lawade

Tyranny of Architecture

I thought this was an interesting topic and I wanted to bring it up in class, but I was being a Nervous Nellie and sat it out, but here is an example of architecture that while it does serve one need, it fails on many others.
The Alumni Center at Ball State University was built a decade or more ago and it is a beautiful building. Every day that I walk inside it I feel privileged to be given the opportunity. It has a gorgeous reception area that has a huge glass conservatory ceiling. It looks awesome on sunny days and is kind of intriguing on snowy ones.
Anyway, as you walk through the Alumni Center offices there is one feature that seems to be missing. A feature, when implemented, makes locating people and places a whole lot easier. You see, none of the offices have the names of the occupants placed on them. While this may not seem like a big deal, when you are in a building with many different offices and you are looking to find someone that you have never seen before, it is difficult to know exactly which office you should be going into.
There are names on the doors, but these are the names of the people who donated the money for the building. Of course, I think it is a great tribute to these generous individuals to have their names on the doors, but it is nearly impossible to find any actual employee without stopping to ask for directions.
On one hand, we have a beautiful tribute to generous people, but insufficient way of recognizing the hard working employees that occupy the spaces. My solution would be to keep the plaques as they are now, but install plaques above them with office occupant’s names, but I have been told that this is prohibited by a policy.