Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Today's ArchiPic #116: Fermilab's Wilson Hall


    Today's ArchiPic is Wilson Hall near Chicago, the main administrative building of Fermilab, a high-energy particle physics lab.  Basically, the whole site is a giant particle accelerator, similar to that of the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland .


    Interestingly, the original director, Robert Wilson, wanted to make sure that Fermilab wasn't marred by giant, unappealing concrete blocks, so he had Wilson Hall built in 1974, and many of the structures surrounding the main building are designed after the Archimedean spiral.  It's a very unique twin-towered structure that houses over 400,000 square feet of space with beautiful views and a magnificent reflecting pond!


Read more about Fermilab's Wilson Hall.

4 comments:

  1. I have to say that for a concrete structure it is quite a beautiful building. All that natural light on the inside and the open interior design help keep it from feeling oppressive or sterile. It must be quite an impressive building to walk through in person.

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    1. I bet it is too. I've never seen anything like it before, especially something with that unique shape made out of concrete. I actually didn't know it existed until Kurt J. Mac on youtube recreated it in survival Minecraft. https://youtu.be/eSueFDnkajk?t=18m17s. Took him a while though haha.

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    2. I came across this yesterday and thought you might be interested. https://www.edx.org/course
      It's one of those free online course websites (kinda like Khan Academy) but there are some courses offered on Architecture. Maybe one of them will catch eye.

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    3. Thanks man! I'll take a look at it.

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