The building I work in was built in 1947, and my floor was added in 1965. Walking around here sometimes reminds me of what they had that we don't. Back then, there were adventures in science. Engineers built an antenna to track Sputnik from the roof of this building. Little kids cared about secret codes and radios. Besides being a "who's better at thinking" fight with Russia, the space race was also a time when it wasn't as dorky to be interested in those things for non-corporate reasons. The architecture of this building reflects that. The walls and doors are solid and plain, but certain details make this environment belong to the science that happens within it and to the attitudes (good and bad) of the time. Door handles and railings are made of copper in a nod to the metal that does it all. Women's bathrooms have obviously been converted from men's, because back when this place was built women didn't do this kind of thing. It's a fallout shelter. This summer we cleaned out a closet and found 50 pounds of "carbohydrate dietary supplement," stockpiled in the 50's by a now-deceased professor, in case the building's fallout-sheltering capability was ever used.
Things are just as dramatic these days, but no one believes anymore that science solves problems. Only money solves problems, and the new buildings on the quad are monuments to money, not to research.
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