The Retiring of M-Hat IV

It was with great sadness that I retired M-Hat IV.  It will live in the closet next to M-Hat I.  If you will recall M-Hat II found its way to the bottom of the Detroit River but I didn't get pictures of the event because I was shocked of it happened.  When M-Hat III found its way to the Detroit River, I was still shocked but having the experience of M-Hat II, I was more prepared to take pictures.

I was saddened by the loss of M-Hat III because it had accompanied me on so many of my travels.  It saw my first major train trip, Gettysburg, California and stops between them.  M-Hat IV had much to live up to.

 And it did.  It saw two major train trips (Ann Arbor-Chicago-Denver-San Francisco-Los Angeles-Chicago-Ann Arbor and Ann Arbor-Chicago-Washington DC-New York-Chicago-Ann Arbor).  It has been through the tunnel of the Big House and on the field at the Big House.  It witnessed the opening of the Soo Locks last year, Engineer's Day and pretty close to the closing of the Soo Locks this year.  It heard the Roger Blough say Happy Birthday and Hello to me.  It has also been on many trips in between all of those.

 But as you can see, it is showing signs of age.  The maize of the M isn't quite as maizish anymore and the blue isn't nearly as deep.  I almost feel like it should have had the same fate as it's predecessors but I'm glad that this one will get to retire because I have so many fond memories with it.

So now I introduce M-Hat V.  May it live up to its predecessors.  As you can see, it is still the "Bo" style of Michigan Hat.  It still needs to get broken in.

Meandering around Eastern

The next set of pictures represent pictures of Eastern Michigan taken at two different times of the day.  As I said in my Snow post, I took some other pictures.  I wish I would have had more time but I had to get to work.

 Even though it is a pretty mundance sign, I thought the snow looked pretty cool.  Although I can't explain the fence.

 A closeup of that sign.

 Looking down one of the throughways through campus.  I really liked the way the snow was sticking to the trees.

 What really caught my eye was the way the snow was sticking to the Clock Tower of Pierce Hall.  I made it look like part of it was white.

 So I took a picture of Pease Auditorium as well.

 Another angle of the tower.

 A straight on shot of Pease.

 I really liked the way this shot turned out.

 Looking down towards Jones-Goddard.  Goddard is where I spent my first three years at Eastern.

So after wandering around Ann Arbor for a while, I decided to take my travels to my Alma Mater.  When I was a student at EMU, I wasn't overly impressed with the campus but I've grown more happy with it.  There is a good enough blend of old and new buildings to make it unique.

Welch Hall in the winter.  I've said this a number of times before but I'll say it again, my first viewing of this was a burnt out looking building.  Over time, they renovated this building and I'll have to say it looks really nice now.  I'm glad that Eastern has put some effort into making the campus look nice.  There are some neat buildings that need preserving.  It makes Eastern stand out from the other cookie cutter campuses of the MAC.

 Boone Hall.  To me this is a pretty plain looking building, but I like the marble highlights.

 No tour of Eastern would be complete without Ypsilanti's most distinctive structure.

 Looking up at the tower.  I wish I had gotten a picture of it in the morning because there was way more snow on it.  Oh well.

 Ypsilanti's namesake.

 McKenny Union (or whatever it is called these days).  This is anotehr classic looking building.  I think it is representative of Neo-Gothic.

 Sherzer Hall.  It is hard to believe that this building was nearly written off after a major fire.  But as you can see, they were able to renovate it and pretty much put it back to original condition.

 Some details of Sherzer.

 The tower of Starkweather Hall.

 Another shot of Pease.

 Looking up at Pierce Hall.  Sadly, it had lost much of the snow that I showed earlier.

 A closer shot of Pease Auditorium.

 Looking up at the tower again.  There is still some snow but not quite as much.

 Another angle of Pease.

And for my final shot...Ned's Bookstore.  These buildings look like the come out of the "generic Midwest town" blueprints.

The Day in Ann Arbor Part II

Because I didn't want to cram too many pictures into one post, I decided to split this into two posts.  I hope that you don't mind.

 So my tour took me to the Natural History Building next.  I didn't go inside though although I probably should have.  This is one of the two lions that guard the front entrance of the Museum.  I tried to get a picture of the other one but I wan't too happy with it.

 The owl is a symbol of knowledge.  So it is only appropriate that it's likeness graces a place of knowledge.

 This could almost be a picture for a boardgame site.  It looks like two sheep playing a game.

 The lion statue probaly aspires to being a griffin statue.

 One thing that seems common to many Kahn buildings is some sort of writing across the top.

 Based on some of the flashiness, I'd almost call Kahn the anti-Wright.  Frank Lloyd Wright thought that buildings should blend into their surroundings.  Kahn buildings seem to dominate their surroundings.

 Another angle of the Bell Tower.

 A picture of the museum.  As you can see, it is a nice towering structure.

 This is the Dana Building and it houses the School of Natural Resources.  At one time it housed the Medical School.  It also is a Kahn bulding.  (Thanks to an alert reader for pointing that out for me)

 Looking up at one of the towers of the West Engineering Building.  I think this is probably one of my favorite buildings on Campus next to the Law School.

 The Arch.  I think it was kind of cool that this symbol was common to both Central Campus and North Campus.  If I remember correctly it is the symbol of an Engineering society.

 A more pulled out shot of the building.  When you think of college campuses, this is the image you get, I think.

 The Clements Library is another Kahn building.

 A detail of one of the arches.

 I don't remember if I've ever covered this building on this blog in the past.  If so, I apologize.  If not, here is the story.  This is the Official Residence of the University President and no records exist of its building but based on other records it was probably constructed in 1839 or 1840.  It was one of four buildings created for the housing of University Presidents.  Starting in 1852, it became the house for the President and has been with the exception of 1909 to 1920, when President Hutchins decided not to live there.  It has seem numeration additions since it's creation, including the third story.  Because of its age, the first and second stories represent the oldest structure on the campus.

 A shot of the diag from the Grad Library.  I didn't take pictures of it, but it is another Kahn building.

 A snow block M.

 The proper block M.

 A shot of Angell Hall from the side.

 And the front.  Again, you see text at the top of the building.  You also see some Greek Revival hints.

 The Michigan Union.

 Another angle of Angell Hall.  I'm not sure about the sculpture though but I thought it was a nice contrast to the classical looking building.

 I also liked this look of State Street.  It gives you a hint of the amount of snow we received.

 The Mulberry House.

 Some detail of Angell Hall.

 Looking up the columns.

 I'm not sure which Church this is but it is at the corner of State and William.  I thought it was a pretty neat building.

 This building has seen a number of different tenants during my time in the Ann Arbor area.  When I first came down here, the top floor was occupied by Dave's Comics.  Not sure what is up there now.  The bottom floor has seen a number of different places.  The first one I remember was Steve's Ice Cream shop.  It was pretty decent.  There have been a number of places here since then.

 Under the yellow awning is the door that leads to the stairs that lead to the Wazoo Record Shop.  It has been around here for as long as I have been here and is a pretty cool record shop.  It sells used records and some new ones.  If I recall it has a pretty decent selection.

 Looking at the rest of the block.  You can see Nickels Arcade in the middle.

 Further down the block.

 Looking up at the columns.

Looking down the arcade.  This is another fairly old building and represents one of the earlier malls.

 Another orientation of the shot above.  I think I like the first shot better though.

 This is the block that used to house Drake's Sandwich Shop.  It is another business that was around when I first came to Ann Arbor but has since vanished.

 Looking down State Street.  I had to hurry to take this picture because I was crossing the street at the time.

And one last shot before heading back to the car.

So where are the pictures of the Law School you ask?  Well, they are in the process of renovating it, so no pictures this time.