<p>Hey, I've been out of the loop for the last three years--can someone fill me in on this? The South Houses are complete, right? When are the North Houses being torn down and rebuilt? How about the new Campus Center that's been planned for a long time?</p>
<p>The South Hovses are about complete now. Students moved in at the beginning of this term, but there was still quite a bit of construction going on. It's unlikely that the North Houses will be rebuilt within the next four years - there's not nearly enough funding yet. I haven't heard anything about a Campus Center.</p>
<p>Not rebuilt within the next four years? Oh well, at least the campus will look like I always remembered it for the remainer of my time there. ;-)</p>
<p>There are no set plans for either the North houses or the Campus Center, but the administration (read: President Chameau) will be getting serious about them in the next year or so. I think they're going to actually hire a planner in the next few months to draw up a few scenarios. I think the general idea is to have one unified plan for the center of campus so most efficiently use the space.</p>
<p>What I really wish is that someone would tear down the monstrosity that is the library and put up the big turquoise dome that was designed for that spot. I find the North houses pretty innocuous.</p>
<p>millikan? I love that library!</p>
<p>I wish they'd get rid of beckman auditorium... we don't need a wedding cake in the middle of campus, especially considering it's the single most significant architectural intruder on the block</p>
<p>Not Broad?</p>
<p>I used to hate Beckman Auditorium, but it doesn't really bother me that much anymore. It's not like the two buildings that lead up to it (Beckman Lab and Baxter) are any beauties either. I was surprised that Braun looked as good as it did, it looked horrible when it was new, all out of proportion. I really like the new Beckman Institute. </p>
<p>BTW isn't it confusing having so many buildings named Beckman?</p>
<p>I just wish Beckman had a bigger stage. It's a trick to cram the whole band on there.</p>
<p>Gosh, I enjoy going to concerts at Beckman, and I like the balcony at Dabney for more intimate shows. Sorry I haven't seen orchestra</p>
<p>I have mixed feelings about the "wedding cake"... I think I like it up close better than far away. It looks really nice at night when it's lit up and there's a concert going on... it's just from far away it looks a bit like a part of the circus hah!</p>
<p>In any case, I certainly think Caltech makes up for it with the landscaping around Millikan. If it's one of those special days when I'm up and outside when the sun is up (haha, sort of kidding) I just love walking up the little winding path through the flowing water and turtles and beautiful plants and then reaching the top and seeing Millikan and the awesome pool it sits on...</p>
<p>The turtle pond is the most awesome thing in the world. The bench by the waterfall is the best thing on campus to take a nap on after failing a test. The turtles will protect you from failure! That's just what they do.</p>
<p>haha.. savior turtles</p>
<p>The orchestra plays in Ramo.</p>
<p>Llama, we should make a turtle song.</p>
<p>The South Houses are open and they look nice, but living in them isn't quite like heaven or anything. In particular, the fire alarm (now appropriately renamed the "everything's okay alarm") has way of going off for no reason at all a few times a week, at random times. You can imagine how annoying that is. Apparently it's the contracters' fault. Supposedly, the Caltech Housing office can't do anything about it since the contracters are still technically working on the complex, or something equally silly.</p>