Walking Tour 4 - Abbott Power Plant

1/29/15

            Today, we toured the Abbott power plant. Located right on campus, Abbott is responsible for 75% of campus’ energy. With 3 natural gas boilers, 3 coal boilers, and 2 heat recovery steam generators, they are more than capable to fuel our campus. The entrance to the fabled steam tunnels is in the plant as well.

            The plant itself was both smaller and larger than I thought it might be. It was smaller in a sense of floor space, however, it wasn’t cramped or claustrophobic. There was plenty of walking room between the maze of pipes and huge boilers. We encountered fewer people than I thought and I had to marvel at the technology that allowed so few employees to run such a huge power plant.

            As a chemical engineering major, the plant was interesting because we discussed the various reactions that take place in the generators and boilers. We were also told about problems that had occurred and how they had been fixed, which all lent itself to making engineering problems much realer.

            From an architectural standpoint, there wasn’t much to see. I did find the way that the plant was integrated with campus interesting. It took up very little room, relatively, while still outputting considerable energy. That, along with the steam tunnels, the plant was allowed to do its job well, while maintaining as little of a presence as possible.

Walking Tour 3 - The Main and Engineering Quads

1/27/15

            Today we toured the main and engineering quads. We started the tour on the steps of Foellinger Auditorium. As we looked down the main quad, it was clear that it was built with the concept of collective building in mind. Though many of the buildings had been erected at different times from one another, they shared similar appearances. They are all made out of a reddish stone. They all have lighter colored stone accents. They also all have a common edge with the buildings around them. They are all around the same height and width. This helps give a unified and symmetrical feeling to the quad.

            Foellinger is a very important building on the quad. Sitting directly on the main axis, it commands the attention and reverence of all who walk down the quad. Its domed shape echoes that of the Pantheon, after which it was modeled. The dome itself is important because, in American culture, the dome has been associated with democracy. All of these things lend themselves to making Foellinger a fantastic place to hold large lectures of the students that make up the university or the put important speakers.

            The Union is another important building on the quad. It was originally intended to be in the shape of a block I, however, Harker Hall was blocking one of the pavilions. This building is one of the oldest on campus and was designed by U of I’s first architect, then director. For this reason, it was allowed to remain, and the Union’s original design was never fully realized.

            This takes us to the end of the quad. Here, we notice a shift in the axis. This was to account for the buildings that were already in existence when the Engineering quad was set up. They couldn’t continue the main axis, as it would run through part of Engineering Hall, so they shifted the axis over. Grainger takes on a curved shape so, as you approach it, it seems to be hugging the quad, encompassing it a little, to make up for the awkward shape of the quad.

            The northern most part of the Engineering quad shifts back to the main axis. They do this by having a local entrance to Grainger on the south end and the Beckman Institute at the north end. The Beckman Institute was designed with the intention of being a style that could be echoed around the quad or even the campus. Here, they fell short because the design was focused around a rather phallic like shape, which was difficult to replicate for a few reasons. There wasn’t much else characteristic about the design other than the shape of the outside. Beckman also acts as a wall that closes off the north of campus. This is an interesting look into how architecture is intertwined with the environment and society itself. While the top of campus could be a great place to put an entrance to the university, Beckman offers no admittance to a place that is intended to be a shrine to learning and wisdom. Therefore, the blocking out of the community speaks poorly about the mentality of the university. 

Walking Tour 2 - The Architecture Building and Temple Hoyne Buell

1/22/15           

The places that were the primary focus during class today were Temple Hoyne Buell and the Architecture building. In THB, we discussed how the building was more similar to three buildings, all unified under one roof, more of a structural, three-sided doughnut. This is due to the vast, open space in the center of the building that the three sides look into. One of the “buildings” is where all of the faculty’s offices are located. Another of the buildings is where all of the student labs are located. These two buildings are connected by bridges that are meant to represent the interaction between the students and faculty.

The form of the exterior of THB can be simplified to the overlapping of two squares. This shape is accentuated by the placement of panes of glass and by corners of the building. At the vertical overlap of the two squares, there is a strip of glass windows, creating a tall entrance. At the bottom is the actual entrance, marked by glass doors.

Turning from THB, we can see the Architecture building. It is a long, red brick building, with two chimneys, acting as bookends to the building. We discussed the “phenomenal transparency” of the building or the aspects of the design of the building being purposefully ambiguous. Above a line of windows, there were sets of arches that called to mind the ancient aqueducts of Rome. If you focus on the aqueduct like arches, you couldn’t see the vertical lines created by the lighter colored stone around the windows. There was also a lighter colored band that wrapped horizontally around the whole building. This, in combination with the same colored vertical stripes, gave the impression that the horizontal band went over the vertical stripes.

At the entrance of the Architecture building, the door was flanked by a pair of composite columns, which is a combination of ionic, characterized by the scrolls, and Corinthian, characterized by the acanthus flowers. When we entered the building, we walked into a very symmetrical space. We stood in the center of four columns. On one side, the entrance. In two directions, opposite from one another, lay hallways that once led to large, open rooms. The whole original floor plan was lain out with such simplicity, it allowed for time to change it in more complicated ways if it was needed. 

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.