Photos of Central Campus

So these photos were taken when I decided to head to the southwestern edge of the Central Campus area. There is a nice little burrito place called BTB (formerly actually standing for "Big Ten Burrito," but due to licensing of the name "Big Ten" by NCAA, the scuttlebutt is that the owners of the burrito place changed their name to be merely "BTB") where I picked up a $6 mondo-sized burrito for lunch.

Anyway, on with the "tour".

This building is presently the newest addition to the Central Campus area: the Joan and Sanford Weill Hall, housing the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. (This is not to be mistaken for the Joan and Sanford Weill Hall at Cornell University or the Joan and Sanford I. Weill Recital Hall in Carnegie Hall, of course.) Anyway, I took some courses there in the role of science and technology in public policy making, and had a relatively good time enjoying the well-appointed rooms. However, I must say that the courtyard area is abysmally dull (unfortunately). It's almost like there wasn't enough interest in hiring a qualified landscape architect to do something interesting with that area, so they only have grey slate and textured cement pavers. With just a little more effort, I feel that the walk down the main corridor would be so much more uplifting if one was able to see more than the somewhat blank wall of the neighboring Chabad House, grey pavers, a few plastic-coated wire mesh picnic tables, and still-scraggly cedar trees. Something like (I don't know) a mosaic pattern of tile, a tree in the center of the plaza, or even some patterning of color. (However, I didn't take a picture of the effectively empty and sterile-feeling plaza - it will be something that I will have to do later).


The historic Clements Library is the only other building photo I took on my way back to SNRE today. Unfortunately, other than knowing that it used to be a library, I don't know much about it. I've never been in it, and I doubt that I'll have any cause to go there while I'm still a student at the "U."

After doing a little research, I learned that the Clements Library was designed by architect Albert Khan and was constructed in 1923. According to its website,

"the William L. Clements Library houses original resources for the study of American history and culture from the fifteenth to the early twentieth century. Its mission is to collect and preserve primary source materials, to make them available for research, and to create an environment that supports and encourages scholarly investigation of our nation's past."

In other words, my original assessment was correct: I am unlikely to ever go in there (except to say that I went in) before I finish my studies here.