Last week when I was talking about the construction and then demolition of the Bonner Lab, I mentioned that I didn’t know much about what the interior looked like. But today I unexpectedly came across a group of photos that were taken inside the lab! Most of the images show nothing but pieces of equipment, which are frankly meaningless to me. But a few of them almost accidentally reveal something of the sense of the building’s interior. Part of the space was really, really tall. I’m admittedly a bit slow, but I feel fairly certain this would have been taken in the tower portion of the lab:
This next photo feels exactly opposite–sort of claustrophobic, as if it were taken underground. I think the man who’s wedged in there between two pieces of equipment is Jerry Phillips, the long time head of the Physics Department. I was immediately taken by the bricks lining the walls at the end of the room–a friend told me a story the other day about brick walls in the lab whose composition made them suitable for use in targeting areas. Is that what this is?
It took a while for me to notice another old friend in this picture. Remember this?