By James W. Dolan

A brisk walk on a beautiful, fall day around Columbia Point is a stark reminder of the architectural abomination that is UMass-Boston. There is, however, a bright side. A soon to open new campus center, designed by Kallmann, McKinnell & Wood, is a welcome addition to that slug of a campus.

There is no more beautiful location in all of New England and, like the nearby John F. Kennedy Library, the new building embraces its surroundings. A white façade, generously windowed, smiles on the peninsula and harbor. In stark contrast, the adjacent grim fortress scowls at its environs.

The original campus design was an insult to the city, the students and a graceful site that pleaded for structures that would lovingly reflect its beauty. Several people involved in the construction of the campus, including some state legislators, went to jail in the aftermath of a scandal. Unfortunately, I think the architects avoided prosecution. It was as if they modeled the campus on the old incinerator that still stands nearby.

It is so ugly and uninviting that at the time of its construction I thought it was designed as a warning to the residents of Dorchester and more specifically the Columbia Point Housing Project to keep out. With that design, you didn't need a sign. The project was long ago transformed and the campus is only now showing signs of renewal.

Turning its back on the harbor, the fortress campus faces a cold, dark, ugly, barren cement plaza that makes City Hall Plaza look like Rockefeller Center. It must have taken a conscious effort to design something that bad on that spot. Tiny windows squint out on the harbor filtering out the natural light and casting dark shadows on those seeking knowledge within.

As a college campus, it would have made a great prison. Instead of an open design to underscore the openness to ideas so much a part of a great university, it turned in upon itself. It was a terrible design within which to learn yet thousands of students, who deserved better, did so.

Unfortunately, the Massachusetts Archives, lacking the scale of its massive neighbor, also projects a bunker appearance. Perhaps the architect felt that the state archives should look like a safety deposit box. It has few windows and a bank-like granite façade.

Like another failed building, once hailed by some as an architectural gem, Boston City Hall, UMass-Boston (never hailed by anyone) serves as a reminder that public buildings should be uplifting as well as utilitarian. The structures should reflect the best of what is happening inside. They should seek to represent the best in us and be sensitive to their contexts and not some warped notion of art.

At last there is a building that hopefully will begin a slow transformation of that campus. It could and should be one of the most beautiful urban campuses in the country. Few can boast an oceanfront location a stone's throw from downtown. John Silber would have been ecstatic if Boston University had been able to capture such a location. I expect he also would have done it justice.

Walking the perimeter of the peninsula is every bit as beautiful as walking around Pleasure Bay and Castle Island. You can usually park in the JFK Library or the state archives parking lot.

UMass is a great asset to the city and particularly to Dorchester. Any redesign should not only reflect the natural beauty that surrounds it but should reach out to its neighbors, welcoming them to participate in campus life.

Had the surrounding residents any say at all in the original design of the campus, I expect it would look quite different than it does today. One need not know much about architecture to find that design ugly. It would have been ugly had it been built on the grounds of the old Boston State Hospital. On a promontory overlooking the harbor islands and the city skyline, it is a disaster.

We must remain vigilant so that bad buildings, monuments to poor taste and indifference, will not defile our public spaces. Buildings serve as a measure of what a society truly values. Let ours be noble, handsome, open, useful and inclusive, embracing their surroundings and persons both inside and out. Our institutions of higher learning should be the example.