Week Two Observations

The tour on January 27th featured a walk along the main quad, Bardeen quad, and Beckman quad respectively.  We discussed the orientation of each quad and the various devices and concepts used to organize each of the spaces.

The main quad was easily the most well organized of the three quads, housing many buildings of the college of Liberal Arts and Sciences.  The various buildings line the perimeter of the rectangular quad, sharing a common edge and similar heights to provide a sense of enclosure for the quad.  Their organization was described as that of a dinner table, with each of the "guests" organized according to their status.  In this analogy Foellinger and the Union represent the most important members, seated at the two heads, with each of the remaining buildings filing in along the sides.  To augment the enclosed nature of the main quad, trees line the inner face of the outer walkway, creating "corridors" in much the same way that was observed on the south quad in week one.

Interesting quirks about the main quad were that the Henry Administration building is asymmetrical, as it awaits an addition on the side nearest to Altgeld Hall.  The Illini Union has a similar feature, as it lacks a pavilion on its right side.  The presence of Harker Hall, now protected as a historical landmark, prevented the addition of the final pavilion, giving the Union a lopsided appearance.

The really weird stuff started to happen when we headed north to the Bardeen quad.  For one reason or another, Engineering Hall and Grainger Library didn't line up with the already established primary axis of the main and south quads.  Because of this, a new organizing axis needed to be created.  Beginning from the rightmost pavilion of the Union--from the front of the Union--a new axis runs along the western side of the Bardeen Quad.  Continuing the theme of enclosing the walkways, trees line this path as it runs the length of the quad.  The engineers decided to throw a little topographical diversity our way, so they included a drainage creek and some rolling hills on the Bardeen quad, along with a marvelous sculpture necessitated by law.  One thing about the Grainger Library that I found interesting is its curved shape, which is apparently used to direct the sound from the various bells of the campus towards the center of the quad.  What I noticed about it was that it was similar to the design of one of the buildings in the Experiencing Architecture required reading, and it almost makes you think that the library is reaching out to hug you.  But enough about Bardeen.

Continuing the theme of strange axes, Bardeen's axis meets with the central door of the Kenney Gym Annex.  With the connection established, the Beckman quad creates a third axis that runs north to meet the entrance of the Beckman Institute.  To me, the Beckman quad feels even less like a quad than the Bardeen quad, and to be frank, it reminds me of a prison courtyard.  All of the buildings--whether it's the new ECE building, the Beckman institute, or the Coordinated Science Laboratory--seem to be too big for the space in which they are located, and the effect that I get from it is a constricting feeling.  I've only truly experienced it this semester because I am currently taking a class in the ECE building, but I consider myself lucky that I have not had to spend any considerable time on this quad.

Our tour on the 29th was much less architecture intensive and much more loud noises intensive.  A rudimentary understanding of power generation was the destination and the Abbot power plant at Gregory and Oak was our conduit as we embarked on a one hour journey of wonder and fulfillment.  All that aside, it was quite the interesting tour.

Rapid fire nuggets of knowledge I obtained:

• They're still using the first three boilers from when the plant was first built.
• They use a combination of natural gas, coal, and oil to produce steam that runs through the steam tunnels and heats up all our buildings.
• They provide about 30 MW of power on average to the campus.
• They do NOT supply all of the power for the campus.
• They had an outage a few years ago that really got the rumblies going amongst the higher ups at the university.
• It can get up to one hundred eighty degrees (Fahrenheit, that is) in the steam tunnels.  That's deterrent enough for me not to go gallivanting around down there.
• Not knowledge, but I got a hefty nugget of spent coal from the plant.  I can't be bothered to post a picture because that would require an understanding of technology I have not yet attained.
• I'm actually just lazy ^^

Even if I couldn't always hear our guide, it was interesting simply to walk around the plant.  There are so many moving parts in that plant and they're all analyzed from a tiny control room with a bunch of monitors.  It's very interesting how all of the individual components and machinery come together to provide power for the university.  We got to see the conveyor system that transports coal to the furnaces, and we even got to see inside of furnaces that were currently firing--lots of burning coal.

On the tour it appeared that there was a division between the "old" plant and the "new" plant, which seemed to separate the coal firing furnaces from the natural gas furnaces.  I thought it was an interesting dynamic analogous to the state of power generation in the United States, as we attempt to move away from coal and its unconscionable side effects to natural gas and its less unconscionable side effects.  The natural gas area appeared much more clean than the coal area, most likely by virtue of the nature of each type of fuel, but I couldn't help feeling like I had travelled from a factory from the turn of the century to one of the future as we crossed that threshold.

All in all it was a fun experience.  I got to learn a bit about power, I got to walk through a gritty power plant, and I even got a souvenir.  On a scale from one to ten, this one comes in at a solid eight.  Given the opportunity I would probably go on it again, if only to be able to hear a bit more.  As a mechanical engineer I might be working in a place like that some day.  But hopefully not, because while it was interesting, I don't know if it was that interesting.

Week One Obsevations

    I will preface this by saying that this class in its first two days has probably been the most interesting CHP class I’ve taken so far.

    The walk on the 20th began with a tour of the south quad and an examination of the structure and arrangement of the campus as a whole.  The stock pavilion, the focal point of the agricultural quad, served as a place of gathering for livestock shows and similar events.  As somewhat of a “Foellinger of the south quad,” it lies on the primary axis of the campus, in line with the bell tower, Foellinger Auditorium and the Student Union of the main quad, and Grainger Library of the engineering quad.

    The idea of the axes and the formation and organization of the school’s various quadrangles was perhaps the most interesting takeaway from this first tour.  It was not that I had never noticed the organization, as in its lowest form it is relatively straightforward, but it was intriguing to realize that architecture encompasses not only the buildings themselves, but how they exist in space relative to one another.  The placement of the most dominant or unifying buildings on the primary axis, as well as the placement of the bell tower at the crossing of the military axis and the primary axis formed the skeleton of the campus and laid the groundwork for further development.

    In addition to the alignment of the axes, there was a dialogue across the south quadrangle between Mumford Hall and David Kinley hall, as each building’s design mimicked the other to tie the space together.  It would have been interesting to see the tall elms referenced on this tour, as I can imagine they gave impressive and comfortable feel to the now awkwardly open south quad.  The newer trees certainly help to bridge the gap between both sides of the quad, but they still leave much to be desired.

    To close out the tour, it was interesting to learn of the history of the military axis and what became of the ROTC parade grounds.  It seems to me that student housing is an uneventful and unbecoming terminus of the “military,” axis, but with the political motivations it seemed to be most wise at the time of the decision.  It is strange to imagine the campus without the six pack, though.

    Our tour on the 22nd began inside, where our discussion focused on architectural concepts in addition to the architecture itself.  Walking through TBH, I learned that this one building was in fact three separate “buildings” joined together by the curving atrium at the center.  This design afforded each subdivision of architecture its own space while uniting them under a common roof.  The atrium and catwalks at each level provided “bridges” between faculty and students and the various disciplines within architecture, demonstrating the symbolism that went into the design of the building.  I found it to be rather fitting for the home of the architectural department.

    Continuing through Temple Hoyne Buell Hall, we discussed the concept of figure-ground, made popular by the “vase/face” photograph, wherein the viewer can see either two faces staring at one another or a goblet formed by the silhouettes of those faces.  It was rather incredible to see this concept employed throughout the building, namely through the use of the screen covering the stairs and later on in the facade of the architecture building.  The idea that multiple figures can exist in the same space and in such close proximity while maintaining their individual identities was fascinating and gave me a deeper appreciation for the foresight that goes into design.

    As we went into the Architecture building, we looked into the use of symmetrical entrances and hallways, and discussed how various features of the building were used to draw visitors into the structure.  The gradual procession through hedges and trees, columns and arches, and large, inviting doorways bridged the gap between the outside world and the interior of the building.  Proceeding through the large metal doors, the more pillars greeted us, as they were used to frame the corridors ahead.  Once again, the building employed a symmetrical shape and wide open hallways to provide a welcoming feeling before leading to the various halls and classrooms.