Ann Arbor Campus and Architecture

On my third day of stay at Ann Arbor, I decided to visit the University and its campus.

A striking thing about the Campus was the architecture itself. Some of the buildings were old and Gothic in style while others were more modern.


The Law School Legal Research Building (East Triforium)


I especially liked the Law School or the Law Quadrangle as it is more popularly known. This beautiful Quadrangle was a gift to the university from William W. Cook who was an alumnus of the same school. Rumor has it ( Tip 1: Courtesy Sunit) that Cook wanted the building design to be inspired by the Law School at Oxford. But although he was involved with many aspects of its construction, he never came to Ann Arbor to see the magnificent facility either during construction or upon completion for the fear of it not living upto his dream.They say construction of the Quadrangle took more than a decade and rightly so, for I think it has resulted in one of the most beautiful student campuses I have ever seen. The Quadrangle houses the teaching facilities as well as the student dormitories. The Law School itself is one of the best in the world. ( Tip 2: Courtesy Sunit again) Around Michigan, people refer to Harvard as the "Michigan of the East". Just walking through those prestigious and beautiful grounds was a pleasure.


The Law Quadrangle

Our next trip was to the Diag or the main area where students gather. We could spot students walking around, some sitting under a tree and relaxing and others just merrily chatting with their friends. The Diag was a huge enclosure of buildings surrounding a central open area. On one side was the Michigan Library, another magnificent building. In the centre of the Diag was a concrete area with the letter "M" inlaid in bronze, "M" being the insignia of University of Michigan. The popular myth among the students is (Tip 3: Courtesy Sunit... My, My ! He was all excited while showing off his new school) that if a student steps onto this "M" in his first year, he/she will fail the first exam he/she sits for in the first semester. I caught many people trying to avoid stepping onto this area. I think Sunit even told me how to avoid failing if one accidentally steps onto it. But lets not go there.


The Diag with the Library is the background

On the South State Street, was this other huge building. It had some wonderful words engraved on the top. And they read as: "Religion, Morality and Knowledge, Being Necessary to Good Government and the Happiness of Mankind, Schools and the Means of Education Shall Forever Be Encouraged". Apparently Angell Hall houses the Department of Literature, Arts and Sciences.The tall pillars reminded me of a Greek or Roman temple.


Angell Hall

The trip to Ann Arbor was a pleasant one, to say the least. And very relaxing. Home away from home is GREAT. There was neither the bother of laundry, cleaning or grocery shopping that one has when at home, nor the bother of "Oh! we have to go see that place and this place" when one is on vacation. I realized for the first time that I could actually sleep for 12 hours a day. I would go to sleep according to EST and get up as per PST.

Comments

Mridula said…
Both, the law school building and the Angell Hall look so beatiful. While I was looking at the Hall, the first thing that came to my mind too was it looked Greek. Gald to hear that you are taking a nice break.
1:17 PM
saurav said…
WOW !!! the pictures are excellent......nicely taken...
3:26 PM
Pooja Aggarwal said…
Thanks for visiting Avik and Mridula !
4:27 PM
Pooja Aggarwal said…
Thanks for visiting Uma.
10:03 AM
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