First Observation Attempt:

More than a bubble—which it is often compared to—Mansueto has the shape of a hard boiled egg, sliced in half hot-dog (as opposed to hamburger) style. The egg-shaped dome walls are glass, and held up by long, curved metal pipes that create a sort of checkerboard structure. That is, the pipes span the dome both vertically and horizontally, and each vertically-running pipe crosses a horizontally-running one around every six feet or so, creating little square checkerboard-esque squares where one can see through the glass to campus outside. There are also ten—to my knowledge, completely useless—thicker metal poles. They present more as pillars but I would emphatically argue they are not, as they perform no pillar function. These poles stick up from the light wood floor and are probably 15 feet tall. Almost everything that is not a metal pole or clear glass is the same light wood. There are dining-room-table sized tables that seat four people in chairs made of the same wood and are usually taken by those who arrive early to the dome. Most people settle for the four long wooden tables that seat around 15 people on each side of them. These tables have a slight wall coming up in the middle of them. Between every two chairs the wall has an outlet and a little grey switch to turn on and off a light that illuminates the 5 feet allotted to each pair of chairs between respective outlet-lightswitch square. The wooden chairs have 4 metal legs—the metal is the same silvery color as the poles—that hold up the wooden body of each chair, which is shaped sort of like a bending tongue, with the curvature of new york subway seats. Most chairs have jackets draped over them and backpacks leaning on the metal legs. Nearly every chair is full at 3 PM on a Saturday. People really have terrible posture. They all slouch over their computers, which have notebooks and water bottles and coffee cups from Ex Lib on either side of them. Almost everyone has headphones in their ears, rendering useless the ambient noise machines that fill Mansueto with a machine-like buzz. 

Second Attempt, replacing vague words with exacting ones:

Some playfully characterize Mansueto as a bubble. Its shape is closer to that of a hard boiled egg sliced in half from top-to-bottom, rather than side-to-side, thus maximizing the length of each half. The walls are glass and held up by curving metal pipes that cross each other in a checkerboard pattern. That is, the pipes span the dome both vertically and horizontally. Each vertically-running pipe crosses a horizontally-running one around every six feet or so, shaping square quadrants where one can see through the glass to the intersection of 57th Street and University outside. There are also ten—to my knowledge, completely useless—thicker metal poles, each with a diameter of around 2 feet. They pose as pillars but hold nothing up; protruding from the light wooden floor until they reach a height of  15 feet, they cease to grow and connect to nothing above them. Almost everything that is not a metal pole or clear glass is the same beige wood. There are dining-room-table sized tables that seat four people in chairs made of this wood. These tables are usually taken by those who arrive earliest to the dome. Most people settle for the four long, thin wooden tables that seat around 15 people on each side of them. These tables have a slight wall rising from their middle, forming a barrier between you and the mansueto-dweller studying across from you. Between every two chairs the barrier provides a rectangular outlet on either side. The outlet also includes a grey switch to turn on and off a light that illuminates the 5 feet allotted to each pair of chairs. The wooden chairs have 4 metal legs—the metal is the same silvery color as the poles and “pillars”. These legs hold up the wooden body of each chair, a slab of wood bending like a tongue with curvature similar to New York subway seats. Most chairs have jackets draped over them and backpacks resting on their metal legs. Nearly every chair is full at 3 PM on a Saturday. People have terrible posture. They slouch over their computers, which have notebooks and water bottles and coffee cups from Ex Lib on either side of them. Almost everyone has headphones in their ears, rendering useless the ambient noise machines that fill mansueto with a machine-like buzz. Outside people bundled in coats look down and hurry somewhere, and the mansueto-dwellers, headphones in, slough over their screens, deeply focussed on the work before them.

Last Rendition:

Mansueto is modern, bright, and open. The simplicity and craftsmanship of its makeup highlight beauty stemming from things other than Mansueto’s own architecture. In theory, the glass bubble provides perfect protection from Chicago elements allowing its inhabitants to appreciate the buzzing of hyde park outside. Yet, most anyone who enters mansueto understands that it is not a place one goes when they want to look outward. Even within mansueto itself, despite the inherent openness of its design which allows students to see almost everyone around them, studiers look at their laptops with a laser-sharp focus. This flow state creates a sort of energy abounding within Mansueto; I study there because it makes me feel a solidarity with the hundred people grinding around me, and it pressures me to continue focussing, even when I’d rather look outside. 

Process Notes:

I found it quite difficult to describe Mansueto with exactitude. Franky, it was quite a relief to be able to look at Mansueto through a different lens in the third rendition, as I really struggled with the first two. I think part of what made the assignment so difficult was the abundance of things to describe about Mansueto, as well as my own limited architectural vocabulary. I really appreciated how Calvino’s voice and inner monologue entered his own detailed descriptions, and I tried to allow that to influence my third iteration more. My third iteration was also inspired by the fact that, during my own “looking up” in Mansueto as I tried to describe it, I stuck out like a sore thumb because everyone else was focusing so intently on the work below them. This is part of why I wanted to write about Mansueto. Although I only hinted at it in my descriptions, I think it is an interesting parallel for the intellectual bubble surrounding elite institutions, which is what I think I’d like to explore throughout the quarter. I found it difficult to not write more abstractly about ideas, or even about people (rather than objects) during this exercise, and it made me realize that I have a sort of gap in my ability to use exacting language because I’ve mostly had to use it to express ideas.