Paw-lmer Museum of Art

All it takes is a little bit of inspiration to spark creativity.  Over the past several weeks, we have looked at different buildings across campus and their meanings, starting with the inspirational Old Main, and now, on post 10, coming to the icon of creativity, the Palmer Museum of Art.

The Palmer Museum of Art is a brick building with lots of arches on the outside of it.  Over the entrance, there is a large stained glass window.  There is also a garden of art to the side of the building.  The most noticeable part of the museum, is the two large paws that stand beside the steps to entrance.

These paws are, of course, lion paws, to symbolize the Nittany Lion, but that is not the only things they are.  These paws also symbolize hands.  The importance of hands is that they are often associated with creating things, and creativity.  These paws, as those of our college's mascot, are the paws that push people all around campus to be creative.  Old Main may have been the inspiration of campus, but these paws funnel this inspiration into creations.

Some creations on display at the Palmer Museum of Art can be found outside the building, in the garden beside it.  This garden of art shows how nature and creativity are joined hand in hand.  Almost all creative ideas draw an inspiration from nature, or something else that was also inspired by nature.  This garden brings everything full circle, by bringing the beauty of nature, and the interest of art into a calm sitting area. The art in this garden is not the only examples outside of the museum, but also the architecture is art.

 

The architecture of the building is very interesting.  When you look at the building, it kind of looks like a pyramid, due to its triangular shape, mixed with the sphinx, due to the giant paws.  The many arches also give the building an incredibly grand look.  All of these factors combine together to make the Palmer Museum of Art an imposing sight.  All of the different architectural details of the Palmer Museum of Art make it a very creative building.  One small detail in particular shows the essence of creativity.

This detail, is the colorful tiles on the columns around the building.  These tiles are each a different color, and show how diverse creativity can be.  All of the combinations of colors on the columns are random, but they come together to make nice mosaics.  This shows how randomness can create creativity in the world.  These small details in the architecture of the building, show just how creative this building is.

From the beginnings of inspiration of Old Main to the Palmer Museum of Art's creativity sparked by this inspiration, we have looked at many different buildings on campus.  This post is my tenth post, and with I would like to thank everyone for their creativity in reading my blogs.  The creativity in this blog is thanks to the creativity in the Palmer Museum of Art, home to the hands of creativity here at Penn State.

Library Logic

If all the buildings at Penn State were members of a team, Old Main would, of course, be the leader.  Even though Old Main would be the leader, it would still need some advice sometimes. and the smartest member of the team would be the Pattee Library and Paterno Library, or simply "the library".  The library is full of knowledge and more books than anyone could ever read in a lifetime.

The library is a large building full of books, which pretty much describes any library.  The outside of the building looks like a museum. There is a flight of steps leading up to the entrance, and many pillars standing outside of the door. The large building is also bathed in a lot of lights, making it a beacon of truth, or knowledge.

The purpose of the library is to acquire knowledge.  Everyone travels from all across campus to the library to get help in their work.  This makes the library the hub of knowledge at Penn State, not to be confused with the HUB, the hub of activity.  The library acts as a lighthouse to guide people lost in their work to a place where they can seek help.  This makes the library one of the most important locations on campus, because it brings everyone together to a common interest, to find knowledge. 

Not only does the library guide people to knowledge, it also looks over them.  The library has a long view all the way past Old Main to downtown.  This allows the library to watch over a large part of campus and spread its knowledge to all people in its radius.  The library spreads its knowledge as far as it is able to, to help as many students as it can.  The library spreads so much knowledge; more than one library is needed.

The main library on its own is made up of the Pattee Library and the Paterno Library.  There are also several other libraries spread around campus.  This shows that there is so much knowledge that just one library isn't enough.  The other libraries around campus also specialize in subjects.  All of the libraries are like a team of their own, with the main library being the leader, and the other ones specializing in distinct attributes to add to the team.  The amount of knowledge that is contained in the library is so great that one library alone cannot hold it all.  To get to all of this knowledge, one was step through the doors of the library.

The entrance to the library is very ornate.  The entryway has a unique design, which gives you the feel of entering an ancient structure.  It is a very cool detail that I had never noticed until I took the picture below.  This  design gives the visitor a preview of the ornate history that is hidden inside its walls, before they even enter.  This small detail may not be notice all of the time, but it is one of my favorite things about the library.

The library is truly a beacon of knowledge throughout all of campus.  It helps people to find their way to the light of knowledge and helps people with whatever they need.  The library is an important part of campus, as the second in command to Old Main, and without it, campus would be a much different place.

Place of the Past Plants

All around campus in the past weeks, the tree leaves have changed from there deep green colors to a collage of red, yellow, and orange shades.  The most notable place where these leaves fell was around the Old Botany building.  This small building may seem out of place, surrounded by the seemingly endless buildings full of classrooms, but this building gives us a glimpse into the past.

The Old Botany building is a small building between the HUB and the Library.  The outside of it is made up of stone at the bottom, with red brick on top of it.  Surrounding it are several large trees, that have lots of leaves, except on in the fall when they have lots of leaves under them. Old Botany, because of its age, is very simple, but still has lots of symbolism in its walls, especially the exterior ones.

The most notable thing about the Old Botany building its exterior.  The outside of it looks like a three layer cake, or maybe it's just me, since I skipped dinner tonight.  This layering gives the building a feeling of age.  This is because these layers in the building are like the layers of soil.  The farther down you go into the soil, the older the dirt is, and the more likely you are to find dinosaur fossils.  This makes the Old Botany building a way to look into the past and remember where we came from.

Leaves lie strewn all around Old Botany building at this time of the year.   These leaves covered the ground so much, that they were a solid blanket at one point.  I regret not being able to get pictures of Old Botany building then, so I guess I will use that idea in this post.  The leaves, since their life is fleeting before they fall off the tree onto the ground, show why you must seize opportunities before they are gone.  The trees use their leaves to the fullest while they have them, to get as much energy as they can before they use them.  These trees, live their tree lives to the fullest, which is what we, as humans, should strive to do.  We must try our best to take advantage of each opportunity before it goes away, so we don't lose our leaves before we get to use them.  Although trees live their lives to the fullest, some need support sometimes.

There is also one tree outside the Old Botany building that is supported with old support beams.  I don't know why this tree is being supported, except that it probably can't completely stand on its own, but they make the tree very cool looking.  These support beams, being at Old Botany building, the window into the past at Penn State, show how our past supports us in the present.  None of us would be where we are today, without what we did in our past.  We may not have made all of the right, or wrong, decisions up to this point, but no matter what our decisions were, they support us.  Without everything we have been through, we would not be able to function.

The Old Botany building even though it is pretty old, does not mean it is any less important than the rest of campus.  This building is the one of the backbones of campus and serves as support from the past, which propels all of us into the future.

Steps to Achievement

Everyone has a goal in life, and or some achievement to strive for.  This can range from working in your dream career, to running a marathon, or even climbing to the stop of a set of stairs.  The possible things that people can achieve are limitless, and can even be symbolic of the idea of achievement themselves.  This is the case for the stairs, specifically the stairs at the front of Atherton.

The Atherton steps are truly just a bunch of steps, I didn't count how many, that lead up to the doors of Atherton Hall from College Avenue.  Along the way there are many different lights, and foliage, and more than one different paths that you can take to climb the steps.  There are also a bunch of benches, and I'm sure it would be a really nice place to study if you wanted to.  Just like any staircase, the stairs start with a single step at the bottom.

To really get started toward your achievement, you have to take on the first step.  This first step is very simple, but extremely hard to take on.  The first step, is taking a first step.  By this I mean, that to truly start toward the achievement, you must first take action to try and achieve it.  Even though this is such a challenging step, it is still truly easy.  A wise man once said, (after he almost tripped up the stairs) "It's not that I can't, it's just that I have to get my foot on the step."  This quote shows exactly what taking that first step is like, anyone can do it, yet it is one of the hardest things for them to do.

As you walk up the steps, it can get tiring, but that should never stop you from trying to reach the top.  As you keep climbing up the steps, your achievement continues to grow as you go higher and higher.  Eventually, you will come to a landing.  This landing is the lull in the work toward your achievement.  You've worked hard, and you've made it far, but now you've leveled out.  The easy thing to do at this point would be to take the path that leads back down, and abandon your goal.  This may be the easy thing to do, but it is not always the thing that you should do. Most the time the best thing to do, is to keep on trekking up.

When you finally reach the top of the stairs you have finally achieved your goal of making it to the top or whatever else your goal was.  At this point it is important that the triumph of reaching the goal does not overshadow the journey.  It is importantly to look back and see where you have been and what you had to do to get where you are.

 In a speech, that I gave in High School, before I had every thought about creating this blog, I spoke about this idea of the stairs being an obstacle on our journey through life.  In this speech, I noted how almost everyone had fallen up the steps at some point in their life.  I spoke that, "We may have tripped on our way to the top [of the stairs] a couple of times, but by the time we reached the top, we were able to catch ourselves and stand on our own."  That is why I believe in the importance of stairs to the idea of achievement and why the stairs in Atherton are so important to this idea.

The HUB of Activity

New York may be the city that never sleeps, but here at Penn State, the HUB is the building that never rests.  The HUB is open twenty-four hours a day and every day of the week.  This means that it is a hub of activity no matter what time of the day that it is.  This also reflects the nature of the HUB, an activity center.

The HUB is simply a giant building around the middle of campus.  Inside of the HUB is countless restaurants, an auditorium, art gallery, meeting hall, book store, and even steps like the ones from High School Musical.  Another feature of the HUB is that there is always someone there, no matter what time of the day, or night that it is.  The HUB can also change depending on what is going on.

The HUB, as a hub of activity, almost always has something going on inside.  Over the summer, the HUB was fitted to welcome new students to their NSOs.  There have also been many one day events, like the Freshman night when the HUB was full of fun things to do, or the Club fair on the HUB lawn.  One day I even walked through and they had live music playing.  The HUB is truly ever changing and this is a reflection of Penn State.

The HUB, as the most popular place on campus, is always is able to reflect the students.  This can be seen by the diverse number of places to eat, like the diverse student body, as well as by the spirited student book store, like the spirited student body.  Everything at the HUB is there for the students, which is why it reflects them so well.  Even though every single student would never be able to all fit in the HUB at the same, the HUB would still be able to reflect all of the students.  Along with being a reflection, the HUB is also a light.

The lights coming from the HUB are extremely bright in the night.  It is the brightest thing anywhere on campus during the night.  These lights serve as a beacon to all of the restless students to come and work in at night.  This light itself shows the amount of excitement that exists in the HUB, even at night.  This is not the only piece of the HUB that's symbolizes the HUB's activity.

At the front of the HUB is a fountain.  It looks like a long flat cliff, with a waterfall cascading down it.  When you stand beside it, the waterfall is fairly loud, much like a real waterfall.  This sounds is constant, just like the constant activity that is at the HUB.  The fountain is never quiet, just like how there is always sound in the HUB.  Even when I was there after midnight, there was still some noise, although not as much as during the day.

The HUB is truly a hub of activity during the day as well as during the night.  All of the excitement during the night is mostly centered in this small area, inside this giant building.  Next time you are out at night, follow the beacon of light to the HUB of activity at Penn State.

Crossroads of Penn State Life

Last Wednesday was a very important day at Schreyer, it was the first day that we were able to schedule our classes for the next semester.  If you are like me, and set up all of your classes before midnight, so you could enroll in the first minute, then "Congratulations!"  If you had holds on your account so you can't schedule yet, then I feel sorry for you, but you'll probably still easily get into all the classes you want to.  This day, was important, even though I may be over inflating some of its importance, because it was a crossroads.

The physical representation of this crossroad is this circular path beside the Mueller Lab.  This is the area that I think of as the middle of campus, although I'm sure I am way off.  It just seems right that it would be, because it is a big, fancy circle, but its exact location isn't that important.  From the center of this circle, snakes off six different paths, each that curves off in a different way, with no ends in sight.

These pathways represent a choice in life.  Choosing the right path way seem like the most important thing that you can do in your life.  Which path will lead you forward?  Which path will take you back to where you were? Which path will take you to where you want to be?  These are all question that one can ask at a crossroad.  These questions can become so over powering that it can leave you just standing in the middle of the crossroads, not going back, but not going forward.  This leaves you stalled and just stuck, staring at the ground.

Now, all of that could be avoided by making a choice.  One choice is always the high road.  This road may appear to be the path that takes the most effort to take on.  In this case, the high road, is a set of stairs, that goes into a path that continues uphill.  This path may look like it is the most difficult, especially on the way to an 8 AM, but that doesn't mean it is the path that shouldn't be taken.  Many times the most difficult paths in life can be the most rewarding to traverse.

Another that can be taken is the straight line.  This path looks as though it's a simple, well-lit path, where you can see exactly where you're going.  This path would be the equivalent of taking the easy way in life, not doing more than is expected, just enough to get by and live, but not prosper.  However, along this path there are many branches off.  The branching parts are the small choices in life, that don't effect the direction a person is heading in life, but allows for them to do more.  These choice can be good or can be bad.  No matter what type they are, these paths can still lead back to the original one.

All of these choices in life are what leads us to where we want to be.  These choices could be something as simple as choosing our future classes, or something even simpler, such as coming to a crossroad in a path.  These choices in life may be important at times, but the most important thing to do is to make a decision, so you are not left by your own indecision.

Bridge to Teamwork

Chemistry or Biology.  This was one of the questions I asked myself my senior year of high school.  I tossed and turned these two majors over and over again in my head, trying to decide which one was for me.  In the end, biology came up on top, but none of that really matters now, because I switched to a Biobehavioral Health major a week before I started.

My reason for changing this was because I liked the idea of having an interdisciplinary major.  Now, it may sound like this has nothing to do with buildings, at night, and it might not really, but I think it is truly what is meant by the bridge between the Chemistry and Huck Life Sciences buildings.

The life science bridge is a two-story tall enclosed, bridge that goes between the Chemistry Building and Huck Life Sciences building.  It is well lit even at night, and it completely made out of windows.  There is lots of seating within the bridge, which allows for view up and down Shortlidge Road. 

 

From the life science bridge, you can look straight up Shortlidge , toward the Forum building, or down right at the names of all of the different colleges that make up Penn State.  This small grassy area, with all the college adorned marble benches, just add to the idea of interdisciplinary work.  All these colleges, may be very different, but together they become one, the Pennsylvania State University.  Although, this is more of story for another time.

This scenery may add to the ideas represented by the life science bridge, interdisciplinary work and teamwork, but the bridge itself can also show this.  The bridge at its simplest is a way to "bridge" the gap between the two buildings.  These two buildings being the ones for completely different majors, but yet the majors that seem to be the most closely related.

It is impossible to truly have biology without chemistry.  This is because everything, including living things, is made up of atoms.  At the same time, it is hard to have chemistry without biology, because an important part of chemistry is organic chemistry, the chemistry of carbon, the basis of life.  Without each other, both of these fields cannot be complete, but when they team up, anything great discoveries can be made.

That is why this bridge personifies the importance of teamwork.  Whenever any group join together, be it two majors, many countries, or just two people, they are able accomplish much more than if they were alone.  That is also why it is important to put aside differences to work toward the greater good.

The chemistry and biology departments probably both think they are the best departments, but they are both wrong, it's the BBH department.  That's actually a lie, no department is better than any other, but anyway, the departments are many times able to put aside these differences for the good of their research and the lives of people.

The life science bridge is truly a bridge across, not only a gap, but differences.  It is also a bridge toward teamwork, and interdisciplinary studies, to make the world a better place, together.

We Are...a Sculpture

We Are...Penn State...We Are....Penn State...We Are...Penn State...Thank You...You're Welcome.  The "We Are" chant was one of the first things that we learned when we came to Penn State.  As we know, this saying is very important, so important that there is even a sculpture commemorating it.

The WE ARE Sculpture is a made entirely of mirrors that reflect the world around it.  It stands upon a large stone pedestal.  This sculpture was a gift from the Class of 2013.  Beside the sculpture is an information board that tells about the statue, the saying, and the history of the Alma Mater.  You can see this board below.

This chant, along with the Alma Mater are what bring Penn State together as a family.  When the Alma Mater is sung, everyone sways together, as one.  This lets us know that we are not alone, and that beside us there is always someone else who has our back, literally when the Alma Mater is sung. This feeling of community goes on with the "We Are" Chant.

The "We Are" chant continues this feeling of community.  According to the information board, the "We Are" chant can be said anywhere around the world, with the size of the Penn State community, someone will answer it.  This goes to show just how powerful the feeling of community is here, at Penn State.  This power of community can be seen symbolically in the WE ARE Sculpture.

The WE ARE sculpture is a reflection of one's self, both figuratively and literally.

Literally in the sense that we can see our reflection in it.  The shiny mirror quality of the sculpture lets you look into the "A" and be looking right back at yourself.  This is one of the things that makes this sculpture so interesting, the color of it is never exactly the same.  The surroundings around the  sculpture are constantly changing, which means that the WE ARE sculpture is constantly changing.  This can also be seen figuratively.

Figuratively, it can be see that since the color of the WE ARE sculpture is constantly changing, so is the people who make up our community.  All of us are growing into ourselves all throughout college, and are changing each and every second of every day.  This is one of the two ideas in the reflection of the sculpture.

The other idea is that when you look at your reflection in the WE ARE sculpture, "you" become a part of the "we."  The WE ARE sculpture shows us that we are all part of a community at Penn State.  This means that the community could not be the same without you, or anyone else.

The WE ARE sculpture is a holistic view of Penn State.  By this I mean that we believe strongly in our power as a group.  When all of us work together, as one big community, we can help all of the members of our community as a team, because "We Are" nothing without each other, but together "We Are" able to do anything.

Millennium Imagination Complex

It's a bird.  It's a plane.  No, it's the Millennium Science Building.  This building may be one of the biggest research buildings, it is also one of the most interesting buildings on campus.

The building, in its simplest terms could be described as an "L" shape, if you're an English kind of person or two perpendicular lines meeting, if math is your thing.  At the back of the building where the two "lines" would meet, the building slopes upward into a point.  I truly don't know how to describe the back of the building better, so here is a picture of it instead.

The true interest of the Millennium Science Building, to me, is its unique shape.  Its unusual look can perk the imagination of any person who looks at it.  The first thing that I ever was told about the Millennium Science Building when I arrived at Penn State is that it looks like a boat.  I didn't really understand this statement until I saw it for myself.

The building looks to me a lot like the Titanic, or a cruise liner.  The main part of the building is the ship, with the two towers being big smoke stacks. Sadly, it appears that if this was a boat, it would no longer be seaworthy, due to the giant hole and bend in the middle, which sadly also reminds me of the Titanic.






The back of the building also can take on a second, or even a third life in the dark.  From the back, this part of the building can look like the prow of a boat sailing through the night.  Another idea is that the building looks like one of the aliens from space invaders.  I'm not sure if you can see it, but I can see two eyes and a mouth, but that's also coming from the guy that can see a face in the headlights and grill of a car.  If you don't believe me look at the pictures below, and if you still don't believe me then, I may just have an overactive imagination.

(I would like to take this moment to apologize for the poor quality of the drawing, but it was much better than my first attempt.)

A final part of this building that invokes lots of imagination is the garden at the back entrance.  If you stand in the middle of the garden, surrounded by plants, it is like standing in the middle of a jungle.  It is weird to think of being in the middle of a jungle, in the middle of a college campus, but you truly feel alone when all you can see is leaves all around you, and the bright lights from the building.

Many people would never expect a science building on campus to be a symbol for imagination but it truly makes sense.  It is because of the creativity and imagination of scientists and researchers, and their thoughts and questions that lead the world toward new discoveries.  It is also because of this creativity that Penn State is the research college that it is.

Maybe next time you are strolling around campus, you will take a second and use your creativity to see not just a building but something much more.