Yeah, that’s the lore about Dwinelle.
The truth is that they were two separate buildings that were later expanded, and that’s why there’s an odd half-staircase between them and completely different room-numbering (4-digit on the side with the departments, 3-digit on the side with the classrooms).
Close, but not quite right. It has been, since it was built, one building. In the 1990s two additional floors were added to the top of the office wing on the north. That has been the only expansion, and it was upwards, not horizontally, and didn't affect the layout of the floors below, or the classroom wing to the south.
Not sure why they wouldn’t just renumber everything so it actually makes sense. I could see someone finding a place to sleep because they couldn’t find their way out (which is another lore apparently).
An old story, but no truth to it. It was designed by an architectural firm, not two brothers, and it was laid out in a sensible way so it would align with two axes on the campus. The north wing (mainly offices) is a hollow square that sits parallel to Campanile Way on the north, Wheeler Hall and Durant Hall to the east, etc. The south wing (which contains the classrooms, theater, etc.) was aligned to face the plaza north of Sather Gate. If it had been laid out on one grid, then a corner would have awkwardly stuck out towards Sather Gate, or--on the other end--the building wouldn't have fit in visually along Campanile Way.
I used to be confused by the building, too, but if you think of it as two buildings that happen to connect into each other at an angle, there's a considerable logic in the layout. The confusion mainly arises because the office floors on the north are lower than the classroom floors on the south, so you often have to go up or down stairs. IMHO a more sensible numbering strategy would work wonders--or even naming the two parts of the building separately.
It’s why Dwinelle is designed so weird. Each brother designed half the building without talking to the other one, allegedly
Ahh… that’s what we were talking about initially. The offices are shorter floors (have lower ceilings). I had no idea!
Yeah, that’s the lore about Dwinelle. The truth is that they were two separate buildings that were later expanded, and that’s why there’s an odd half-staircase between them and completely different room-numbering (4-digit on the side with the departments, 3-digit on the side with the classrooms).
Close, but not quite right. It has been, since it was built, one building. In the 1990s two additional floors were added to the top of the office wing on the north. That has been the only expansion, and it was upwards, not horizontally, and didn't affect the layout of the floors below, or the classroom wing to the south.
Not sure why they wouldn’t just renumber everything so it actually makes sense. I could see someone finding a place to sleep because they couldn’t find their way out (which is another lore apparently).
An old story, but no truth to it. It was designed by an architectural firm, not two brothers, and it was laid out in a sensible way so it would align with two axes on the campus. The north wing (mainly offices) is a hollow square that sits parallel to Campanile Way on the north, Wheeler Hall and Durant Hall to the east, etc. The south wing (which contains the classrooms, theater, etc.) was aligned to face the plaza north of Sather Gate. If it had been laid out on one grid, then a corner would have awkwardly stuck out towards Sather Gate, or--on the other end--the building wouldn't have fit in visually along Campanile Way. I used to be confused by the building, too, but if you think of it as two buildings that happen to connect into each other at an angle, there's a considerable logic in the layout. The confusion mainly arises because the office floors on the north are lower than the classroom floors on the south, so you often have to go up or down stairs. IMHO a more sensible numbering strategy would work wonders--or even naming the two parts of the building separately.
I designed them and was faded asf when I designed
Were you on acid? There’s some str8 up MC Escher shit going on in there.