esl comparison of two Penn State university campus spaces essay

DO BUILDINGS ALSO SPEAK?

A building is not just about roof, walls and furniture. Every space or building that we see around us has a story embedded in it, a story that not everyone can extract or in better words, not everyone cares to. By comparing and contrasting the two Penn State buildings, Old Main and the Millennium Science Complex, I plan to shed light on the stories that the two buildings are trying to tell based on the differences in their architecture, aura and symbolic significance. Comment by Shuyuan Liu: Thesis statement: with information of buildings compared, meaningful purpose of comparison, and points of comparison applied to both buildings.

Old Main, formerly called the “Main Building,” was the first-ever building at Penn State University. Talking about its architectural history, it was constructed over a period of seven years by a world-renowned architect named Charles Z. Klauder and was finished in 1863 (Old Main, 2017). The Main Building was constructed from limestone that was quarried from beneath the Old Main Lawn itself in a style called “Federal Revival Architecture” (Old Main, 2017). While the original Main Building “housed a chapel, the President’s office, classrooms and residential spaces for up to 400 students” (Old Main, 2017), the Old Main we know today is a renovated version that serves as an administrative centre. The Old Main clock tower, one of the most recognizable features at Penn State, houses a bell whose electric chimes are heard all over the campus. Inside Old Main are murals and frescoes which were designed by some of the professors as an act of “tribute to the university’s land grant education” (Land Grant, 2015; Old Main, 2017). The Millennium Science Complex on the other hand, was built as recently as 2011 by a world-renowned architect named Rafael Vinoly, with a total investment of $225M dollars (Millennium Science Complex, n.d.). Home to both the Materials Research Institute and the Huck Life Institutes for the Life Sciences, the building encompasses an astounding 275,600 square-feet area and is designed in ‘L’-shape. It is “equipped with solar devices on its green roof terrace, quiet labs, a nano-clean room and multiple fume hoods and biosafety cabinets” (Millennium Science Complex, n.d.). Another important feature is the “vibration-free buildings built underground for carrying out motion sensitive experiments” (Millennium Science Complex, n.d.).

Old Main, being an administrative building, has an intense aura. The presence of big doors, a clock tower, the hollow globe structure, flag posts and tall cylindrical pillars all seem to catalyse that atmosphere further. The fact that it only has two entries makes it somewhat opaque for its visitors and the people around. The Millennium Science Complex on the other hand, is surrounded by gardens, roads, other academic buildings and has multiple entries. This makes it more approachable for its visitors. Ironically enough, visitors are free to go inside the Old Main building, but a special permit is required to do so in the case of the Millennium Science Complex. One possible reason for this irony could be the fact that Millennium Science Complex is a research building and hence doesn’t allow visitors to go inside without a valid permit. Old Main, on the other hand is the heart and soul of the university and hence is open for the faculty and students to walk in.

Old Main is identified as the heart of the university. It reflects Penn State’s values of responsibility, excellence, leadership and discovery and reminds us of the university’s humble beginnings. It commemorates the hard work and perseverance that went into elevating it to the current global level, while clinging to its basic values at all times. The front wall of Old Main reads, “To promote liberal and practical education”, which signifies that the university believes in providing broad interdisciplinary education to its students. Also, it is fascinating enough to realize how well the name of this building syncs with its architectural style. The Millennium Science Building on the other hand, boasts a state-of-the-art infrastructure and acts as a centre of convergence “by allowing researchers, scientists and students from different fields to collaborate and share their ideas at one central location” (Millennium Sciences, 2008). The literal meaning of the word Millennium is ‘period of thousand years’. Therefore, naming such an important space of the campus as ‘Millennium Science Complex’ is the university’s gesture to acknowledge the fact that exponential developments in the field of biology, technology and work space atmosphere are the needs of the hour. And, by adopting such a modern infrastructure it depicts how the university responds to the need of keeping up with changing times, while still maintaining the old buildings on the campus. It stands to symbolize the university’s development and how the collaboration of modern technologies and working space can exponentially benefit the field of research and advances.

In conclusion, the architecture, design and the history of every building symbolize something unique. They possess a characteristic vibe and seem to whisper the history they have seen. They symbolize the changing times and the values of the society. But it is on the visitor to comprehend the language they speak! (828 words)

References