carceral feng shui

[doug anderson]

This is the top floor of the Healy Library building at UMASS Boston. I teach there every summer during a writers conference, and I've always wondered about the architecture. The building has an interesting history. It was constructed like a prison to be able to control student populations in the seventies. I thought this was a rumor till I tracked it down, and yes, it was intentionally designed as a carceral structure. The mood this skylight casts is an emotional emblem of the whole place.

There was so much corruption in the building of this campus (ah, Massachusetts) that two State Senators ended up going to prison.

 

[Jeremy Jachym]

Doug, thanks for the image and story.

JJ

 

[Dave McAllister]

The picture really does capture the feeling, or implication, of being in a prison. It goes very well with the history of the building.