New Caltech building
09Sep08
I suspect this is one of those buildings that looks cool right now, but tacky in ten years.
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Apparent Horizons 
Really? You think it looks cool now? Even the drawings of it looked fairly ugly to me. The nearly complete view of it now is rather hideous. There’s something about the type of siding that they’re using that makes it look like it’s either incomplete or falling apart, even though it’s brand new. No, I never thought that any university would surpass Rice’s Duncan Hall in terms of hideousness. Admittedly, I thought that Duncan Hall looked pretty cool to start with. At least, it looked cool until I had to start taking classes in it.
That picture of Duncan Hall made me dizzy.
Ditto on the dizziness.
I do find it a little strange that Caltech is so well-known for excellent Spanish colonial architecture, but all the new buildings they build are not at all Spanish colonial. Seems a little silly.
Try attending classes in Duncan Hall! The ONLY wall that is painted white is in the main lecture hall, and it’s white so that it can be used as a screen. Other screwed up design elements: the main hallway down the center of the building is 4 storeys tall, meaning that ~25% of the building is empty, unsuable space! Also, if memory serves, the offices on the top floor don’t have ceilings, they’re just left open where the walls end, giving a nice view of the bottom of the roof. Not so great for keeping things quiet.
Oh, and here’s another view of the Escher-like stairs in the main lobby.
I’m with Paul on this one — the classic Spanish-style architecture is so pretty, and makes the campus look so nice. We (the general academic “we”) also know by now what kinds of things do not age well — most of us can probably name at least one building from the 60s or 70s that is now an eyesore for some campus we’ve been affiliated with.
I am disappointed with that particular new building. Not only do I dislike it (personal taste), I don’t think it’ll age well at all (I say objectively, based on what I’ve seen).
Nah – it looks tacky now.