Yalemen, like most collegians, have long dwelt in the shadow of the gargoyle. Gothic architecture, with its encrusted spires and ogives, was the accepted way of making scholarship look more scholarly. But no longer. In the past few years more advanced architecture has risen on Yale's 150 acres in New Haven, Conn., than in all of Manhattan with all its forest of new buildings. Some of the Yale structures are ordinary, but the boldest buildings have succeeded in giving modern architecture a host of new directions.
Instead of picking one official architect—such as James...