8. Columbia University/City College + Kyung Hee University

Kyung Hee Central Library (left); City College’s Shepard Hall (right)

Kyung Hee University’s central library also seems like a dead ringer of City College’s Shepard Hall, which was completed in 1907 by renowned architect George Post. Moreover, there are striking similarities between City College’s now demolished Lewisohn Stadium and Kyung Hee Stadium:

Kyung Hee Stadium

Lewisohn Stadium. Image via Wikimedia: public domain

Also, check out Kyung Hee University’s Alma Mater, which bears a striking similarity to Columbia’s:

What is going on? Most of the material on Kyung-Hee’s architectural history is in Korean. Dr. Choue, in trying to create a truly global university, was likely emulating the campus architecture within a paradigmatic global city, New York City. What might seem at first glance to be to be an example of post-modern, de-contextualized trickery was, at the time, a quite earnest effort to cultivate an international perspective within a new university.