Week 5: Domes

Week 5

A tour of domes brought us to several different large buildings around campus. It was really quite exciting to talk about structural engineering. These topics greatly interest me, as a mechanically-focused engineer. Some topics I’ve learned about in TAM classes (especially solid mechanics) are buckling, twisting, and bending. This made a whole lot of sense in the context of TBH, which has huge I-beams supporting the entire building, periodically broken by horizontal supports. These horizontal supports prevent buckling. It’s really cool how the statics course I took has taught me about the distribution of forces through a truss. It helped me to better understand what was going on when we visited a lot of Domes on Tuesday.

First, we went to the football practice facility. It has an interesting dome which slopes downward from one end to the other. The massive concrete construction is covering a steel frame. Next, we went to Huff Hall. This building has a bunch of beams that at first appear to be curved, but are actually segmented and curve across the ceiling to distribute the forces to the alternating vertical beams on the sides of the building. Being an older building, it actually has a remarkably complex domed ceiling with an incredible branching framework. Then, we tried to use the secret passageway to get from Huff to the Armory, but unfortunately, the door was locked – see photo below. The Armory is a cooler dome, in my opinion. There’re two big sides that come together in a window running the length of the ceiling, supported by enormous pins. The pins are showcased by the skylights, a remarkable feat of engineering. I enjoyed this day a lot and learned about different types of domes.

Huff Hall has large columns supporting the complicated truss ceiling.

Pillars support the curved semi-cylindrical ceiling of Armory.

We were unable to pass under the street from Huff to Armory :(

Pin joints support the two sides of the Armory roof.

Week 4: TBH

Week 4

In exploring Temple Hoyne Buell Hall Tuesday, February 10, unfortunately we could not make it into the mechanical rooms since the locks were recently changed.  Still, Professor Hinders went ahead and showed us the overall ventilation infrastructure of the building. What’s great about TBH is that the entire building’s mechanical system is exposed. Actually, it’s put on display in a really cool way. Two huge ventilation pipes carry the cooled/heated air up to the top of the building – one to each side. The huge pipes slowly branch as they wind through the building. We ended up walking through the whole building, seeing how the pipes gradually shrink down in size through the studios and offices in order to force air out until they are very small on the first mezzanine level.  Professor Hinders showed us his office – which is barely tall enough for his tall stature. The cool thing is that he can actually open his ceiling vent to show the inside of the ventilation system.

There were many other things to appreciate about the building. I took some cool photos of the exterior, and enjoyed understanding how all the parts of the building work together in sweet unity. The paserelles cross from professor offices on one side of the building to graduate student studios on the other side, which is very symbolic. The interior materials of the building actually pass to the outside of the building in a flow which makes the building one with its environment. We also observed other parts of the infrastructure – different water flows and returning pipes. The entire system is extremely complicated, but well-designed to be exposed and shown off with the materials of the building. It was a fun tour and I learned a lot about how temperature-controlled air is transported around the building. The atrium has a set of vents at the bottom which allow for air to rise most of the way up the windows, too.

A panoramic shot of the exterior of TBH

What lovely reflection is the curved exterior of TBH where the pipes run along.

Week 3: Scavenger Hunt & Krannert

Tuesday, February 3

Here are the results of what Sam and I found on our scavenger hunt! It was quite fun. :)  Sorry we didn't hug the columns! We missed that part.

A: Tuscan columns at the Union
B: Doric columns at Lincoln Hall
C: Ionic columns at the Architecture Building
D: Corinthian columns at Busey Hall
E: Combined columns at the Halene Gateway


Thursday, February 5

On Thursday, we had a tour of Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. We went into all the different theaters that were open, and also got a tour of the underbelly of the center. It was incredibly cool to see how complicated the back-workings of the center are. The area of the center is 1.5 acres, which is equivalent to 9 tennis courts, making it the largest footprint of any low building on campus. It was nice to see the model (made by an Illinois architecture student) to understand the overall building - at least the visible parts of it. Most of the building is underground. My favorite part was the scene shop. It is actually built on a different foundation in order to prevent the vibrations and noise from affecting shows in the surrounding theaters.  One other cool thing is that Mr. Krannert patented corrugated cardboard. I can absolutely see how you would be extraordinarily successful given the patenting of such an incredibly useful invention. It was an interesting tour!

Week 2: Quads & Power Plant

We had two tours during the second week of class.

Tuesday, January 27

On January 27th, we explored the main quad and engineering quad.  This tour took us all the way from TBH to the Beckman Institute, which apparently Prof. Hinders doesn't like... more on that later.  We started with the Undergraduate Library. I always wondered if UGL was supposed to stand for "underground library."  We noted its significance to the Morrow Plots, and also how the empty courtyard space in the middle serves as a way to make the building bigger and filled with light.  Pictured below is Foellinger Auditorium, whose front side is elegant and grand.  We have earlier noted that the ACES library does a horrible job "copying" Foellinger's grandeur.

All of the buildings are coming together to a table (the main quad) to have a conversation with one another.  At this university, we can use the word "universe" to describe the unity of many colleges at a place of learning.  Each building comes to the quad with something different to share, and they are equally important.  However, the Union and Foellinger Auditorium are the two which are far more important.

Shown above is the axis splitting the quad in half.  A train used to run through along this path, a tram of sorts.  What no longer exists as such a train is now a bike path.  Further away in the photo, you can see the short walls and nearby trees that used to form a tunnel of trees.  The hedges and walls were taller at one time, but they were shortened for women's safety at night. Also, the hedges are what make the buildings who they are.  The consistency in the greenery of these buildings allows for more interesting building fronts, and all the buildings are aligned with the quad.  Two other things I didn't realize is that there have been multiple Union buildings; and the Illini Union is supposed to be shaped like a "Block I" but failed to do so due to an important small building in the way.

The next thing we did was travel to the Bardeen Quadrangle.  I love this place.  The engineering quad is graced by the Boneyard Creek, shown below.  There is an axis-shift because of the important Engineering Hall which is rather in the way of a perfectly aligned axis.

The main focal point of the quad is, of course, Grainger Engineering Library.  It has an off-center construction, but the balcony half-circle "calls" to the balcony/porch of the Engineering Hall.

Next, we crossed over Springfield Avenue, where the axis shifts back to nearly its original east-west position. You can see below that there is a gateway of sorts, with several buildings on each side.  The main attraction is the Beckman Institute at the end.  Digital Computer Lab (right, below) is my favorite! :)

Pictured in the above two photos: the new ECE Building.  How exciting! It's beautifully constructed and has quite a bit of cool art in front.

I conclude with the Beckman Institute (interior pictured).  The problems that Professor Hinders has with it are:

 1) The front of it looks like a big dick. Interesting.

 2) It has an uninteresting exterior pattern.

 3) Worst of all, it serves as a wall to block off the poor communities north of University Avenue. I completely agree with Hinders on this one.  It's clearly a problem that there is no gateway from the north side of campus into the North Quad.  What a horrible, uninviting wall has been created.  I disagree that there are racial implications involved.  That community isn't just black people. It's poor people, so it is unfortunate that they are not "socially allowed" into the building, and the university.

Thursday, January 29

FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION was quite apparent here.

We visited Abbott Power Plant on Oak Street.  There was so much to learn about this place.  I was extremely impressed by the numbers, machinery, and exciting engineering involved in making as much power and steam as they do.  This clearly didn't interest the rest of the class, but I thought it was all pretty cool.

The power plant itself was constructed out of multiple levels such that the floors were built around the machinery, such that metal grate floor were connected by ladders, interspersed with massive generators and some huge jet engines, too.  

My favorite part was definitely when the tour guide opened up the huge coal-burning oven.  It was incredible to look inside and see the orange flames dancing around, so mean and vicious, yet contained within this behemoth of an oven.  The systems all work together in an very unified way.  The steam is used to produce electricity, but the leftover steam is cooled through a complicated process, collecting as much usable energy as possible, before its un-condensed form is finally sent to campus through the steam tunnels - which they strongly enforced we should never enter. I still hope to someday.

There was a lot to learn - and much that cannot be written here. Since photos were not permitted, I did not take any notes on my phone.  The tour was mostly numbers and names of machines which are so incredibly beyond my understanding. It was also very difficult to hear with the noises of the machinery... I'm glad we used earplugs!

Week 1: South Quad