Campus Eyesores

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Chicago ✅
1

<p>I've wanted to start a thread like this for a very long time. If you could choose, which campus eyesores would you demolish? Please rank your list and elaborate.</p>

<p>I'll get this started. Here is mine:</p>

<p>1) Hinds Laboratory for the Geophysical Sciences (Hinds): brutalism at its worst!
2) Cummings Life Science Center (Cummings)
3) Pick Hall for International Studies: doesn't seem to fit the main quadrangles that well
4) the glorious Regenstein (the Reg): what a depressing piece of architecture (though some might disagree)</p>

2

<p>Those are some good choices, Poplicola. I would add Pierce dorm, and it looks like that wish will come true rather soon!</p>

3

<p>I have a soft spot for many of the campus eyesores, unfortunately. </p>

<p>But I think quite a few people would add Max lol.</p>

4

<p>Brutalism is in the eye of the beholder? Disdain for it could mean you’re trapped in your current cultural context.</p>

<p>[Tough</a> Love: In Defense of Brutalism - Concrete Construction, Design, History - Architect Magazine](<a href=“http://www.architectmagazine.com/concrete-construction/tough-love-in-defense-of-brutalism.aspx]Tough”>http://www.architectmagazine.com/concrete-construction/tough-love-in-defense-of-brutalism.aspx)</p>

<p>And be careful what you wish for. Today’s frog may become tomorrow’s prince. </p>

<p>E.g., Penn Station, great neo-classical building demolished in 1963–a lost forever treasure. </p>

<p>“Any city gets what it admires, will pay for, and, ultimately, deserves. Even when we had Penn Station, we couldn’t afford to keep it clean. We want and deserve tin-can architecture in a tinhorn culture. And we will probably be judged not by the monuments we build but by those we have destroyed.” </p>

<ul>
<li>“Farewell to Penn Station,” New York Times editorial, October 30, 1963 (as found on nyc-architecture.com)</li>
</ul>

<p>I arrived in Chicago when Regenstein was under construction. At the time, we all loved it more than the Harper it replaced. “Ooh, comfy chairs. I could take a nap,” and I did.</p>

5

<p>^ Ouch, I know you wish the school blew up in a catastrophic nuclear physics experiment, but that’s just mean. Not like it matters either way, we’ll all be bundled up once winter hits.</p>