Well I am back from Orientation at Illinois Institute of Technology, and I am really excited. I met a couple really cool kids, and it was wierd being around people that were relatively similar to me. I mean, for the past four years, I have been in a high school where, to be honest, half of the kids didn’t care/try. Now I’m going to a place where these kids could be going on to be Aero-space engineers for NASA or nuclear physicists.

If you’ve never been to/heard of IIT, its located on the South-side of Chicago on 33rd Street, about 2 blocks west of Comisky Park [U.S. Cellular Field if you aren't a true Sox fan]. I’ve got some pictures of some buildings on campus:

This is The Micormick Tribute Campus Center [center] and the State Street Village Dorms [bottom]

The MTCC is an acrchitectual landmark of the campus with the CTA/Green Line going directly above. It has the campus bookstore, 2 dining halls, many offices, and lecture halls. The architect was Rem Koolhaas.

State Street Village is the set of 3 dorm buildings for students. It was completed in 2003, and can house around 300 students [of the 2500 undergraduate/1000 graduate students]. The architect was Helmut Jahn.

This is S.R. Crown Hall, which was deisnged by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, one of the founding architects and professors for the College of Architecture [where I'm going!]. This houses most of the architecture classes and as of 2001, is a National Historic Landmark. 20 of the buildings on campus were designed by Mies van der Rohe including three of the residence halls. This building only has TWO interrior supports!

It was a great experience that has really gotten me excited to head down there this fall. At the same time, however, I’m feeling nervous for this new part of my life. I guess change is just apart of human nature, and I will slowly accept that, but I still don’t want to leave behind my friends, family, and childhood forever.

“Where can we find greater structural clarity than in the wooden buildings of the old. Where else can we find such unity of material, construction and form? Here the wisdom of whole generations is stored. What feelings for material and what power of expression there is in these buildings! What warmth and beauty they have! They seem to be echoes of old songs.”

-Ludwig Mies van der Rohe