# What's the Least Aesthetically Pleasing Campus? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 2, 2005, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-aesthetically-pleasing-campus/292564 "2005-03-02T06:17:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2005, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-aesthetically-pleasing-campus/292564/41 "2005-03-03T19:17:36Z")
Someone, in a related thread, mentioned that one particular campus has loads of a specific type of pear tree that, for two weeks out of the year, smell of a rotting slaughterhouse. As unpleasant as looking at bricks all day would be, one can always close one’s eyes. How one would escape that smell probably requires a bit more deliberate action. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2005, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-aesthetically-pleasing-campus/292564/42 "2005-03-03T19:41:16Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Good God. It reminds me of Nevelson’s **Transparent Horizon** on the MIT campus, with its castrating point placed groin-high. > > At least they didn’t build it out of those damned bricks. Hey! I hope you’re not dissing Baker House. I lived there for four years, and I liked the bricks. Alvar did a good job. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2005, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-aesthetically-pleasing-campus/292564/43 "2005-03-03T20:04:05Z")
> [@](#): > > Quote: > Originally Posted by CalMeacham > Good God. It reminds me of Nevelson’s Transparent Horizon on the MIT campus, with its castrating point placed groin-high. > > At least they didn’t build it out of those damned bricks. > Hey! I hope you’re not dissing Baker House. I lived there for four years, and I liked the bricks. Alvar did a good job. Nope – look up a few threads. I’m dissing the painfully boring brick construction of RIT. In Baker House the bricks are _not_ identical, and the construction is not monotonously flat. Baker House has that weird “pregnant guppy” shape to it. And it’s not unornamented – look at the “Moon Garden” over the subterranean dining hall. The back stairs _do_ look, from the outside, as if they were stuck on as an afterthought, but I can live with that. Heck, I even lived in Baker for a week after I first got there. I was a Limbo Frosh. ---
**Author:** ![kidchameleon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kidchameleon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidchameleon)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2005, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-aesthetically-pleasing-campus/292564/44 "2005-03-03T22:05:42Z")
> [@Airblairxxx](#): > > (even though in terms of space it’s actually the smallest of the University of California campuses). Smaller than UCB? I always wanted to go to Berkley, until I _went_ to Berkley. That is one dirty city and campus. I’m glad to have gone to the wide open grassy expanse of UC Davis. ---
**Author:** ![neofishboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/neofishboy/32/444_2.png) [@neofishboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neofishboy)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2005, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-aesthetically-pleasing-campus/292564/45 "2005-03-04T02:14:25Z")
I’ll second Humboldt State. I wasn’t real thrilled with the town of Arcata either. People had described it to me as a “freaky little college town in the coastal redwoods” but I found it fairly run-down and seedy. Fresno State is pretty icky too. I used to visit a friend there periodically and I couldn’t get over how much it reminded me of a really ugly high school campus. ---
**Author:** ![hawksgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ed655f/32.png) [@hawksgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawksgirl)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2005, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-aesthetically-pleasing-campus/292564/46 "2005-03-04T02:41:41Z")
> [@kidchameleon](#): > > Smaller than UCB? I always wanted to go to Berkley, until I _went_ to Berkley. That is one dirty city and campus. I’m glad to have gone to the wide open grassy expanse of UC Davis. Congradulations on your campus upgrade!! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![scott\_evil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/91b2a8/32.png) [@scott\_evil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scott_evil)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2005, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-aesthetically-pleasing-campus/292564/47 "2005-03-04T03:44:13Z")
> [@anu-la1979](#): > > Is that the Concordia building with the escalators? I thought that one looked kind of cool. I used to study there sometimes because I lived on Drummond…McLennan was closer but sometimes I just needed to take a break from the bunker. Yeah, the Hall building is the one with the escalators. > [@anu-la1979](#): > > The last time I was there they had upscale-malled-up Les Faubourgs and I was all confused. _sniff sniff_ Now you’re making me all nostalgic for a good old shopping trip to Bedo **scott evil** capped off with a Ristretto Creme Brulee at Second Cup. The area’s changed quite a lot even in the past few years. Buildings have been torn down, new ones have gone up. ---
**Author:** ![WCOT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e5b9ba/32.png) [@WCOT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WCOT)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2005, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-aesthetically-pleasing-campus/292564/48 "2005-03-04T05:20:21Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > From this website [http://www.rit.edu/~webcam/webcams.html](http://www.rit.edu/~webcam/webcams.html) : > > With the expansion of the Math and Sciences Building, R.I.T.'s campus contains more bricks than the Great Wall of China. … pseudo-affectionate nickname “Brick City.” > > … Actually, there is a yearly weekend type deal here that is called the “Brick City Festival”, its almost the biggest thing to happen on campus all year. ---
**Author:** ![Ms\_Macphisto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b487fb/32.png) [@Ms\_Macphisto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms_Macphisto)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2005, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-aesthetically-pleasing-campus/292564/49 "2005-03-04T07:53:13Z")
> [@scott evil](#): > > There’s a new Engineering/Computer Science/Visual Arts building nearing completion on Guy and Ste-Catherine, an imposing glass behemoth, that looks pretty neat. It’s better than the empty lot that was there before, but I find it gives me a claustrophobic feeling every time I walk past. Sounds interesting. I’ll be in Montreal in May, so I’ll have to remember to check it out. I’m fully prepared for a lot of changes to the city, but as long as the shopping’s still good, it’s all fine with me. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-least-aesthetically-pleasing-campus/292564.md?page=2)