Page created 30 Jul 2003 by andronicus
So, in another entree', Pedro described the rennovations to Soldier Field as looking as if a UFO had crashed into the stadium. I got a kick out of that and thought, 'yeah, that's a pretty good description'. What other eyesores sore your eyes up good?
Across the street from the Cap'n and Pedro's place there is a bungalow that has had the roof torn off and a second story added on in pink stucco. If my eyes could puke, they would.
"It's like I'm back in Miami."
I like Anderson Chapel.
...but as a chapel it sucks big donkey things!
Because it's half chapel, half auditorium? Or what?
The only things that suggest a 'chapel' are the two peices of abstract art suspended from the ceiling. You know the ones, the whitewashed cast iron rods shaped in the form of a...a dove? and the other in the shape of a...hmm, well you know. Otherwise the place screams above par college auditorium.Oh, how could I possibly overlook the building's Ark motif! At least that's what Barry's always telling me, but he's also convinced all North Parkers are Vikings in disguise.
I think our personal preferences for the aesthetics that "must" go into a chapel are probably a little different. I'll admit that there isn't much that recognizeably makes it a "chapel" per se, however I wouldn't say that it "sucks as a chapel" simply because it doesn't necessarily "scream" chapel.I also think that it is ultimately affected by it's design as a multi-use building; one might just as easily say it sucks as an above-par college auditorium. Or maybe it tried to be "all things to all people" and failed. I would not personally say that, but if I were designing an auditorium that would also (or even primarily) hold chapel services I would admittedly do it differently.
I still don't think that means it "sucks as a chapel."
but the stretch of green that was there was much better, and the thing looks nothing like a chapel, it does look like an ark, but then we're not gathering conservative larvae together to weather the storm now are we? I just preferred playing frisbee there before the ark came and shortened the field. I would prefer it if it had a little character, instead it looks like a barrack, and that's not what I call chapel like.
but wouldn't say it sucks as a chapel, i would, however say that it sucks as a building. The doors especially are problematic, the "choir loft" is a pain (if you ask me) and i really, really don't like the upstairs, even though that's where i always sit.
it just always seems like when NPU has a construction project underway, somehow, even though the project serves it's intended purpose, it always looks ugly, or took away something far more valuable.
Although they are trying hard with the interior decor.
The landscaping -- it's great! And I don't think that Spaulding Ave. was more important than sidewalks and grass.
NPU always needed it's own little runway there through the middle...(is it still like that?)
there is a wide walk approximately where spaulding was
as nice as the new stuff looks, i sort of miss spaulding. just a little bit. and i guess i always think the $ they spend could be spent on better things. like dorms, expanding educational departments, etc.
a third of it (1 million) was a donation from the state for beautification. And I miss Spaulding a little too... I like to pretend it's still there, under the sod. BUt that said, when you get a grant for beautification, you really want to take the opportunity. And you can't really spend money to create programs the school isn't prepared to support either with teachers or students. Truly creating new educational programs isn't a problem solved by throwing money at it. Lastly, we have not had to turn students away for lack of housing... the last few years have not been that full, enrollmentwise.It's not even that I don't understand your suggestions, baggins, nor do I think that NPU always makes the best decisions... in fact, most of the time, I disagree somewhat with the "big" decisions they make... but that said, I think the beautification thing is ultimately a big win for the school. It's so cool to sit on a park bench with jack under the portico on caroline hall and watch little birds hop around under the new evergreenery.
the new green area is a good thing, and that will probably help to increasae enrollment, what are they doing with the football field? It was all torn up last time I went past. Oh, and the damn sign on the corner of Kedzie and Foster is really big, and ugly!
...donated a bunch of money for a better football field/"stadium".ANd yeah, the sign is ugly. I love how a month after we got a sign, McDonald's had to participate in the "signage escalation" and get their own ugly display.
how about the sign for the pit? that thing is enormous. of course, now all I can think about is a chicken delight.
now I want a chicken delight too, mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
i want a chicken delight too. i think i just might go and have one... with my cousin of course.
when i say NPU could use the money on housing, i mean improving existing dorms, not creating new space. however, from what i understand a huge chunk of the NPU housing has been solved by buying up apartments all over the place and sticking students in them. not a bad idea necessarily, but i think the campus gets too spread out like that. also, many of the apartment students are drunk assholes and stumble home from wherever at 2am and piss on people's cars and yell and scream and the neighborhood doesn't necessarily appreciatae that. obviously this is far from the norm, but it's a situation that occurs when you start to spread student housing out into the surrounding neighborhood instead of keeping it all 'on campus'.
also, improving/expanding educational departments CAN be improved by spending some money. at least, spending the money to hire a couple more philosophy professors would improve the NPU Philosophy deapartment, in my opinion. not that anybody there currently is sub-par by any means. just that there would be room for a wider curriculum and more class flexibility if there weren't only a couple guys doing all the teaching.
i didn't realize the NPU's newest beautification was made possible largely by a donation from the state. that's pretty cool, and i'd say they did a good job then (although some precious street parking space was eliminated). and i do realize that a lot of things that they do are because of grants and donations and gifts directed toward a very specific project. if only the old rich covenanters would realize some of the more pressing needs of the school, maybe something could get done. i've always felt like the administration over there was a bit of a joke, though. so i don't see much amazing happening there. but that's just unfounded bias. just ignore me.
I certainlydon't think that the administration always makes the best choices... and I think you hit it on the head when you said "if only the old rich covenanters would realize some of the more pressing needs of the school" -- because donations and pledges can't generally go to faculty and such unless they're donations to the general fund or are endowed by someone, which doesn't happen often. If general fund money goes to expanding positions, it generally has to be done with the idea that increased faculty means increased enrollment which means recouping that money, or eventually paying them from tuition, rather than donated funds.The answer to these questions, and the solutions to the problems are, like most things, not as simple as we would have them be.
So was Hedstrom's money not good enough for the long haul? Will Anderson's Chapel someday be restored under the title Johnson Chapel? Thanks for the memories.
See Comiskey Park= U.S. Cellular Field.I couldn't agree more. Maybe I should donate under the title "Mammon School of Business" or somebody help me out here who remembers John Bunyan's allegory more clearly . . .
the excuse, as far as I understand, is that North Park named H3dstrand Field after T3d H3dstrand, in honor of him, but that it wasn't a donation from the family. (Whether that makes a difference or not, you decide.) I heard they were either going to name something else after H3dstrand, or have the "stadium" be Holmgren and the field be H3dstrand or something, which I have seen before. It's something something field at Wade Stadium in Duluth... but yeah, thanks for the memories.
Ted Hedstrom co-owned the land where the library now sits. When him and his partner sold it to North Park, Hedstrom told NP to take his share of the sale and make improvements to the already existing field. Thus the track and other things.
From your above post, it sounds like he had a "long time companion."
I never realized that the Old Boy's Club, Covenant division, partook in such things. I better shut up or North Park will fire me before I actually start.I hadn't been on campus since the renovations, at least not the west side (I did go from the gym in Carlson to the chapel at graduation this May, but it was raining so hard that I ran from one to the other and that was it). Personally, I really liked the landscaping and think the place looks more like a university now. Yes, I agree there are other things the money could be better used for, but if it was a grant for that purpose I guess they didn't have a choice.
There's a new glass bus stop thing in front of Olson Hall.
By French architects, and constructed by some of Chicago's finest, who didn't bother to tell the entire block during the week of seminary finals that we would have no water, and no electricity....I can't wait to see the pedestrian congestion that that narrow strip of sidewalk between Ohlson and the bus stop is going to cause with seven thousand students trying to get to the mail room, and none of them possessed of common sense and co-ordination skills in tandem.