As I walk around campus....

As I walked around campus, I pushed myself to try to take notice of some of the buildings which I hadn’t seen before. I tried to take note of some of the buildings which once sparked my curiosity. Some of the buildings which struck me as interesting to explore were the Art design building, Altgeld hall and the Granger Library. It seems like a random selection of buildings but they were just buildings which I happened to hear so much about, yet never really saw for myself, so I decided to go on and check them out. Here’s what I found.
The first building I went to check out was the Grainger library. At first when I was walking towards it, what intrigued me about the campus was the fact that it seemed like it was built on a whimsical, secluded fairy tale land since the walkway to get to it had a bridge and some ponds surrounding it. The land which the library was on seemed as if it was secluded and exclusively for a certain group of students since it was quite distant from the other buildings on campus. It seemed like it was built as a sort of getaway spot since it had a bridge way which to had to cross over a river in order to get to it. This gave me the sense that is was like a right of passage to engineering students. What’s also cool about the structure of the building is that it does look quite creative, so that once you cross the bridge it seems like you enter another world or a portal to another imaginary campus away from the structure of the regular campus. The very site of the engineering quad seems to encourage the attitude of creativity and the imaginative nature of the engineering career and its aspiring students. The inside of course, followed this idea of creativity with balconies overlooking tables of silent hard working students, and long chandelier lamps. It did seem to look like a regular library though, except for the sense of warmth that lights up the room with the huge glass windows which let in sunlight on all the levels. Through this visit I finally got to see what it was about this library that everyone kept talking about. I always thought that it would be limited to engineering students, yet that couldn’t have been further from the truth. As everyone has always told me, the atmosphere is quite welcoming to all students and it does seem like one of the best place on campus to study.
The second building I took a look at was the Art design building. I have always seen it there next to the law library and wondered whether it incorporates any elements of design or creativity to it. From the outside of the building, I noticed that it has a pretty simple looking structure, with nothing designed or artistic about it. I always found this ironic since the only thing that seemed to capture my attention about it was the cube in front of it which was inscribed with symbols and tilted at angle. I expected that an art and design building would have more of a high-tech creativity to it on at least the outside of it so I wasn’t expecting a not so eye catching building. The inside seemed just as uninspired in its design as the outside since it seemed to have a grungy, old feel to it instead of the modern artistic one I thought it might instead have. The thing that seemed to save the building for me was the display of art found at all of the floors of the building of students. Another thing which I found cool was the way the building is connected to the actual Kranhert Art Museum. This seemed to convey the message to me that the Art and Design building is the starting point for student, yet eventually they might possibly excel to the higher artistic level of having their art displayed in an actual museum, which must be the crowning achievement for an artist. This seems to convey the message that to art students that the future of reaching this achievement is at their grasp with hard work.
The third building was the Altgeld building which I heard so much from friends of mine which were taking math. I always thought it was one of the most attractive buildings on campus because of its castle like qualities and the fact that it is where the sounds of the campus bell are rung. One of the things I found interesting about this building besides the stone work which makes it appear to look like a castle, what most people might not notice about the building was that it has the inscription at the top of it saying “law building”. Maybe it was the original law building before it became the math building which everyone is so familiar with. On the inside of the building are some standard class rooms some with green boards and a library all of which seem to evoke memories of the hallways seen in high school and the bells heard from the tower of the building. I could also notice from the inside of the building, the fact the building is one of the oldest on campus, from the paintwork and unleveled flooring. Some things I found interesting about it was its upper level lecture halls which seem hidden by the weird numbering of the classrooms. I also found the design of the winding staircase since it had a classical look to it which seemed to add to the buildings antique, castle like look. What I found weird about it was the fact that it appeared to look more like a law building than it did a math building since it had a sense of prestige and antiquity that I would expect from a law building and lacked thing like precision and specifically detailed designs and elements of mathematics such as measurement and logistical images like puzzles that might be found in a mathematics building.
From most of these buildings, I got a sense of the area of study which each building conveyed and what it might say about the students which often occupy them as well as learned something new about different buildings on campus which I’ve heard about and have now experienced.
-AveMaria Okolo