"Anonymous donor, my ass." That is about the only consensus anyone has reached regarding the new MSE walkway. As many have noticed, the circle surrounding the Beach has been surfaced with granite cobblestones, a striking departure from the brick and marble motif of the rest of the campus.
"I mean, what are they trying to o to girls on this campus?" exclaimed freshman Monica Singh in a show of befuddled consternation. "All the stones do is make it harder for girls to walk on them in heels." Singh illustrates an intriguing point. Mobility is greatly reduced on the path, with an unfair bias towards women in heels.
"And who needs that?" asked freshman Joe Fontanetta, consciously indignant. "The more girls dolled up around here looking pretty in high heels, the better. That sort of behavior need not be discouraged." While no one is purporting that the school has any interest in stemming the grace and femininity of the female pump, the question hangs thick in the air - why cobblestones?
The official statement on the Great Excavations website http://www.jhu.edu/gx/" offers little in explanation. It seems the main emphasis of the construction was for a serene, beautiful and pedestrian- friendly campus. The emphasis on pedestrian travel seems very important. The school has gone to great lengths to keep cars from crossing the campus. The one mention of the MSE pathway reads: "Replacement of the current road with (a) granite cobblestone surface (is) intended primarily for pedestrians."
"Maybe pedestrians with gyroscopes for feet," offered Freshman Kelly Wright, bemusedly resigned. "The one activity the granite does not promote or was primarily intended for is walking. Heels are a pain enough to walk in without the added challenge of cobblestonemasonry."
Of the five members of the project team approached with the question (Director of Planning and Project Development Stephen Cambell, Vice President of Development Robert Lindgren and his assistant Adam Gross, Architect Luanne Greene of Ayers/Saint/Gross, and Engineer John d'Epagnier of Rummel, Klepper, and Kahl, LLP), 4 were unavailable for comment and one simply did not know.
Leave it up to the wisdom of one resident advisor.
"There's a simple reason as to why they laid cobblestones down. The bricks installed around this campus are cast concrete, not standard fired clay. Prior to this year, hop-cops used to have little gas/electric powered cars that they drove around campus. The bricks can't support the weight of vehicular traffic."
Cobblestones were used because the pathway in front of MSE is a major shuttle destination and drop-off point cabs and parents. You'll notice that the same cobblestones are used in front of the athletic center. As of this year, the campus is supposed to be closed to vehicles. Cobblestone happens to be rather aesthetically pleasing, and there was a real push to eliminate asphalt from highly visible parts of the campus.
The campus does do its best to provide alternate routes of transport. Unless for some reason, a girl in heels is walking towards the athletic center, slight detours can be taken to avoid the immiscibility of stilettos and "cobble stone-masonry." According to Fontanetta, "It affords you the opportunity to become really skilled at walking. But I guess if you're drunk, you're screwed."
And that practice may become important in the coming months. This winter will be the first the bricks face and frost has the undesired ability to shift level surfaces. A frost shield is generally applied and does not allow this shift to occur, but with the prediction of a particularly cold winter, it's something to watch for and something to keep in mind for all the New York voters out there.
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