@JBStillFlying Orange? I saw hot pink and purple front entrance:
IMHO, it is simply ghastly. I love the U of C campus. I enjoy walking in the Main Quad. But Max P is so out of tune with the surrounding and my conclusion is that Hugo Sonnenschein and the Board must be all smoking pot AND drowned in hard liquor the day they approved Max P design and construction. I wonder how many times they have stood in front of Max P and asked; “What have I done?” 
@getmoreveggies DD quickly figured out how to use Amazon Prime pantry box to get it all delivered…
i like max p. i think it’s misunderstood. the entrances are on the ugliest side so most people end up staring at it at its worse, but it was designed to be seen from the corners with the rest of the building hidden behind vegetation. i believe gorreta said it was inspired by a sunrise (and there little sun motifs hidden nearby) - i.e. brilliant and bright, but only where it peaks out
unfortunately uchicago never really planted the vegetation it needs so it doesn’t give off the effect it could have
FWIW: it’s very popular (and functional!) as a dorm and the people that live there like it a lot
contrast:
(the part of the building that doesn’t work) https://www.bluffton.edu/homepages/facstaff/sullivanm/illinois/chicago/palevskylegorreta/5743.jpg
vs
(the part that does) https://www.google.com/maps/@41.7932718,-87.5981226,3a,75y,222.59h,98.48t/data=!3m5!1e1!3m3!1s4o8WJCI8Rkq6WI7EFnTASw!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo3.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3D4o8WJCI8Rkq6WI7EFnTASw%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D133.79161%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100
Here is the true tale of how Max P got its colors: Max (the man, not the building) had a son Nick, who lived in Chamberlin House at BJ 1964-1965. Nick wrote home to his dad about how hard he was working, how challenging school was and how much he was learning, but he would also occasionally say something like, “These gray walls are a bit grim. The guys here are mostly cheerful, but sometimes those walls make us a bit crazy: there’s a fellow here who will drop Aristotle into any conversation. I don’t think he would do that if we were living in a place the color of a Tequila Sunrise.”
Max loved hearing about the hard work, but he took to heart Nick’s comments about lightening things up so as to minimize the impact of the Stagyrite on undergraduate life at Chicago. Some years later he made a proposal to the University for a different kind of dorm with that objective in mind.
And that is how Max P (the building, not the man) got its colors.
@HydeSnark at #182 - that’s what we experienced last year! The northwest side was peaking out of vegetation. So maybe if they plant more around it. Still doesn’t help with winter. Maybe put up one of those big athletic domes or another glass one a la Mansuetto.
@85bears46 not sure my light receptors are transmitting the same info to my brain that yours are. I see a darker orange - not 70’s light orange brick but more of a terra cotta. And then the pink as an accent color . . . Same with the bright blue roof. Hadn’t noticed the purple till I viewed the link with images . . . not sure I’ve actually seen the entrance to this building - I’ve always just noticed it driving by. Out of tune? As if North and Mansuetto somehow complement the neo-Gothic?
@JBStillFlying #184
I am a little color blind and so I do not see the darker orange. But it is the purple entrance at right next to Regernstein that really irks me. It will be bad enough for having a purple entrance - I thought I was transplanted to the Universal Studio Zeus Landing. But the most offensive part to me is that the purple paint is fading and peeling and no one is doing anything to fix it.
What is worse than avant-garde architecture? That will be avant-garde buildings in disrepair.
Disclaimer: architecture is very subjective. I am not saying any person cannot or should enjoy Max P. That is his/her prerogative and I am not disputing that. However, for my personal taste I just find Max P ugly as hell
Mansuetto and North for sure do not complement the Main Quad. But I agree with Professor Wendy Doniger: they are in a different “neighborhood”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGn9U6X292s&index=14&list=FLVzXBm41kw9MJbRuuXRWgUA&t=41s
You just need to see Max P from the right angle.
I recommend a 180-degree angle while you walk away as fast as you can.
This may all be moot in the not-so-distant future, as I’m told Max P is slowly but surely sinking into the ground, and will need major structural changes or a replacement at some point.
Personally I like the Ying and the Yang of Mansuetto and the Reg.
I prefer the look of MaxP to the brutalism of the Reg. Most seem to love Mansuetto but I happen to think it resembles a Pop-O-Matic from a Milton Bradley game. Or the pool-submerged spaceship from “Earth Girls are Easy.” At night it glows like eyes of The Nautilus from “20,000 Leagues under the Sea”. I’m sure it’s fantastic on the inside.
@85bears46 - sure. Different neighborhood. The same one that includes Max P. As I said before, that particular area is an architectural bouquet of the weird. Chipped paint looks horrible on any structure, regardless of style. Hopefully they’ll slap on a fresh coat of purple after removing the scaffolding from I-House.
Hopefully they go the cheap regional state school approach and paint the gates Maroon and call the whole Tuscan Sunset a loss. For the record I’m not a fan of the Reg either. I do like the modern Monsuato. Probably my least favorite buildings on campus. 1) Law school, 2> Harris, 3> the Reg, and 4> Max P. Change the paint to Maroon and it falls of the list. If you can’t tell, it is my opinion that all concrete buildings should be government buildings. I’ve seen few that scream cool when I first see them.
Architectural mistakes of UChicago, ranked:
(Big gap)
(gap to be determined)
Max is Max and has this issue where parts of the dorm smell like sewage. Plus the whole “sinking into the ground” thing.
I do not like brutalism.
Pick and Levi both stick out like sore thumbs on the quad.
Woodlawn is supposed to open in two years and the College hasn’t even broken ground yet. Add in the fact it’s being done on the cheap, and I see lots of ill-advised shortcuts in the dorm’s future. It’s also a freaking skyscraper on 61st Street.
In recent construction that was pretty well done, Saieh Hall fits nicely with its surroundings, and Cathey/South dining hall is both functional on the inside and nice enough on the outside.
Pick is ugly. Fortunately I have no memory of Levi.
Cathey’s house table section looks like it’s actually the dining area of BJ which is really cool. They attached Cathey onto the back of BJ to make this happen. So even though you get a new dining hall, where you eat is the same area that it’s been for decades. I’ve eaten in the fishbowl part but have never been in the house table section so perhaps it’s tucked away somewhere?
Best new/remodeled buildings:
Saieh Hall - looks like a brick version of oxford’s collegiate gothic buildings (e.g. Pembroke). It truly is the “church of modern economics”
Booth Harper Center - a glass version of Rockefeller’s gothic with some prairie architecture inspiration from Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie house, The glass-roofed “Winter Garden” feels gothic and is warm and sunny during cold winters.
Lab School - gothic and modern at the same time. From the outside, it reminds me of a European Abbey
Any new UChicago buildings would be good in my book if they follow the track record of these four. They do not feel out of place next to icons like the Rockefeller, the Oriental Museum or the Quad.
Not sure why the new planned Keller Center (Harris) went “greek revival” instead of “modern gothic”. It looks like it belongs in Berkeley or Ann Arbor, or Oxford, MS or any of the other state colleges whose campus use the same architecture style. It’s pretty, but if they want to spend that much money, why not go modern gothic?
Is part of that Keller Center project the area where New Grad used to be? If not, whats planned for that spot?
This is a complete list of noteworthy architecture on the U of C campus as highlighted by the University:
https://architecture.uchicago.edu/locations/
@JBStillFlying #191
Levi used to be called Administrative Building in my days. It is a pile of plain and non descriptive concrete in the midst of the neo Gothic Main Quad. I am still wondering why no one wants to tear it down and build something far more architecturally interesting.
@FStratford #192
The future Keller Center was actually an old building:
https://architecture.uchicago.edu/locations/new_graduate_residence_hall/
When it was built, I bet more than 60% on this forum were not born yet . It seems to be a hard luck building and had changed its function a few times over the years. Now it undergoes its latest transformation into the future home of Harris School of Public Policy.
P.S. In the 1980’s I used to snicker at the TV commercial of the DeVry Institute of Technology and did not think too highly of these for profit schools. Well, later on I realized Dennis Keller (MBA '68) actually acquired the Devry School and he got rich on running for profit undergrad and grad institutions. He did give a lot back to UChicago and hence the name Keller Center on the Stone building.
Among its other duties, New Grad at one point housed undergraduates, didn’t it? Which houses, I wonder?
@85bears46 Ah! I was looking at the new sketches that made it look like there are greek columns in front, and I assumed its a totally new building. My bad
New Grad had Tufts (now Thangaraj), Henderson (now Rogers), and Midway (now Trott)
Now here is my list of favorite buildings completed in the last 10 years
The actual library was smaller than what I thought it would be based on pictures and YouTube video. Moreover, It was totally out of place with the neo Gothic campus. Nonetheless, I like its elliptical glass dome. I find the curvature very graceful (or even sexy), especially when it is located right next to the strong concrete lines from the brutalist Reg. The contrast between the two cannot be more pronounced. I generally like Helmut Jahn’s work (James Thompson Center in downtown Chicago being a BIG exception). Mansueto will be one of his biggest legacies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8bn75sFBso&t=8s
The building itself was old (completed in 1928). But the renovation is new. Ann Beha did a great job converting a former seminary into a temple for studying (or worshiping 
) economics.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3_1VYNTJvI
It is really Hogwarts as she said. When I walked from the Starbucks to the University Avenue entrance (the old entrance for the Seminary Co-op) , the stairway and stained glass window along the way is spellbinding. Honestly, I half expected a few Ravenclaw students coming down from the upper floors on their broom .
I already talked about Gordon Parks in #175 and so I am not going to repeat about its beauty. Suffice to say I feel that being a Star Wars fans for many years finally pays off 
This is purely guilty pleasure. Yes, it is nothing but a glass curtain wall building that is a dime a dozen everywhere. But I just loves its reflection of the blue sky on a crisp fall day.
In another month when fall colors are at the height, walk by Reg towards Mansueto on a clear day. You will find the golden yellow oak leaves and the fiery red maples along Ellis Avenue together with dark blue reflection of the sky on Manuseto and Eckhard a completely mesmerizing autumn picture. This is truly U of C campus at its very best.
Thanks @HydeSnark at #197. So when a house retires, its members and traditions are able to survive a name and location change?
There are currently five long-lived houses residing in I-House. Breckinridge came over when that dorm closed, Thompson and Shorey came over when Pierce closed, and Booth and Phoenix have been there for awhile. In addition, Stony’s house has been around for 30 years or so. Does the College insist on a name change? Is the reason only monetary (ie donors get to name the house)? Do they try to find alums who at least have a connection to the previous house? And is there any hope that some of these six houses will transfer “as is” over to the new dorm? It would be a shame if a house’s history was somehow destroyed because they close the dorm.
