Autumn in Ann Arbor

[Allan]

I was in Ann Arbor today sketching a sculpture on North Campus. However, I managed to slip out after an hour with my friends, and I took them on a quick mini-tour of the city. They were not impressed by the city or the architecture...not even the Law Quad! You'd think that architecture majors would find architecture interesting, but apparently not. Anyway, on with the photos....

[M. Brown]

Great Pictures man

[wolverine]

Where am I in those photos?

Pffft, copycat. I took the same image shown below. We must have taken it just a hour apart. Actually, I probably blew right past you somewhere on my bike. Anyway, your pic of the law quad is better.

Here's mine, see it's blurry and yours isn't.

As for the people with you. THE LAW QUAD: Cambridge style architecture. How can you not like that? It's so beautiful!! Please don't tell me they were awe inspired with North Campus. Please!!!, even all the architecture professors hate most of the buildings on North Campus, including the architecture school itself. Those people you are with are crazy. I feel like going over there to suburbiaglassboxlandofathousandlookalikebuildings Southfield and kicking their asses right now. Well, if I had a car I would.

It scares me that those people would dislike tasteful architecture over some concrete and steel box. Maybe they hate Albert Kahn? As Kahn designed most of Central Campus. I find it hard that they wouldn't even take a glance of interest in Kahn's architecture. I think he's a genius.

Rant over.

BTW, I'm glad you caught the Outback blimp as well. Seems the whole city saw it. I'm also glad you got to take more pictures of the "Diag" as we rushed that area last time you came.

[monsoon]

[wolfdawg54]

Wow, the town and the Michigan campus is really beautiful. I love fall weather!

[Brother Ray]

Nice to see you caught a bit of sunshine in those photos. It certainly was a sight for sore eyes yesterday. Nice pictures. Another point of interest for A2 photos is the Tally Hall parking structure across the street from Borders.

- BR

[Allan]

Thanks guys!

Wolverine -

Your photo of the Law Quad was taken at 4:30. My photos of the Law Quad were taken between 5:10 and 5:19 So it looks like we missed each other by about 45 minutes.

<rant>

My tour through the city was pretty quick. I ended up leaving about 6:45, since I was sick and tired of draging around such unenthusiastic people with me. I would stop to take a photo, and they would end up a block ahead of me, wondering where I was. Then of course they would look back and see me standing in the middle of the street taking a photo. These people did not appreciate the architecture. They did not even understand why Michigan's campus is so much better than LTU's!!! One of them even commented how North Campus was "nice." I'm sorry, but North Campus is not nice. If I wanted to see North Campus I could go to any random suburban office park here in Sprawlfield and see pretty much the same ugly crap. They did not understand how adding a glass box onto the side of the art museum and tearing down all the trees would look bad. They did not understand why Angel Hall is so plain. They thought that the ugly 60s building across the street from Angel Hall was "not that bad." They did not understand the idea of putting light rail through the city. They did not understand why the city keeps adding onto the top of their parking garages. They did not understand why anyone would want to add additional highrises to downtown. They even thought University Towers looked "ok"! Ahhhhhh!!!!!!!! I ended up taking them to eat where we ate before (I forget the name of the place now), and all I heard was "This is too expensive!" Apparently they did not realize that a meal at Wendy's cost a whole $3.00. Give me a break! And I have never seen people so fascinated by a giant rotating cube. I made a video of that...it was actually kind of funny. If you would like to come to suburbiaglassboxlandofathousandlookalikebuildings to teach these guys about real architecture, be my guest. Although quite honestly I don't think you'd get very far with them.

My professor did make the comment that "this is probably one of the nicer spots on North Campus." So it seems that he heard me complaining about how bad north campus is, LOL. I still cannot believe that I had to drive ALL THE WAY TO ANN ARBOR to see this:

Interesting? Yes. But it certainly wasn't worth a trip to see that specifically, especially when there are so many other much more interesting things to see in the city.

</rant>

[Allan]

Nice to see you caught a bit of sunshine in those photos.  It certainly was a sight for sore eyes yesterday.  Nice pictures.  Another point of interest for A2 photos is the Tally Hall parking structure across the street from Borders.

- BR

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll definately check that out the next time I head over to Ann Arbor.

BTW, welcome to the forum!

[wolverine]

THEY THOUGHT THE U TOWERS WAS NICE!!!!!

AHHHHHHH!HHHHHH!H!H!H!H!!H

That is by far, the ugliest building in Ann Arbor. The city council has been trying to get rid of that hideous highrise for years.

For anyone that doesn't know, University Towers is a 17 storey building that sports a falling apart ugly brownish 60s style facade. I have NEVER heard anyone say that building is nice. Apparently, the apartments within are a step below Detroit Project Units. How sad, that students would stoop that low for cheap apartments. The conditions there are filthy. Anyway. these people basically dissed an Albert Kahn building, as far as Angell Hall is concerned, which is really sad. Honestly, I think they had to be B.S.ing. or perhaps they were jealous of the fact that Central campus kicks major butt in architecture. If they don't like our buildings, they might as well hate all the historic buildings in downtown Detroit, and in Chicago, and in New York, oh I could go on.

I still find it really odd that the architecture program at LTU would find North Campus so interesting when the architecture program here at U of M considers our own NC an architectural disaster. As many of the professors have said here, many of the buildings on NC were built in the 60s and 70s, and the designs were too contemporary. Thus, they quickly went out of style, and now we are stuck with something ugly. It's probably not a good idea that they are encouraging you guys to study this portion of campus. I question your instructor's credibility. Now one building worth studying on NC is the new engineering building. That actually used classic elements. It's very nice, and it sounds like you guys completely avoided it!

As far as the art museum, the new modern glassy addition they are adding to this Beaux (spelling?) arts building has gone up in huge arguments. Personally, I don't think we need it. Perhaps the Art Museum could get a bigger and better building somwhere else. I'm suprised the addition passed through the city's approval, as their are strict building codes calling for specific styles of architecture that reflect with the original campus.

But don't worry about the addition too much, it has been constructed to be demolished in the future, as it will only be joined by a small breezeway to the historical structure. I also found out that a building used to exist where this is going up, so I'm not too upset about the spacial issues anymore.

[wolverine]

Oh, I forgot to answer the industry question.

Ann Arbor makes a variety products. Small factories dot the city, mostly making small machinery parts that are probably shipped off to automakers. Eaton Corp I think does a lot of that, and of course there is also the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer.

I'm sure there is other industry, but I haven't taken much time to research that.

[Allan]

We didn't actually study the buildings on NC, but rather that sculpture thing..."The Waves" or whatever it's called. The class is an easy A, but I will not be taking that professor next semester. Although I determined that on about the third day of class, LOL. Also, my class is the only class that has gone to A2. All the other classes go to Cranbrook all the time. Although something tells me that my professor has no idea what Cranbrook is.

[SavannahGa]

Very very nice.