Week 2 - The Northern Part of the Main Axis (AKA the less important quad)

For this walk we started at Temple Hoyne and then we walked towards the main quad and explored the northern half of the main axis including the Foellinger, the main quad, and the engineering quad. Let me start off this by talking about Foellinger. We quietly had a discussion inside the entrance of Foellinger about its importance. The dome is representative of a gathering place. The auditorium itself is the largest single classroom or auditorium on campus. Hence, it is on the main axis and is an integral part of the family of buildings that is the quad.

            Speaking of which, Professor Hinders commented on the idea of the quad as a family overall. There are essentially a eight buildings directly on the quad, including the Union at the head, Foellinger at the south, and each side with three different buildings ranging from the English Building to Noyes Laboratory. It is almost as if the Union is the father of the family, with the welcoming mother Foellinger at the other end, and the children on each side. The buildings also line up along the same plane on the quad, which feeds into this idea of gathering or unity at the quad.

            When we made our way up to the north quad and we noted how off center the main aisle of the quad itself is. It sort of extends out of the northwest wing of the Union. Despite the lack of uniformity to the main quad, the engineering school put a lot of effort into making it pleasant for the students who don’t often take classes south of Green street. The Boneyard Creek running through the quad actually gives a very pleasant atmosphere to the quad itself, which is very open and beautiful. The improvements they made to it also prevent the library in the basement of engineering hall to flood like it used to.

Finally, we made our way past Springfield and went all the way to the Beckman Institute which caps the northern part of campus. Despite the seeming phallus that adorns the front of the building, this is not the real issue that the building proposes. As Professor Hinders described, the north is historically where a large part of the African American community came from to get to campus, demographically speaking. The Beckman Institute is essentially a wall along University Avenue with no door, no entrance, no nothing to welcome in people and proclaim to the world that this is the University of Illinois! Hopefully in the future something to the effect that Professor Hinders described can be implemented, as the Beckman Institute poses an architectural insult.