The Main Library, the Foreign Language Building, Smith Hall, and the Institute for Genomic Biology

04/07/15

                Today our walking tour consisted of visiting a few buildings on campus: the Main Library, the Foreign Language Building, Smith Hall, and the Institute for Genomic Biology. Here, we explored some aspects of design and structure of each building.

                The Main Library is a large building at the heart of campus. Its many extensions seamlessly blend into one huge brick building. While inside, we visited the main stacks. Here, many rare books are kept and small cubicle for research are housed. The shelving that holds the books is incorporated into the support system. There are main floors and then a mezzanine floor that is simply cement blocks that is held up with the shelves.

                We then moved to the Foreign Language Building. It seems to stick out from the other buildings, with its inverted ziggurat shape. To some people, the reason for this shape is that is used to house a super computer in the basement and the building, therefore, needed to be able to withstand attack. On our tour, we discussed how another interpretation could stem from biblical times, relating to the Tower of Babel. Instead of trying to build a tour up to God, this building flips that idea on its head and invited God into the building.

                The third building was Smith Hall. The entrance of this building was facing away from the quad, due to its use by those other than the campus and also not to get overshadowed by Foellinger. Its entrance has many layers of columns that telescopes the entrance down to human size. The main auditorium is the first room you encounter as you enter. All of these things give the act of entering a sense of importance and excitement.

                The last building we went to was the Institute for Genomic Biology. Here, there was an emphasis on certain areas, based on their purpose, as designated through the décor. If there was a place that a person was intended to linger and experience, there was a number of unnecessary, from a structural standpoint, additions, from wooden panels, to large voids of space.