Why Can't I Cross the Street?
Whether you're a freshman or a senior, you've most likely found yourself wondering, "why can't I cross the street?" at some point this semester. Our campus is under siege. If we must endure the banging, drilling, and the temporary death of what was once our aesthetically pleasing campus, I think its fair that we know what it's all for. So, I set out to find the truth about why we can't cross the street.
I'll begin with the destruction on Angel street (given that this my home and I am therefore biased). The noise from construction here tends to wake me up every morning and the street is often blocked off, which causes a whole parking issue. With this in mind, I was especially excited to know what fabulous addition I could be expecting in return for my suffering, and the mutual sufferings of other Angel street residents. In talking with the construction workers, I discovered that the construction is just to put electricity into the apartments being built next to WOW. It was potentially one of the most anticlimactic conversations I've ever had.
Next, I went to learn about the Thayer construction that left a hole in the ground covered by metal sheets, and is now just a weird dark line down the middle of the street. I found out that this construction is also for electricity. Given this conversation happened just seconds after my conversation about Angel street, I was less than thrilled and beginning to fear that this was going to be the worst journalistic venture in blog history. However, this electricity is going into the Shake Shack building on Euclid, so I deem it to be worthy of our struggles (as long as I don't graduate before Shake Shack opens).
Farther up Angel Street, the history department is being rooted out of the ground and moved to the corner of Brown and Olive streets. Currently a giant hole is being dug so that they can drop the history building into it (?) I'm honestly unclear regarding the logistics of the whole process, but I am looking forward to seeing if it is possible to lift an entire building off the ground, Up style. The purpose of the move is to make room for a new performing arts department! Very exciting news. However, it won't be done for another year and a half to two years so, sorry Juniors and Seniors.
The bookstore is an obvious and very visible construction sight that's really hindering our ability to cross the street, and even the ability stay on the same side of the street we were already on. The construction company has power washed the outside of the building and are now building new offices and classrooms on the second floor. No objections here.
Finally, there is the random large pile of dirt sitting on the main green. Thats there as excess dirt to be used to fill in the foliage on either side of the the weirdly steep Friedman Hall ramps.I hope you all can sleep at night now that you know whats going down (and up) on campus. You still can't cross the road, though. Images via Casey Clifford, '19.