Week 13 - Philo

    For our final trip, we checked out Philo, Illinois, which happens to be "the center of the universe" according to their water tower. We looked at this small town to generalize small towns of the entire Midwest. We looked at the layout of the grain elevator and railroad as the center of town. We also learned about how the main roads are right there with the businesses, and then it turns to homes and then farms as you get farther away. It was a nice little town, but a bit quiet in my opinion. It was interesting to see how the large German population led to a Catholic influence on the area, which contains a Catholic school and church. Also, we were able to check out the local tavern for some snacks and sodas which was a great way to wrap up the class a bit.

Week 12 - Education Building/Krannert Art Museum

    This week we went and explored the Education Building and the Krannert Art Museum. The Education Building, pictured above, looks a bit like a Greek Temple. Internally, it's a pretty-symmetrical building with a plethora of classrooms and offices. As an engineer, it's certainly a building I would never step in if it wasn't for this tour. The building had two unique features that really caught my attention. First of all, it was really cool that you could get out on the balcony that wraps around the building. All of the offices allow you to get out there to look around and enjoy the weather. However, if you really want to enjoy the outdoors, the best feature is the garden on the West side of the building. It's a lovely walled-off area, with trees, shrubs, flowers, and benches to just relax and hang out. It really surprised me that something so nice was hidden away there.

    The other half of the trip was the Krannert Art Museum, which was our choice to check out. It's an unnoticed copper and granite building on the South end of campus, on the military axis. Inside we checked out a bunch of different art, which while cool, doesn't belong much on an architecture blog. 

Week 11 - More Campus Buildings

    This week we checked out a few of the buildings on campus that we haven't gotten around to yet. The first was the Main Library, pictured above. I've only been in the basement and passed through a couple times, so I had not seen much. There's three really cool features in the building. There are two massive, beautiful staircases inside. There's also a massive study room on the East side, with high ceilings and windows to give the building its height externally. Finally, there are the Main Stacks on the West side, which is a movie-like maze of shelves and books. It really is a cool building.
    The other two buildings we checked out were the Foreign Languages Building and Smith Memorial Hall. The Foreign Languages Building has a very interesting, "upside-down-pyramid" look to it. Supposedly, it is supposed to be an upside-down Tower of Babel. It has a unique sense of unity inside, and aims to bring the cultures together with openness. Smith Memorial Hall is just South of that, and is probably best described as a "little Foellinger Hall". It's a lovely building with a large auditorium with a stage, but just not of the scale of Foellinger.

Week 10 - Construction

    This trip we headed to a construction site, to see some of the near-end progress of the new veteran's building on campus. This was a unique tour because it was the first time we saw something that wasn't done. You could admire the design of the building for sure, as it thought about a lot of things. There are two elevators inside, and multiple lifts in the rooms to help the disabled. There are also large windows in the lobby area, so the veterans are able to see around the area and feel safe. It's considerations like those that most would forget about or not notice.

    However, the part of this trip that was really interesting was the construction aspect. You could see a massive project coming together, after years of funding, designing, and building. There were tons of workers on site, and the scene was bustling. It really was cool to see all of the detail that is needed.