Walk accomplished.
The campus isn’t as ugly as I remembered.
……
……
IT’S UGLIER.
It’s like an act or revenge on the students.
I’m serious. You just walk around saying “what were they thinking?”
But – I hadn’t done any sustained walking (apart from the walk from the Ks to the Gs at O’Hare) since I left home, so this was good.
Dang it’s muggy though. Seattle doesn’t do muggy – once the temperature goes up the humidity drops.
I saw five ground hogs on the side of a little hill.
I got slightly lost coming back from the central part of the campus, and there is NO ONE around – I felt mild panic for a minute (not wanting to miss Stephen’s lecture just because stupid) but then a car appeared so I was able to confirm that Flint Road was that way.
Groundhogs are evil.
Yeah, it’s a very bland, very suburban campus. I only spent 2 years there (getting my MLS), but I was glad to see the back of it. And don’t get me started on the parking… 🙂
alona @1
Have you taken any time to get to know groundhogs? Have you taken one out to dinner and a quiet conversation afterwards? Have you read any of the pro-groundhog literature? Have you considered all the good groundhogs do aerating the soil? Many thousands of rifles and tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition have been sold to hunters seeking this important game animal, supporting the firearms industry. Why do you hate
Americagroundhogs?At least groundhogs aren’t marmots.
They’ll hypnotize you.
I think the campus is worse than bland, I think it’s actively, brutally ugly – most of the buildings look like warehouses for prison equipment, and the rest look like prisons.
(The one exception I saw was Davis Hall, which looks brand new – I’m pretty sure it wasn’t here in 2007).
We visited UB a month or so ago in our Quest for College for Child 1, and lord, the ugliness. There is one area with a couple of cool buildings, but the only descriptor I could think of for the entire dorms was “soul-destroying”. If misery and apathy had a baby together, it would be those dorms.
Yup yup yup. Just awful.
Let me guess (I haven’t been there): brutalism central? If I had a dime for every campus thick with that stuff…
I’ve occasionally seen brutalist things I didn’t just find oppressive. Occasionally, even, it can have a certain massive beauty. Usually when heavily softened by encroaching greenery. But mostly, yeah, if you’re paying tuition places like that, you do start to wonder what manner of prison this is that charges admission.
(Non-awful brutalist thing, in my opinion: the Ontario Science Centre. But the stunning site is a big part of that. If something rambling down the side of a leafy ravine still managed to be ghastly, this would be impressive indeed.)
Seattle, or at least Everett, actually DID do muggy for a couple of days last week. You missed it.
Speaking of brutalist architecture, you should see the downtown Buffalo library. Yeeeeeeeeeeeesh.
That’s fantastic – I had never heard the term “brutalist architecture” before. I’ve always just called it “1950s industrial”. But yeah. That’s the whole place. And the insides aren’t badly kept, just… kind of dilapidated.
Yes, “brutalist” is a thing. It fills my head any time I walk around that campus – I did that many times when I was there for a longer time in 2007. It also comes into my head in DC, but the brutalism there is at least not as ugly – the buildings are made of limestone or similar, not soot-colored brick, and they have a lot of classical ornamental features. Many of the ones at UB have knobs and blades and spikes sticking out of their roofs. They are hideous.