Yesterday, I was very lucky to take a brief walk in wonderful weather on the campus of what I've generally called the "University of Colorado" (!), as suggested by a carved "name plate" on one of its older buildings....
[the University's Powerhouse of 1909, also seen below...]
while the school is widely known as "CU" here in its home region.
The walk, which only scratched the surface of this post-Civil War institution, became a way to see a few uses of the area's beautiful stone, partly as it overlapped with campus design in general, AND the impressive natural surroundings, with it being harder to go wrong in the latter case.
The look of the campus is very much based on the local stone, and in the few CU buildings I have seen, it sometimes works, as in the beautiful simplicity, shapes and roof of the Mathematics Building's auditorium, and the way one of its diagonal lines blends into another angle of the Engineering Center, seen here in the right background....
and here with a larger part of the Math Building to the left....
At another level, it at least begins to be successful, as with Crosman and Reed Halls, in the right and left halves respectively...
with the two peaks of Reed perhaps reflecting the natural ones behind them...
At the same time, my walk easily led to a sense that there can also be an uneasy mix between the rusticism of the Italian and Italianate on the one hand and the manifestations of the modern, whether in the need for height, bulk or other utilitarian considerations. The two key examples of the latter, in my partial exposure to the campus, were the very similar mid-rises known in shorthand as JILA and Gamow, which can be taken as one example of design, and, very nearby, the Benson Earth Sciences Building.
While I wouldn't put a bag over the two towers' heads if I was forced to take either of these twin sisters out on a date - given the attractiveness of their materials and a structure which lets in more light at the bottom level in each case, they do not display a graceful marriage of styles and needs, especially with Gamow's highest "notes" of an antenna on top of a bland, gray concrete block....
and the very nearby JILA...
but a la Martin Luther King's "do not judge a person by the color of their skin but by the content of their character", things were a little more interesting inside, with an engaging potrayal at the ground level of the work of JILA....
the "Joint Institute of Laborataory Astrophysics", which was founded as a collaboration of CU and the Federal Government's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), a few years before its tower was opened in 1967.
Gamow is named for George Gamow, who (with acknowledgement to a display case in the ground level at Gamow)....
lived from 1904-1968 and was active in astrophysics, cosmology and other fields, as well as being translated into several languages, as with these two books, among several in the case...
and appears to have had a sense of humor as he lobbied for (more space for his academic department I am guessing!) as in this 1964 cartoon by him....
Just east of Gamow, the Benson Earth Sciences Building continues the regional stone, but that clashes with dull whitish panels as with those on its left (or west) side...
Benson, with the east stands of Folsom Stadium just to the left
If the design of this and other structures are too close to earth, you can always turn to nearby and more elevated visitas, whether at least beautiful, as with the mountains seen in these photos to the west of JILA....
or arguably spectacular at the national level, for the "Flatirons" to the southwest....
[...as seen from the Warner Imig Music Hall and as seen with Libby Hall below....]
Naturally and famously, the beauty of Boulder has attracted lovers of the outdoors and its rocky surfaces, and I began to see this love expressed on the surfaces of CU's campus. At first, I did not know what to make of someone climbing on the walls of university buildings, but learned a little bit about how they are a dress rehearsal, or an end in themselves, from Tom Williams...
who at 47 has been rock-climbing, both in mountain areas and at selected CU locations, since he was 12, and says that the latter recreation spot has actually been "very relaxing".
Additionally, both Boulder and CU have had a special place in his heart and mind since he was growing up in Denver, and, as "a little kid, wanted to go to CU", one reason being that "the romance of the pink stone was really overpowering", and something that he ultimately inhabited when he lived in a student dormitory at Sewall Hall, most likely seen here...
[https://housing.colorado.edu/sites/default/files/images-bldg-hall/IMG_3334.JPG]
and if so, definitely "romantic" as Tom said.
Tom and his wife run a business which imports goods from France, and he also shares his passion for climbing as a part-time teacher at the nearby Red Rocks Community College, with his being happy to give me a short visual lesson here on an east-facing wall at the basement level of the Engineering Center ....
Thanks, Tom, for sharing your interest, and good luck with your hopes to re-do your area home in the Boulder-area stone, as I "un-Bouldly"post, live at the main branch of the Denver Public Library on May 22, 2013:)!...
Historical Tour Guide
