the architect Austen Harrison, which were heavily influenced by Mediterranean architecture, describing them as "un-English". Harrison then aimed for "something on the lines of Cotswold domestic architecture", as Nuffield wanted. The college was built to the revised plans between 1949 and 1960. During construction, the tower, about 150 feet (46 m) tall, was redesigned to hold the college's library. Reaction to the architecture has been largely unfavourable. It has been described as "Oxford's biggest monument to barren reaction" and "a hodge-podge from the start". However, the architectural historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner thought that the tower helped the Oxford skyline and predicted that it would "one day be loved". The writer Simon Jenkins doubted Pevsner's prediction, though, saying that "vegetation" was the "best hope" for the tower, and for the rest of the college too.

Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buildings_of_Nuffield_College%2C_Oxford

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1556:

Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer, one of the founders of Anglicanism, was burnt at the stake in Oxford, England, for heresy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Cranmer

1909:

The remains of the Báb, one of three central figures of the Bahá'í Faith, were interred by `Abdu'l-Bahá in Haifa, present-day Israel. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%A1b

1943:

Second World War: Wehrmacht officer Rudolf Christoph von Gersdorff attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler by suicide bombing, but had to abort the plan at the last minute. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Christoph_Freiherr_von_Gersdorff

2002:

British schoolgirl Amanda Dowler was abducted on her way home from Heathside School in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Amanda_Dowler

2006:

A man using a hammer smashed the statue of Phra Phrom in the Erawan Shrine in Bangkok, Thailand, and was subsequently beaten to death by bystanders. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erawan_Shrine

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

itchy trigger finger (n): (idiomatic) A tendency to act in haste or without consideration http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/itchy_trigger_finger

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

The year's at the spring,

And day's at the morn; Morning's at seven; The hill-side's dew-pearl'd;

The lark's on the wing; The snail's on the thorn;</br>God's in His heaven —

All's right with the world! --Robert Browning http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Browning