The physical settings of UVM reveal how and in what ways specific environments contribute to the identity of the University as both connected and separate from the city, manifesting as well the goals and changing emphases of the developing curriculum and mission of the institution.

One of the oldest New England Universities (1791), The University of Vermont occupies a prominent place in the most urban of Vermont's cities. Sited on a hill overlooking Burlington, the placement of the first campus structures initially defined and helped to contain the eastern limits of the city. The first edifice faced west with a dramatic view of Lake Champlain and the Adirondacks. To the east two of the higher peaks of the Green Mountains, Mt. Mansfield and Camel's Hump were clearly visible, giving real meaning to the latin name, Universitas Viridis Montis (University of the Green Mountains).

The gradual development in the nineteenth-century of University Place along a north-south axis in the early 1800's was intersected in the late 1820's by the placement of the Medical School, now Pomeroy Hall, along an east-west axis defined by upper Main Street and Williston Road. The configuration of the irregularly-shaped rectangular campus green began to take shape...

The area to the east of the University Green bordered by Colchester Avenue on the north, the Fletcher Allen Hospital Complex, Medical College, and Stafford Hall on the east; and Main Street to the southeast, is topographically more complex than the University Green. The area is a sloping tiered plateau falling...

Located in the residential section of Burlington's Hill District (South Prospect at Cliff Street) and directly across the street from the earlier designed Cannon estate, Redstone estate is comprised of a main house, (Redstone Hall), stables (Robinson Hall) and gatehouse (Redstone Lodge) and was originally built for the Buell family. The spacious grounds gently slope towards South Prospect...