4/23

4/23

Today we went to Philo, Illinois. It was a nice drive out there, we passed the time counting grain elevators. Getting to the town was nice, it was really interesting to see the differences between a small town and a Chicago-suburb. Instead of having cookie cutter houses, each house was different and didn't necessarily follow a style. In addition to this, the trees were incredibly diverse. Back at home, the trees are mainly American Basswood, Honeylocust, and Red Maple (there were ash but they all got cut down). In Philo, there were Sycamores, Japanese Maples, Yellow Poplars (tuliptrees), other kinds of maples I wan't able to identify because of lack of leaves, Sweetgums, and possibly a green ash (we drove by it so I wasn't entirely sure). Even the lawns were kind of diverse. A lot of them had wildflowers growing on them which was really beautiful, and something I don't get to see at home. It was just really refreshing to see a bunch of different tree types and just something different than what I'm used to a neighborhood being.

After that we went to get food and drinks (soda/lemonade/water) in a tavern, and we talked and had a really nice time.

4/7 & 4/9

4/7

Smith Hall was really beautiful to see. I had been in there once before, but it was for an event a really long time ago, so I had totally forgotten what it looked like! I had never understood why the main entrance to the building wasn't facing the quad, but it's to open the building up for the music majors coming from the East, as well as the public coming to view the show. The walls are built so that it's acoustic, which I'm thinking is pretty standard nowadays for grand auditoriums. Walking through the building was really cool though. I loved hearing the music played in the hallways (there was some jazz violin going on at the time, which I didn't know was a thing), and the beautiful water fountain, which didn't work unfortunately... We weren't able to go into another room because there was a class in there, but from the little I could see of it, there was a beautiful chandelier.

The Foreign Language Building has always interested me. It's so weirdly shaped and just never seemed to fit in. There was an interesting story that Professor Hinders came up with about how the architect was inviting God to come in. While that is a really cool explanation of the building, and it makes complete sense, I don't know if that's what the architect was actually thinking. I suppose the true story behind the design of the Foreign Language Building will remain a mystery to me.

The Institute for Genomic Biology was really cool to see because I had never been in there before. The statues by the building are meant to represent the fact that sciences like genomic biology are always changing, and are being progressed by the work of scientists. Well, that's what I think anyways. Inside the building was cool because there were a lot of subtle biology things incorporated into the building. The ground was made up of long dead, pressurized living matter. The walls had wood on them, and another wall by the sitting area had a ton of fossils prints hanging from it. It's kind of funny how the Morrow plots had an effect on that building too. I hadn't noticed that part of the building was pushed underground because of the plots until someone pointed it out to me. One thing that I really liked was out on the sidewalk across from the blobs and over the open space near the flowers. When I was walking back, I noticed that the sidewalk had a pattern on it that resembled DNA helicase. It's just kind of cool to see the subtle things that can be put in.

3/31 & 4/2

3/31

Today we visited the cemetery. I had never been there before, so it was kind of cool seeing how it was sectioned out into different religions. In the Jewish part of the cemetery, there were stones placed next to many of the graves for remembrance.

We also walked over a potter's field to get to the section for veterans. It had a really nice memorial flag pole set up. At one point they had also had four bushes sectioning it off to make corners for the area, but three of them started getting overgrown and had to be removed.

It was kind of interesting seeing the politics that go on in grave sites. Both the athletic director and the coach of the football team are buried on the 50 yard line, however, the director is closer to the field, and visible from the sidewalk. In addition to this, it was kind of interesting how families would set up a barrier around an area so that other people wouldn't encroach on the space.

4/2

Today we visited a construction site.The building will be for veterans, and it was really cool seeing how the building was being constructed to reflect the purpose of it. For example, the guy who was giving us the tour said that all mechanical rooms are pressed for space, and elevator mechanic rooms are even worse. Even though they had limited space, they made sure to put in two elevators because that might be necessary for the population that would be using the building. In addition to this, the rooms on the top floor had a track built into the ceiling. This would be for a movable chair that can be inserted into the ceiling, which would allow for the student to get around the room and to the bathroom without any assistance. There was a kitchen on the ground floor that would be used to help people learn to cook, and there were a series of offices and physical therapy rooms that could be used by the students.

One thing that I really found interesting was the way the common room was laid out. The outside walls were mostly made of windows, and the room was very open. The architecture had designed it this way because it allowed for the people there to see who's coming and going, which would make them feel more at ease. The openness is because apparently many veterans get anxious when in closed off spaces.