I can’t even compute that preference! I’m smelling ketchup again!
I’ve been to the UCLA campus several times and I’ve been to Blacksburg for a football game at Lane Stadium. I’ve walked all throughout the UCLA campus but admittedly didn’t really do a walk through most of the Va Tech campus. From what I saw, they are in different categories of impressive. Like I said upthread, I’ve seen 100 campus buildings that look just like that last picture of Va Tech, including many more impressive versions of it on the Duke campus, which I know from prior threads and comments isn’t your favorite place or school.
I need to hunt down some pictures of Santa Clara University. It’s a gorgeous and beautifully maintained campus. The gardens are magnificent…everything from the wisteria walk to the roses which are everywhere. And the architecture is so beautiful too.
Yes!! For sure. I like the top picture much better than the bottom picture. The bottom picture looks more harsh to me and the top picture has more greenery and looks more inviting.
I like UNC better than either of those, though. Google Maps street view of the main quad: Google Maps
UNC does look like a nice and interesting campus. I know the stadium is set in a pine forest and those people I know who’ve been say it was a unique experience. I also have a couple of UNC CH law school alumni colleagues who LOVED going to school there. I’m sure Chapel Hill is lovely.
Kenan Stadium is surrounded by trees, but most of them aren’t pines. Most of the trees on UNC’s campus are deciduous. Huge old oak trees that are hundreds of years old are common. The mostly apocryphal story goes the Davie Poplar on campus is where the founders, incl William Davie, sat and decided to build a university. That tree is more than 300 years old and there are many more trees that are larger and probably older. Some of the trees are believed to be remnants from the original old growth forest. It’s a very green and beautiful (to me) campus.
But it does have a variety of architectural styles dating back to late 1700s, including some brutalist buildings and some mid-century modern ones, too. I like the variety but that’s how I am at home too. Just not a very matchy matchy person and I admire an eclectic style in person or on college campuses.
So much of the aesthetics depend on the terrain and weather—at least as much as the architecture—as well as what there is to compare them to.
UCLA vs USC? It’s no contest. UCLA is hilly, shady, has gardens and fountains and eucalyptus everywhere, plus ocean views and Westwood, while USC is flat and glaringly bright and hot. Clemson vs. (the other) USC? Clemson has the lake and upstate mountain views and purple and orange sunsets, while the other school is flat and hot and in the city.
Comparing a military inspired campus (West Point, Va Tech, etc.) to a classical Greek inspired campus is also comparing the proverbial apples and oranges.
This sounds dangerously declarative. Are you sure you’re not really a follower of Plato? Still, I agree with you. I can’t see how anyone would prefer the USC campus over UCLA, at least location-wise. USC has a pretty nice campus, though. It’s not that I don’t like it. But UCLA’s location puts it over the top IMO.
I agree with your comment about terrain but am not sure I agree about weather. At least one poster in the thread indicates a preference for rainy and gray weather while many of us prefer a clear forecast. But ugly is ugly to me even on a sunny day, and I see beauty even when it’s cloudy and rainy if it’s there. I certainly prefer the former to the latter but the buildings, layout and terrain (I include landscape and the presence of trees in that reference) are the most important things - to me.
Yes, but don’t many people prefer apples to oranges? From the above and your prior post about what you like about UCLA, I would expect you’d prefer the latter to the former. Otherwise, this thread could be one post long: I like what I like.
@tsbna44 I agree - Syracuse has a really nice campus with many and varied old classical buildings. It is an oasis in an otherwise blighted city. It takes a lot to bother me by way of rough urban locations but Syracuse NY manages to do it. That place is depressing and has a lot of problems. My kid lived there for a year and I have never been so happy to help someone move.
Though there are many college campuses with these classic domed buildings, I am partial to them myself even though none of my personal favorite campuses has this particular building style.
I’ve loved this neo-classical architecture of combining a dome with columns and a portico since I first saw it as a kid in DC and then again in Rome at the Pantheon. Syracuse has several other really cool buildings and there is certainly “terrain” on that campus.
Very nice - but this is what threw my kid off. She applied but never would have chosen it (she didn’t get in so that solved that issue) I would struggle with it too. We had a realtor show us a home in TN - and it had a cemetery in the corner (one grave) and the realtor was ticked it wasn’t disclosed. We were out.
It’s a gorgeous and historic cemetery. I loved to walk around there when I was a student. Many colleges have cemeteries on their campuses. I guess you never attended a church or other place of worship with a cemetery on the grounds either? FWIW, it gets 4 stars on TripAdvisor!
I don’t get it, what’s the problem with cemeteries on or near a college campus? I like walking around in cemeteries, it’s often more interesting than a basic park because of all the interesting headstones and how they encourage contemplation about people and their lives.
I agree and these, usually well kept cemeteries are part of the college’s history and reflect the honor and respect they show to past generations. And as for cemeteries location on campuses, many were originally placed in quiet, peripheral areas on campus. As new buildings were added, the once quiet location might now be in the middle of a busy quad or academic complex and that’s ok.
But that’s why the top 30 means different things to all - but yes, like I-81 going through JMU (but little is on the East side of the school) - I thought was gorgeous, my kid was out.
We all think different.
Even when I stay in Chapel Hill for work and walk campus in the AM…..ehhh…it’s ok but no great shakes to me…but that’s just me. You love it. That’s what matters for you!!
I used to (about 20 years ago) rent a little space in a shop on the square in Marietta, GA. It looked like a cohesive shop but was in actuality a mini antiques dealer store. Anyway, there were stairs down to the cellar…and down in the cellar centuries ago was an escape route for Confederate soldiers. Several renters reported seeing Confederate ghosts after hours….thankfully we never did. I don’t mess around with cemeteries or haunted sites.
