Breezeway goodbye

Part of a concrete breezeway connecting my building and several others on campus collapsed last week. No one was hurt. No one even reported seeing it happen, so quiet is campus in the summertime. It was a surprise to me, though. I walked back into my building at 2 p.m. after an appointment -- everything was fine. I walked out again at 4 p.m. and part of the concrete roof just to the east was on the ground and someone had posted a cute little sign that read "walkway closed." No shit.

News came late last week that the university is going to tear the entire breezeway down, ending its life after just shy of 60 years. Not a bad lifespan, I suppose.

I comment on the breezeway because it makes me a little sad to see it go. It connects, at one end, Langford Hall, and the four-building Johnstone Complex. An entire row of four dorms and an administrative building connected by a block-long concrete overhang that has stood since the late 1950s.

I walked under that breezeway daily when I lived in Langford as an undergraduate. It kept us out of the snow and rain on the way to the cafeteria in Johnstone. As a resident adviser in the building, I even saw jackasses scale to the top of that breezeway sometimes in the night and run along it. They got written up, if we could catch them.

I wonder what the Johnstone and Langford residents will think when they come back in late August and the breezeway is gone. Will they notice?

This is all prelude of course. I've seen the university's 50-year plan. In half a century, neither the Johnstone Complex nor Langford will exist, let alone a silly breezeway. But still, it's sad to see the demolition start so soon.

Related posts:

1. Steve Outing: Goodbye, for Now? But Looking Forward