[iiAmerica]

I was wondering if anyone knew how much the Saybrook College and/or Harkness Tower cost to build at Yale University.

[Alty]

A lot!

You do realize that Yale is not a new construction. What it cost back in the day, fails in comparison to what it would cost to build today.

[iiAmerica]

A lot!

You do realize that Yale is not a new construction. What it cost back in the day, fails in comparison to what it would cost to build today.

Oh I know that they're old and the price difference would be distorted due to inflation, but they weren't built so far back that it'd be impossible to guesstimate. Shaybrook was founded in 1933, and the Harkness Tower in 1921, so they're both still 20th century buildings. I was just wondering how many millions would be a good estimate, if it was single digit millions or hundreds of millions. I'm not an architect or construction worker so I have no knowledge of what those kinds of structures would cost nowadays.

[Alty]

I suggest you contact Yale, or do some research. I googled and couldn't find anything. But I didn't spend a considerable amount of time on it, since it's not important to me. Since it is important to you, for some reason, do the research, put in the effort. Finding someone online that knows the cost off the top of their head, is unlikely.

Also, you should look into inflation. Things were considerably cheaper in 1921, and 1933, than they are now. Considerably! I was born in 1970. When I was born, a home where I live now, cost less than $20,000, brand new, huge lot, lots of square feet. You could buy a new car, high end, for less than $3000. Today, where I live, you're lucky if you can find a run down home that needs a lot of work, tiny, and barely any land, for less than $350,000. A new vehicle, with nothing in it, no bells, no whistles, will cost you over $20,000. If you want high end, you're looking at nearly $100,000 or more. That's since the 70's, your time frame is almost 50 years before that!

Let me put it this way. My mother in law (RIP) bought a home in our town in the late 1960's. She paid $15,000 for it, brand new. It's a bungalow, over 2500 sq feet on a half acre lot. She died 8 years ago. Her house sold last year for almost $400,000.

A guess would be well into the hundreds of millions, if not into the billions.

[Wondergirl]

from Wikipedia -- "After Anna's and Stephen's son Charles W. Harkness died in 1917, Anna Harkness gave $3 million to Yale University for the construction of Memorial Quadrangle in Charles' memory including Harkness Tower, the most visible symbol of Yale on the New Haven skyscape."

[iiAmerica]

That's actually better for what I was looking for actually, since it shows the cost of the whole section of the school, including several separate colleges. And from what I see, that donation was about $60 million in today's money. Not too bad considering it covered an entire blocks worth of construction. Thanks for the find!