Matt Hampel | matth.org

The new Palmer Commons / Life Science grounds on central campus are cold, uninterrupted, a flat passageway and a windtunnel, and that’s a shame:

Every few yards is another blue emergency light — it’s not safe to be here.

The green areas are raised, off limits, not for you. The ground has no texture. There are benches, hard, fixed, pushed to the side. Nothing is outside. There’s no reason to stop, to meet someone, to talk with colleagues or other students.

There’s a little stage area:

But no power plugs, or lights, or seating.

Compare to a similar intersection of major buildings on Central Campus:

Crowds of people walk here at all hours of the day. When it’s warm, a cafe sets up chairs outside, a hotdog vendor is open for business, political activists and panhandlers accost you. Benches and bike parking are everywhere. Artifacts: historical placks, posting boards teach you the past and the future. Ahead is the arch of West Quad, a transition to the Diag. It’s warm, even thought the temperature isn’t.

Why do we think that big, glass-fronted buildings with lots of flat space

will be pleasing?

They won’t, and they never will be.

The building is built, but there’s nothing stopping us from breaking up the flat:

Make the ground textured. Give it an end, and a narrower path:

Put in big objects, and small objects, and water, and wood:

Change the texture, change the color:

Who is planning North Quad?