Fri 10 Aug 2007
This was mostly obscured by construction this past year, but it’s still a rather nice place.
In her valedictory address at graduation, Priyanka Bangard ‘07 spoke about how, coming to Williams from California and never having visited the place, she thought she would be all right because she had heard about Chapin Beach, and she liked the beach. This spot is similarly strangely named, though not quite as strangely.
P.S. Jonathan! Note the tree!
August 10th, 2007 at 8:32 am
This is not a picture of Chapin Beach. This is the walkway along Sawyer Library. Chapin Beach is the steps in front of Chapin Hall.
August 10th, 2007 at 9:38 am
And that is professor of Classics Amanda Wilcox
August 10th, 2007 at 12:39 pm
Anonymous–Diana is not saying that that is Chapin Beach, she’s saying that the place has an odd name in the same way that the steps of Chapin has an odd name.
I know where it is, but I don’t recall a strange name being attached to it when I was there.
August 10th, 2007 at 12:52 pm
Complete guess: Chapin/Sawyer Boardwalk?
August 10th, 2007 at 4:50 pm
I’m guessing it’s not the “Catwalk.”
August 10th, 2007 at 7:36 pm
On another type of building, it might be called a “cloister.”
August 13th, 2007 at 8:11 am
Isn’t it called “Sawyer Porch”? I thought so, but with so many people not saying that, now I am second-guessing.
August 13th, 2007 at 8:10 pm
I think you’re right, Diana.
I am one of a minority (I guess) who loves some of the architectural elements and the overall feel of Sawyer. It’s such a type-B person building, I think, full of indirect routes and minor notes.
The porch was always too dirty to try to sit and read in, but nice to walk down. Many a time I scarfed down red-inked commentary on papers (picked up at Stetson) walking back to Baxter along the porch.
August 13th, 2007 at 10:43 pm
One of Sawyer’s unique features is that it was designed after review of student study styles and usage habits; it is filled with complexity and wonder under that drab interior.
All ‘hoopla’ to the contrary aside, we are about to get a far inferior product.
August 14th, 2007 at 11:29 am
I never heard the name Sawyer Porch, but it’s a fine one. I love colloquialisms.
The tree is a linden tree, I beleive American linden, Tilia americana. I have looked at that tree specifically many times because there are not many lindens on campus, and the tree choice is good for that spot. You can tell by the fat, red, asymmetrical buds at the twig tips if you zoom in. I like to think I’d have gotten the ID even if I didn’t know it already, but I’m not sure.
August 14th, 2007 at 7:28 pm
I hope the tree will survive.
Yes, Sawyer’s fate is a heartbreaker. When I had recounted to me the details of ’11s talking to each other about the features of Sawyer that they loved, even on their slight acquaintance, I was really saddened, remembering the charms of the student-centric design. In the spirit of the old days, replicating a lot of those features in the new building complex would be a “must” but I guess it won’t happen. The building didn’t work out but that doesn’t mean it didn’t have some wonderful, playful features that are worth continuing.
Someone should have given that porch some furniture. Then its porchiness would have been more apparent and we might have used it as a true porch. For sitting, not just passage.
Ah well…sighs.
August 14th, 2007 at 7:29 pm
I mean real wooden porch furniture, or a play thereon, not the stone or concrete blocks.