Here is where the two building meet. The right side is the School of Business, the left the School of Education.
The school of business has a lovely tan brick exterior and windows. Inside, it has multimedia rooms, nice carpeting and has clearly been remodeled recently. It is light and airy and quite pleasant to be in.
The school of Education has a strange metal facade and very high clerestory windows that let light into the computer lab, but few other places. The classrooms are cramped and dark and have few windows and the interior probably hasn't been renovated since the building was built. It is an ugly, depressing building. The fact that just on the other side of the building is light and air and beauty makes it that much more depressing.
I've been in a lot of schools in a lot of different states and I can tell you that they have all (save the private schools) look much like this school of education. When I was studying at PSU we used to say that they built the building that way on purpose, so we could start getting used to depressing surroundings. When people say that schools should be run "like a business" I think of the differences between the school of business and the school of education and chuckle.
Funny, you are so right! Ours at U of I was built among the lovely 1800's brick buildings, in the late 60's/early 70's. So, yes, the ed building follows your observation. In the middle of the building is the 'Kiva' an oddly shaped (it is like a water tower - except the rounded pit-like center is a lecture 'hall') and acoustically challenged building that was supposed to give homage to native culture (the rumor is that later they were sued over it). It was not used that much by the time I got to school. I only had a few classes there. The business building - lovely traditional brick. A little internet research tells me it has been turned into a theater...
ReplyDeleteHere is a picture that I found of it.