Did you know the entirety of West Campus supposed to be gothic village? However, the gothic buildings you see today were the only things that ended up being built, basically only the corner of the village. Garrick Blalock, an associate professor in the Dyson School of Applied Economics, explained the complex story of how West Campus ended up like it does today. Apparently, the open field between Rose and Bethe used to contain a giant community center, and on top of the “main” buildings used to be the so-called “U-Houses” which were supposedly very ugly according to the people that went to Cornell back in the day. While I frequently complain about living in a Gothic, and how inconvenient it is to do laundry, knowing the history still gives me some more appreciation for my dorm building, Founder’s Hall, the oldest building on West Campus. The idea that people lived and studied in the same buildings as I am is an interesting concept. While I would never know these people, or what they did, or what they studied, knowing they existed in the same space at a different time just irrationally makes the building better and more interesting. This begs the question regarding any new renovations or new constructions at Cornell, should the historical style, or the historical nature of a building be preserved, or should it implement new architectural styles?