Snow and scaffolding are each the kind of dramatic additions to a neo-gothic building that suggest the dramatic climax of a noir film will take place on its rooftop.
HDR Photography
While we’re contemplating the architecture of Clement Chemistry Building, I don’t think I’ve previously considered the way in which the dark sculptural stone sections connect together the windows on the second and third floors to make these big, tall, dramatic, dark pillars up each side of the building—almost reminiscence of the tall stained-glass windows of a cathedral.
White covers Trinity’s campus and accents the Neo-Gothic architecture, but the modernist skyline of Hartford in the distance perpetually suggests what else might architecturally be. Though I love twentieth century architecture, there’s little argument that it would have been the wrong choice for a small liberal arts college. It wasn’t until recently that I came to realize that many of these old-looking buildings are less than 100 years old; in essence, they were built to be old-fashioned from the start. Most east-coast schools are a sort of academic Disneyland—one constructed long enough ago that we forgot about the artifice and now see only authenticity.
Beautiful views from our Hartford balcony have been a consistent Decaseconds theme, and during much of the year (i.e., the colder months), those views usually come through these two big panels of glass that comprise our sliding door. Original to the building, they are thin and leaky and corroded and it’s time to move into the future… But the limits of what can fit up the elevator mean that we’ll be swapping to a three-panel set of doors to replace the two-panel set with which we began. I’m not sure I’m even necessarily disappointed, but I knew I’d be remiss if I didn’t capture the view as I’ve come to recognize it.
Continuing where I left off, the end-of-semester highly distracting snowfall on Trinity College was a perfect temporary respite.
The newly renovated pond in Bushnell Park had crisp, clear water this fall and I assumed that I’d lose sight of the rocks at the bottom from the build-up of fallen leaves. Instead, it turns out that a frozen surface was the bottom-obscuring victor.
When showing this picture of Trinity College’s chapel and Long Walk to a fellow alum, his first question was, “Where did you go to take this?” A near-lifetime of seeing the same perspectives from the same high points on campus made a shot like this one a complete surprise—a reaction that I’m always happy to provide.