Right at the end of last spring semester I got an intriguing email from one of FE&P’s project managers:
We have just begun another summer renovation, this time in the Brown College Tower. Last summer, we noticed what looks like a concrete patch in the ceiling in room 711. Well, it turns out that this patch is in the floor and ceiling of every one of the x11 rooms from what we can tell. The patch appears to be for what was once a 4’ x 4’ hole from the roof to the first floor.
This I had to see. I went over and sure enough, this is what it looks like all the way from the bottom to the top:
A search of the drawings for the building showed no such shaft and there isn’t a file with construction photos so we were stumped.
Then today she came over to look for images of Brown that might be used to decorate the refreshed space and lo and behold, look what turned up:
It certainly looks like that crane is inside the building, doesn’t it, and at the right spot too.
This gave me an idea and I went digging and found another shot from a different angle:
So now my question is: why?
Bonus: It’s definitely full blown summer around here but there’s been so much rain (another downpour this afternoon) that the grounds look remarkably lush. Usually by mid-July it’s pretty crispy, but look at this beautiful grass.
