Back to dear ol' Alma Mater for our 15th college reunion. I had a chance to sketch a few familiar scenes.
Built in 1929 to replace A.J. Davis' original Chambers Building of 1855. The Greek Cross drum, Diocletian windows and stepped dome borrow heavily from McKim Meade and White's Low Library at Columbia University of 1895. The McKissick Building at the Universitry of South Carolina was built about ten years after Chambers and contains several identical exterior elements, including the shrouded maidens flanking the shield with the college seal. Since my time this building has been thoroughly renovated, bereft of the battered wooden double hung windows and their rattling counterweights so easily thrown open when you'd hole-up in a classroom to cram for an exam. Nary a chalkboard in sight these days. All Smart Boards and carpeted rooms with tiered seating.
Oak RowThese wonderful slate-roofed rows were the original dormitories in the nineteenth century and today house state-of-the-art recording and rehearsal spaces for music majors, or at least they did when I was a student. Cunningham Fine Arts Building peaks out to the right and up the hill. Neither were my typical haunts, but they present an idyllic scene and it was a great spot to sit.
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