{"id":157,"date":"2008-08-27T22:20:23","date_gmt":"2008-08-28T03:20:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/?p=157"},"modified":"2008-08-29T01:03:20","modified_gmt":"2008-08-29T06:03:20","slug":"welsh-humanities-building-reflection-pool-usc-1970s-2000s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/?p=157","title":{"rendered":"Welsh Humanities Building Reflection Pool, USC: 1970s-2000s"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I was on campus the other day, and noticed the final passing of a landmark that's been gradually disappearing since the 1970s.<\/p>\n

The Welsh Humanities Building is just past the Pickens Street footbridge on the way to Capstone. It was built in the early 1970s, and when it was first completed, there was a reflection pool in front of it. In that pool were vaguely birdlike abstract sculptures which bobbed up and down as water flowed over them. As a kid, it reminded me of those toy drinking birds<\/a> that keep dipping into a glass of water, and I always enjoyed watching them.<\/p>\n

The motion of the birds was the first thing to go. I don't know if the orignal artist was no longer available to keep them up, but at some point, they apparently broke, and facilities people turned off the water running over them. After the birds sat motionless for a number of years, they were finally totally removed from the pool. The pool itself continued to be maintained at least into the 80s if memory serves.<\/p>\n

That changed when the pool was permanently drained, and chairs and tables for students using the mini restaurant on the ground floor of the Welsh building were put in. This continued for a while, then the old pool itself was filled in level to the rest of the surrounding plaza.<\/p>\n

Then finally since the last time I was in the area, probably 2003, a whole new building has been built on the plaza, including most of what was the pool. The new building appears to be a wi-fi coffee bar combined with a \"light meals\" type of lunch counter. On the whole I think I'd prefer the birds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was on campus the other day, and noticed the final passing of a landmark that's been gradually disappearing since the 1970s. The Welsh Humanities Building is just past the Pickens Street footbridge on the way to Capstone. It was built in the early 1970s, and when it was first completed, there was a reflection […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[5,9],"class_list":["post-157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-historic","tag-landmark"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}