Colby College’s campus is designed and physically composed in a classic New England fashion. When driving through, it can be easily seen how the buildings on campus radiate from the central Miller Library. Professor. Plesch pointed out that this was primarily due to the library being the first building to be built on Mayflower Hill.
Coming from three sides of the library are three rows: Miller Lawn, Frat Row, and the Chapel. Miller Lawn is the largest out of these three and is home to many of the campus’s academic buildings. It intersects with a road and ends with the admission and alumni centers. The green space in this space is clearly designed for recreational use, with chairs and events being there. The paths throughout this region also intersect with another at angles, as opposed to a grid like system.
A smaller “row” can be found parallel to the Miller Lawn. Recently renovated, this path runs by the Colby College Museum of Art and eventually meets Frat Row. Miller Lawn is to academics as Frat Row is to residential life. This green space between the buildings is less utilized and at the end of the row is Bobs, a dining hall and dormitory, popular to many. Behind Bobs, the Athletic Center can be found, removed from the rest of campus. I often found myself curious about its distance from the school, but I now suppose it’s due to the large amounts of space needed for athletic fields.
Finally, in the other direction is the Chapel. While the previous two examples were a row of buildings with grassy areas in between, this direction does not have a large amount of buildings and the Chapel is the center of attention as it perches upon the side of a hill. Behind this region is a more chaotic alignment of buildings, mostly dorms. While the other buildings were in a row formation, these (maybe newer) ones create a quad, known as Dana Lawn.
As for other details, directly behind the chapel is an area that is small out of necessity due to the presence of Johnson Pond. On the outskirts of campus, parking lots and fieldy areas fill the rest of the space. As I mentioned earlier, I believe this to be due to the large amount of space they take up.