Paul Milstein Hall

[Rosey]

Homewood Suites or Penn State building, you make the call.

I LOL'ed. :-)

[billhoward]

With those aircon vent "details" and the shitty apologetic greenery, more like a roadside Homewood Suites.

1. Great observation.
2. Plant ivy and wait 20 years.
3. Gad, another state school prepending "The" to its name rather than developing Nobel laureates. (Or: "I'll take Urban Meyer for four ... million.") Why doesn't the NCAA ban that in post-season play?

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

Gad, another state school prepending "The" to its name rather than developing Nobel laureates. (Or: "I'll take Urban Meyer for four ... million.") Why doesn't the NCAA ban that in post-season play?

"Penn State" has always been short for "The Pennsylvania State University."  Or at least that's what it says on my Dad's diploma (1952).  It's certainly not anything new.  But other than on offical paperwork and an occasional sign, nobody calls it anything but Penn State.

[ugarte]

Gad, another state school prepending "The" to its name rather than developing Nobel laureates. (Or: "I'll take Urban Meyer for four ... million.") Why doesn't the NCAA ban that in post-season play?

"Penn State" has always been short for "The Pennsylvania State University."  Or at least that's what it says on my Dad's diploma (1952).  It's certainly not anything new.  But other than on offical paperwork and an occasional sign, nobody calls it anything but Penn State.

As opposed to the folks in Columbus who say THE with such authority that you begin to suspect that they are trying to distract you from the "Ohio State University" part.

[Rita]

Gad, another state school prepending "The" to its name rather than developing Nobel laureates. (Or: "I'll take Urban Meyer for four ... million.") Why doesn't the NCAA ban that in post-season play?

"Penn State" has always been short for "The Pennsylvania State University."  Or at least that's what it says on my Dad's diploma (1952).  It's certainly not anything new.  But other than on offical paperwork and an occasional sign, nobody calls it anything but Penn State.

As opposed to the folks in Columbus who say THE with such authority that you begin to suspect that they are trying to distract you from the "Ohio State University" part.

Well at least it isn't as bad as "The U"!!!!

[css228]

So basically the whole campus looks like MVR.

With those aircon vent "details" and the shitty apologetic greenery, more like a roadside Homewood Suites.

To be fair, East Halls are a bunch square red brick high rises that look different from the South Halls being shown there, but detract the campus IMO.

Did you use Google to translate this into some other language and then back again? ::demented::

An ex went to PSU, so I've spent a bit of time there. Momentarily forgot that no one would have any clue what I was talking about. All I'm saying this there's variety on the campus in terms of building style, but that variety doesn't necessarily make the campus nicer.

[billhoward]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204553904577102860183544598.html?KEYWORDS=milstein+hall WSJ article 12/23/2011 (may be behind paywall) praises Milstein Hall. Since the mass media likes a building, will this make architects like it less?

The resulting structure [Milstein Hall] is startlingly multifaceted: From some angles it is a politely elevated rectangular box inserted gingerly between the collegiate beaux arts Sibley Hall from 1894 and the industrial-brick Rand Hall. Structurally, it is far more ambitious, an extended cantilever supported by an array of progressively off-kilter columns telegraphing a message about load stresses. Just outside the entrance, the floor plate buckles up into a dome dotted on its swollen flank with bubble seats on one side and a stair to the upper floor on the other. A bridge crosses under the dome to allow viewing of student life and class activity going on below. It's the hospitable version of Fritz Lang's "Metropolis." Milstein Hall shows off one extreme of a current concept popular with academic and research institutions and geared to encourage what the OMA architects call "improvisational interaction." It could also be called design for casual socializing.

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

I was on campus this weekend and got a look at Milstein Hall.  I'm not a fan.  The friend I was visiting detests it.  She calls it "the monstrosity."

Why are the sides of it underneath the cantilever glass if they're going to block the sun with the cantilever itself?  It's dark (and damp) under that cantilever, too.  

The stadium seats inside the atrium make no sense to me.  Is that a lecture hall?  If so, they'll be lecturing in a fishbowl.   That'll never work.  Or is it just a place to hang out?  If so, is it meant to be like a set of steps for people to sit on?

They should have knocked down the shed across the street and opened up the view into the gorge.  That building just looks old and decrepit.  

Even the faux tin roof looks half-assed.  I think it's a neat idea, but they only did it half way.

And why did they have to paint the dome white?  It's just glaring.

[George64]

Legendary physicist Richard Feynman had turned down several offers to go elsewhere because he felt Cornell had given him everything he ever wanted, as well as the presence of Hans Bethe.  It wasn't until he was installing tire chains with numb hands during a sudden Ithaca snowstorm that the thought "why am I doing this?" popped into his head, and he decided to jump to CalTech. And even then he had doubts when he first moved, as the SoCal air quality impacted his breathing while simply waiting for the bus in another "why am I doing this?" moment.  (At least that's what I recall from the book "Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman!" )

Nobody uses tire chains in Ithaca anymore.  Had winter tire, studded tire, or even all-season tire technology had advanced sooner, Feynman may have stayed his entire career at Cornell.

Definitely, too bad he didn't stay.  While trolling through YouTube, I came across this video of a lecture he gave at Cornell.  Judging by how the students are dressed, probably in the late 50s.  There are other videos of Feynman, as well as some of Carl Sagan.
.

[George64]

Legendary physicist Richard Feynman had turned down several offers to go elsewhere because he felt Cornell had given him everything he ever wanted, as well as the presence of Hans Bethe.  It wasn't until he was installing tire chains with numb hands during a sudden Ithaca snowstorm that the thought "why am I doing this?" popped into his head, and he decided to jump to CalTech. And even then he had doubts when he first moved, as the SoCal air quality impacted his breathing while simply waiting for the bus in another "why am I doing this?" moment.  (At least that's what I recall from the book "Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman!" )

Nobody uses tire chains in Ithaca anymore.  Had winter tire, studded tire, or even all-season tire technology had advanced sooner, Feynman may have stayed his entire career at Cornell.

Definitely, too bad he didn't stay.  While trolling through YouTube, I came across this video of a lecture he gave at Cornell.  Judging by how the students are dressed, probably in the late 50s.  There are other videos of Feynman, as well as some of Carl Sagan.
.

They were the Messenger Lectures delivered in 1964, according to ChatGPT:

The series was titled "The Character of Physical Law" and consisted of seven lectures, which explored deep principles underlying physics, such as symmetry, conservation laws, and quantum mechanics, in a way accessible to a broad audience. These lectures were filmed by the BBC and are widely considered among Feynman's most engaging public presentations.

Here are the titles of the seven lectures:
   1.   The Law of Gravitation, an Example of Physical Law
   2.   The Relation of Mathematics to Physics
   3.   The Great Conservation Principles
   4.   Symmetry in Physical Law
   5.   The Distinction of Past and Future
   6.   Probability and Uncertainty — The Quantum Mechanical View of Nature
   7.   Seeking New Laws

The series was later published as the book The Character of Physical Law in 1965.

Here's the entire series: [https://youtu.be/kEx-gRfuhhk?si=yOTprKE-MZbyPtlG]
.

[Trotsky]

They are amazing lectures.