Walking Tour 1 - The South Quad

1/20/15

            On our first walking tour as a class, we went through the South Quad. Leaving Temple Hoyne Buell, we first went to the Stock Pavilion. Here, we discussed the three quads and their representation of the three main disciplines at the University of Illinois. The South Quad was dedicated to Agriculture, the Main Quad to Liberal Arts, and the North Quad to Engineering. While the university has many other disciplines to pursue, the three quads represent the most important or, at the very least, the most distinguished of those disciplines.

The three quads are all in the same axis that runs north to south. When exiting the Stock Pavilion, we were greeted with a view directly down that axis that ran through the McFarland Carillon and then through Foellinger Auditorium. As we walked north, down this primary axis, we came to the Military Axis, that runs east to west. On one end is the ACES library, which was designed to mimic Foellinger in style. On the other end is student housing. These were put in place to “demilitarize” the axis, by placing on one end, a collection of information, and on the other, the students that make up the university. We talked about what could be placed at the west end of the military axis instead of student housing and things were suggested such as other libraries or perhaps an expansion of the Krannert Art Museum.

On the South Quad, one can see a mirror effect caused by buildings on opposite sides of the quad looking similar to each other. Main entrances are located opposite one another and whole building are lined up to create a more ordered effect.

As UIUC is a research university, the discovery of new information is expected. This is represented by the placement of both the Main library and the UGL, which were placed in such a way that they would be allowed to expand uninhibited. The UGL, which is underground due to the Morrow Plots can, in particular, expand in almost any direction, and still look unified. Because it is underground, it is impossible to tell what shape it is. The two entrances act as a frame that accentuates the north-south axis. In the center between the two temple-like entrances, is a spatial void, which unifies the library as a whole. Even though the building is underground and all but invisible, it still has a point that unifies it, which, not coincidently, lies on the all-important north-south axis.