Week 1 - Tour 2 - 1/22/15

Our second tour looked more at the specific architecture of the two buildings on campus that collectively house the Architecture Department. We started in Temple Hoyne Buell Hall which houses the Landscape Architecture and the Urban Planning Departments. The parti THBH consists of seems to be three different buildings connected by a single roof. Two buildings are perpendicular, connected by a shared corner, and another is a curved building that also connects the two creating this vast void in the middle. The vast void creates separations between the buildings which is spanned by multiple bridges. These bridges connect the faculty building in THBH to the students’ classrooms and galleries. The walk across the bridge signifies the journey between faculty and student, creating a sense of respect from one to the other.
As we continued, we discussed the relevance of phenomenal transparency in all types of Art. More specifically, we looked at the stairway and the grey divider in front of it, noticing that when you focus on one, you lose the other in the background. Our classroom acts as an anomaly within this divider that actually creates significance. It breaks the perfectly square divider into a L shaped partition. We also see the relevance of squares on the outside of THBH. When we look at the west side of the building, we see two superimposed squares that intersect creating a figurative doorway which overshadows the real doorway on the bottom.
We then turned to look across the Military Axis at the Architecture Building. At first glance, the building looks like a replicate to all the other red brick buildings on campus, but after further examination, we saw the true beauty in all the subtle intricacies of the exterior as well as the symmetry of the interior. The Architecture Building has two chimneys, one on either side, that act as bookends to the building. Between these bookends, we read into the arches that show up above the windows. These arches are representations of the Roman aqueducts used to transport the most important necessity, water, across their empire. However, one can also see the lighter marble bands that run both horizontally and vertically along the brick. The vertical bands almost make the first and second floor windows look as if they were one window, and the horizontal band almost acts as a belt around the building. These two bands cross and display the phenomena of one crossing over the other. This reoccurring theme of phenomenal transparency again shows as we can only focus on the aqueducts or the marble bands.
The interior of the Architecture Building also has symbolism to offer. As you enter the building from the south entrance, you walk right into an area surrounded by four columns. These four columns represent the center of the building as you could go any direction from this crossing. Two directions opposite of each other, lead to large open rooms while the direction opposite of the entrance leads to a lecture hall. This main floor plan resurfaces for the most part on the above floors also. The symmetry of the Architecture Building is captured by the four main columns in as you just enter the building.