If there’s one thing we should learn on campus, it’s to learn about our campus. I daresay Path, our friendly neighborhood map, would agree. I don’t mean we should all hold hands and sing “Getting To Know You“, a la Deborah Kerr all over campus, even if that would be an amazing flash mob idea (*hint hint*). No - we should step back, take a look at our buildings, and see that the buildings that make up U of T are just as important as the people and events that chance upon it. I’ve found that our school and student body are defined just as much by our buildings as our heavy course load.

Don’t agree? How many times have you heard ‘I’ve got a class at Con Hall’, only to hear it be answered with a collective groan?

Bring up ’Med Sci‘ to a Life Sci student, and chances are they will remember the Macleod Auditorium.

Someone says ‘I’m going to be at Robarts‘, and you know that they’re in (literally) for the long run.

Mentions of Hart House brings about tender feelings of good food, a slight fear of gargoyles, and that creepy picture in the basement – at least for me.

All Vic students know Old Vic, and I would venture to guess that they remember it fondly. The rest of us recall it enviously, because it’s not every day we can say that our college is a pink castle.

And you’ve got to admit that the light-up bubble classrooms inside the Pharmacy Building are hella cool.

But I digress.

There are buildings on campus that we can’t help but notice and learn about, simply because we already hear about them all the time. But there are some places that we don’t know about that can be just as interesting. A good chunk of us have discovered little pockets of architectural treasure. Take blogUT photographer Jimmy‘s gorgeous interpretation of Knox College, for example. In the summer, the courtyard is probably one of the few places at U of T where it is peaceful. If you ever go into the Great Hall of Hart House, take the time to look at all the coats of arms on its walls, and the verses linings the banister above. Of course, these are all just landmarks. Notables. Places we may (now) know and (will maybe) frequent.

I don’t think that U of T only has these noticeable notables, though. I mean, when I checked my schedule for this semester, I saw a building code I didn’t recognize: BI. I did a quick search on the U of T Map, and found out that it was named after Federick Banting, best known for his research on insulin with Charles Best (whose namesake building is right beside it). Just like that, I felt this sense of history. I’m going to be walking into history! I bet we all know that we’re stepping into a piece of history the moment we walk into U of T, but to be just two doors down from discoveries of the past? Yeah. That’s pretty awesome. And I bet, with a bit of searching, I’m not the only one who feels that way.

So here is my lesson to you, UTian: Make good use of our online map, not just to find your buildings, but also to learn more about our campus. Even if it doesn’t initially peak your curiosity, it will definitely give you something to think about as you sit in class staring at the wall. Not that I’m saying we do that. Nope. Not at all.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 12th, 2012 at 10:00 am and is filed under On Campus, Spots, Wish You Were Here. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.