So it's 2ish AM and I'm in the guest bed with my toddler because she threw up in her own bed.

Perfect time to go down reddit rabbit holes. I stumbled onto a discussion about brutalist architecture and realized half our campus was designed like that.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brutalist_architecture

The trend has died and most people hate the style, including most architects.

We prefer the term "Soviet Tractor Factory."

https://texags.com/forums/5/topics/2055647

I took this last summer in Boston. It looks kind of like Evans Library IMO.

Brutalisk Architecture

Half our campus looks like something from Fallout.

LupinusTexensis said:

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Half our campus looks like something from Fallout.

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This I knew, now I know the reason why. Ugly ass architectural fad in the 50s and 60s.

These walls are funny. First you hate them, then you get used to them. Enough time passes, you get so you depend on them. That's Institutionalized.

Win At Life said:

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These walls are funny. First you hate them, then you get used to them. Enough time passes, you get so you depend on them. That's Institutionalized.

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I drove through the Texas State campus this weekend for the first time in about 30 years. Sad this second tier school has a campus architectural style much prettier than ours.

Scratch 'em, Kitties.

On the bright side, when the zombie apocalypse comes the A&M campus will be a flippin sweet area to hunker down and fight off our undead overlords.

You should've seen the old library over there back in the day. It was pretty rough.

Off-campus, but notable--there's some giant building near a giant golf course that looks just like Tenpenny Tower from Fallout 3.

The Fife said:

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You should've seen the old library over there back in the day. It was pretty rough.

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I took English 1320 during summer school in the 1980s so I wouldn't have to take English at A&M. I had to visit that building to go look for a book. It was a worse experience than visiting the stacks at Sterling C. Evans and without the alleged anonymous gay sex. Those weird little windows don't let in any light.

The urban legend with that building it that the floorplan was in the shape of a + sign. The outer areas were where the books were supposed to be shelved with open area in the middle. According to legend the designer failed to account for the weight of the books, and the outer parts of the building began to sag. The books had to be moved to the inner areas of the + so the building could support the weight.

Irrelevant Trivia: That building was used in a scene from the Dennis Quaid/Meg Ryan movie D.O.A that was filmed in San Marcos and Austin in the 1980s

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According to legend the designer failed to account for the weight of the books, and the outer parts of the building began to sag. The books had to be moved to the inner areas of the + so the building could support the weight.

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Every college campus seems to have a version of this legend. I remember being told on a campus tour that Evans was one floor shorter than originally planned because they had to recalculate with the weight of the books.

I wonder if campus tours ever stopped being worthless.

ChiliBeans said:

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According to legend the designer failed to account for the weight of the books, and the outer parts of the building began to sag. The books had to be moved to the inner areas of the + so the building could support the weight.

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Every college campus seems to have a version of this legend. I remember being told on a campus tour that Evans was one floor shorter than originally planned because they had to recalculate with the weight of the books.

I wonder if campus tours ever stopped being worthless.

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Yeah, I had my doubts about the SWT library legend too.

I thought this was gonna be a 77-0 reference. Thanks a lot Fran.

This is what happens when your school experiences a period of rapid growth during an era of fugly architecture.