Today I went on a visit to Middlebury College to look at Bicentennial Hall, which was designed by the same architectural firm that is designing a new building at UMass. The architect wanted to show us a bunch of the neat features of the building. It reminded me of a comedy routine I once saw about pornography: you get to see a lot people doing a lot of things that won't ever happen to you. Ever. It did remind me that I was glad I hadn't ended up at Middlebury -- I interviewed there at the same time I was interviewing at UMass. I generally have always felt that private institutions seem more willing to invest in buildings and surroundings than in people and Middlebury was no exception. Still, going to a trip to see a science building wasn't really how I wanted to spend my holiday. I took a bunch of pictures and would have posted one, but there is something wrong with the hosting service again that makes it so I can't upload images. This seems to happen about every month since they replaced the server that I'm hosted on. Grumble, grumble, grumble.
This is the organic chemistry lab at Middlebury. The labs at Middlebury are fantastic. Each wing of the building is finished with a different local wood: cherry in the biology wing, birch in another, oak in another, ash in another, etc.