The heart of campus is dense temperate redwood rainforest, with dramatic limestone rivines (and spectacular pedestrian bridges) througout. The campus is so big and the trees are so dense that you usually can’t see other buildings, just trails through cool misty fairlyland forest. The outskirts are endless golden meadows with sweeping views of the ocean by day and the twinking lights of town by night. The undeveloped land is full of caves and legendary trees and secret gather spots for full moon parties and hidden camps for students that live in the woods. It’s really really hard to go to class sometimes, with so much beauty beckoning.
Most of the people I know that went there went because they fell in love with the campus. And I don’t really think in this case it’s a mistake.
You only get that view if you’re on the top floor, which is the only floor where the rooms have windows. On other floors, the only windows are at the ends of the hallways. The rooms and labs themselves have no windows.
Dude, that seriously sucks. So, you work in the windowless basement of the ugliest building on campus? I hereby retract my previous silver lining assessment of your situation. I simply can’t sugarcoat this one. My sympathies, dude.
I now totally understand why the highlight of your day is your walk to work.
As to the OP, I never went to college so I have nothing to add. If only this were a thread about the least aesthetically pleasing university campus, for I would offer University of Cincincinnati: Home of Crosley Tower– an even butt-uglier hunk of concrete than Cornell’s ugliest building. UC refers to its campus as “one of the most architecturally dynamic campuses in America.” I submit that it suffers from multiple personality disorder the likes of which Sybil would have envied.
Miami U. is nice though and the little town of Oxford, OH it’s located in is quaint with its brick-lined main thoroughfare. I’d add a vote for Pepperdine as well. Spectacular! But then, it is a part of the UC system; I think that’s a pre-requisite (Riverside being the obvious bland exception).
Whoops! Of course I meant Uris Hall. I can’t imagine that any other Cornell building could even come close to its too-unpolluted-climate-induced ugliness.
There always my home-town university of SUNY Fredonia, which I don’t consider classically beautiful, but rather gothically stark, which has a charm of its own. It’s at least more interesting than the cookie-cutter 60s-70s architecture buildings: even though it is itself an example of functional concrete, it takes it to a minimalist and bare extreme, for instance, a raised walkway(right picture) between the central buildings, complete with attached outdoor amphitheatre (which you cannot see from outside the walkway!)
But for classical beauty, I’d have to agree with Cornell. One might forget there is even a third creek running through the middle of campus (granted it is underground for awhile, but does wend through a nice rock garden.) And the Plantations not only have your miles and miles of upstate hiking trails and more formal gardens, they also have the best example I’ve ever seen of a beautiful picnic-worthy meadow!
