@marlowe1 you could be correct! Personally, I didn’t care for the depressing grey limestone myself (having come from Spanish stucco, palm trees and sunshine) but I did come to appreciate the special atmosphere at UChicago - to which the architecture definitely contributes. Too bad the kids can’t wear their wizarding robes (or maybe some of them do!).
TBH - and at the risk of sounding like a cranky old lady - I always thought the “falling in love” aspect of a college decision was a bit overwrought (very easy to happen on an online forum, where emotions can feed on one other!). Always thought of my “alma mater” as more of a home than a marriage LOL. However, I certainly recognize the strong emotional attachment, as well as the fact that nowadays the college and job matching rituals have kind of taken the place of what many young adults in the “olden days” USED to do - which was to find a mate who can set you securely for life. Is the college match process really an updated version of a Jane Austen country ball? Hmmm.
My DD wants to live in Max P due to convenience. I asked her about BJ and it’s architecture (Hogwarts), and she responded that she never read any of the Harry Potter books, so she saw…no AC, communal bathrooms, and a dreary dorm! No not everyone is a HP fan, but, for me, I did see the movies, and I found them entertaining. :-bd
@CU123 that’s how I would have viewed BJ and the cynic in me would probably have been a bit skeptical that they were attempting to sell lack of A/C by touting a children’s series LOL.
YMMV, and we’ll see what June brings, but I live in BJ and I have yet to think “Wow, I wish this dorm had AC.” Spring quarter ends in early June, so the summer (which is a tad cooler than coastal summers anyway) doesn’t really overlap with classes.
IMHO, housing is sometimes a little overenthusiastic when ramping up the heat in winter, but it may just seem that way because I’m a guy.
Obviously a question of personal preference, but I never really cared, and stopped noticing after O-week. It’s college
In my experience, BJ bathrooms are actually more functional than South’s - I used both. Bathrooms in South can be 100+ feet down the hallway, and the ergonomics of some features (e.g. size/height of sinks) are dicey. Can’t comment on North/Max/I-House/Snitchcock/Stony, but I assume North and (non-suite) Max P residents have a similar experience.
Agreed, @DunBoyer. BJ is the perfect dorm. Those thick limestone walls keep out the heat on the rare days it’s hot during the school year. No need for any such postmedieval amenities as piped-in cold air. And in the winter radiator heat is the best heat there is. If too intense you can turn off the rad. Or else open a window and let mother nature take the edge off. Those windows are also good for other things: Reach out and extract a really really cold mackintosh apple from the stash dangling just outside your window. Or throw one down to a friend in the courtyard. Yum.
My D is in BJ. She has seen no need so far for any AC. And she reassures us that her room has been plenty warm this winter. Also they renovated the bathroom down her hall recently. She shares it with 4 other young women and says that they rarely use it simultaneously. She loves BJ and has made wonderful and caring friends there.
For the record, my D17 has ranked her choices as follows: 1) Snitch; 2) BJ; 3) North (would have listed I-House but it’s just too far away from the dining halls). She has no qualms whatsoever about communal bathrooms, lack of A/C, or grey limestone. To her, the most dreary building on campus is orange-y Max.
@marlowe1 your suggestions reminded me of how we moderated temp. in the winter. My rad. knob was stuck (or welded tight, not sure which) so I kept the window cracked. That’s the first time I couldn’t shut a window because it was frozen open.
While we’re having fun with this idea, let me probe the meaning of neogothic architecture. Early Romanticism rediscovered and elevated “the gothic” as a stick with which to beat the shallower aspects of the Enlightenment. The devotion to Reason (capital R) was embodied in the neoclassical style. In American terms think of Monticello, think of the University of Virginia, think of our nation’s Capitol. As the 19th century wore on, both in Europe and in America, all that balance and lightness and mere rationality came to seem lacking in profundity and mystery. German culture - and the German universities in particular - came to seem the correct model for a really serious American research institution like the University of Chicago. Even a Baptist like John D. Rockefeller must have bought into that - or was convinced of it by Professor Harper. Perhaps he was told that Enlightenment equals neoclassical architecture equals atheism. Those gray stones and spires (reinforced by structural steel) stood against all the facile implications of the neoclassical. Rightly understood, the stones encourage iconoclasm. Certainly that has been the history of the University of Chicago, from the days of Thorstein Veblen to the present day. Harry Potter, you’re on to something!
“Rightly understood, the stones encourage iconoclasm.”
Well, with the exception of a gargoyle or two. Would be great if the ornamentation at the university also happened to direct water flow.
The irony of the neo-gothic style is that UChicago seemed to attract its share of Randians who, of course, were far more devoted to the style of Frank Lloyd Wright and his intellectual progeny. Not sure Wright ever designed a university, however. Fun to contrast the design of Robie House to the gothic revivalist and neoclassical styles that are so nearby. Lots of interesting architecture throughout Hyde Park/South Shore and, indeed, throughout the city of Chicago. Do NOT like those IM Pei toasters on 55th, however. Wish they could be torn down.
As the OP, I am close to a nervous breakdown due to your cruel and unusual usurpation of the thread. What’s next ?
A debate about the comparative merits of the coffees served on campus ?
Back to the origins of the thread. Don’t meteors fall rather than rise and didn’t “meteoric rise” originally mean something more like “flash in the pan” (i.e. came from out of nowhere, shone brightly for a moment, and then disappeared)
Rise or fall, there’s really not much more we can say until enrollment numbers come out in a few months. I propose we go back to talking about coffee and architecture.
@HydeSnark You ought not to be so mean to us old-timers. Apoplexy is a dangerous condition! @Chrchill You inspired us! I credit you, man, for the profusion of reasons, speculations and reminiscences that you uncorked. I reckon they all have something to do with the meteoric rise.
@goingnutsmom do you mean [url=<a href=“https://images1.apartments.com/i2/kwcxG0sdK-pzHSVzm2rQ62KlSocFOCEkYTTpv8eZNs8/117/university-park-chicago-il-building-photo.jpg%5Dthese%5B/url”>https://images1.apartments.com/i2/kwcxG0sdK-pzHSVzm2rQ62KlSocFOCEkYTTpv8eZNs8/117/university-park-chicago-il-building-photo.jpg]these[/url]? [url=<a href=“https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_Apartments_(Chicago,_Illinois)%5DThey%5B/url”>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_Apartments_(Chicago,_Illinois)]They[/url] aren’t Jeanne Gang, they’re IM Pei. They’re awful, IMO.