{"id":115,"date":"2012-04-09T14:51:44","date_gmt":"2012-04-09T18:51:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/built-environment\/?p=115"},"modified":"2012-10-20T11:56:59","modified_gmt":"2012-10-20T15:56:59","slug":"what-is-the-street-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/built-environment\/2012\/04\/09\/what-is-the-street-for\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is the Street for?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The word “street” conjures a variety of images in the average American\u2019s mind. From sites of childhood play to images of the homeless, the street means different things to different people. \u00a0Here at Colby, the lowest floor of Miller Library is a street in the sense that it gets you where you\u2019re going easier and more directly than other routes. The basement floor of Colby College\u2019s Miller library opens out on each side of the building to the ground level, and given its placement directly in the center of the campus, the Street (as it has become known) serves as the fastest way to get from A to B for many students, while spending the most time possible inside and protected from the Maine weather.<\/p>\n

However, the Street finds another use in the form of a study space. \u00a0The long room is lined with tables and chairs, couches and padded seats, paintings of the local landscapes, a couple windows and a giant stone statue of the Lion of Lucerne, impaled with a broken spear. \u00a0The statue is by far the most memorable aspect of this otherwise drab room, with its cream colored walls, false ceiling and blue and gray carpets, no one would be surprised to find out that this was the basement level of a library. \u00a0The art on the wall does not catch the eye. \u00a0In fact when I spoke with a student who spends upwards of six hours a day in and around the Street, she had never noticed that there were paintings occupying the space between each of the six windows lining one side of the long room. \u00a0But as she explained in her defense, \u201cI don\u2019t come here for the art.\u201d \u00a0Walking through the space at 8:40 on a Thursday night, every table is occupied by groups of students, some diligently working on problem sets, others conversing half in English and half in broken German, and some simply sitting together giggling at photos on Facebook. \u00a0Many people appear to be working on group projects. \u00a0As I walk through, I see five biology students introducing themselves and settling down to complete some genetics problems. \u00a0Soon after arriving and speaking with a couple students, I have come to realize that the Street has somewhat of an elastic quality. \u00a0As a main throughway for students at all times of the day and night, the Street has certain inherent social qualities. \u00a0But as a part of the campus\u2019 main library, it also maintains itself as a place for studies. \u00a0The Street exists as a dual space, a location that some view as a work space and others view as social center, that somehow manages to serve as both at the same time.<\/p>\n

In this way the Street in Miller Library is unique, as it takes on a variety of roles in student\u2019s lives, providing a reliable work space for some and a source of guaranteed social interaction for others. \u00a0It is incredible how a single space can be viewed in so many different ways, and how one\u2019s use of a space defines how they think about it. \u00a0Those who can accomplish a lot in the presence of others, like Avram, see the street as; \u201cA place where people who want to work can get stuff done.\u201d \u00a0While those who prefer the quiet tapping of a computer lab, like Phil, think of the Street as a social space and \u201ca place for Colby to hang their shit up.\u201d \u00a0I would say the interesting thing about the Street is that it\u2019s both.<\/p>\n

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The word “street” conjures a variety of images in the average American\u2019s mind. From sites of childhood play to images of the homeless, the street means different things to different […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2894,"featured_media":291,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[77338,596,77344,77342,77337],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/built-environment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/built-environment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/built-environment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/built-environment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2894"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/built-environment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/built-environment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":491,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/built-environment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115\/revisions\/491"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/built-environment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/built-environment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/built-environment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/built-environment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}