3/10 & 3/12

3/10

Today we visited downtown Champaign. It was really cool learning about the history of Champaign, and how it used to be called West Urbana, and how Urbana was named after Urbana, Ohio by immigrating pioneers.

Something that I found kind of cool was the fact that Champaign tried to increase commerce by creating an outdoor-walking mall, but instead of increasing it, sales dropped. They ended up going over some of the sidewalks so that people could drive over them again, and commerce picked up once again. You're still able to see traces of this in the way that the sidewalk is still cobblestone.

In addition to this, it was really interesting how there were at least four churches located right by the park. This is because for a long time, shops couldn't be open on Sunday, so the park provided wholesome, after-church activity for families.

3/12

Today we brought in our models. It was really weird cutting up the work someone else did. Next week the final presentation is due! I'll definitely have to work on that!