Uni Tour - Episode 1: In Search of the Chemistry Department

Today is the first in a series of posts that will take you on a tour of the university. It occured to me a few days ago that places around uni remain a total mystery to most uni goers even up until they graduate. The biology buildings are a good example. So is the architecture building. So are the elusive lower floors of engineering (the cafe/underpass level is only level 3), the sciences building, and, in fact, many of the buildings around the quad.

So I decided to explore these unknown regions, dredging up whatever fascinating dimensions to university life that they have to offer, and filling in the blank spaces around the edges of the mental map of the campus that people carry in their heads. Then I decided to follow my progress on my blog. Then I wondered if Craccum would consider running a weekly article about getting to know obscure parts of uni. Maybe.

So my first venture. Episode One. Primarily because I came up with this idea in my Linguist 103 lecture (which is in MLT 2) I decided to begin with the Sciences building. For most people the Sciences building does not extend beyond the MLT/PLT lecture theatres that are handily located in the front entrance of what is probably the biggest and most complicated building on campus.

So I started in the obvious place - the doors between MLT 2 and the lifts. If I've learnt one thing at uni, doors that aren't locked or aren't an office are meant to be walked through, and this knowledge came in handy immediately, as I found myself faced with no less than 4 sets of doors in a roughly 10m stretch of corridor.

If you continue through the doors past MLT 2 you have a choice between left or right. They both lead to different parts of the Department of Electrical Engineering (Electeng). I took left, and went through the doors. This was familiar territory because I'd had a lab through here last year. You immediatly leave the run-down 70's style squalor of the Sciences building and enter the much newer and cleaner corridors of the Electeng Department (don't forget to take a quick trip into the guys toilet on the left to see the most squalid point on the entire campus). Here there be labs. Labs and a window on the right, with this view:


















The modern gray building in the distance is where I wanted to get to. I'd always wondered what was in it. It is part of the old Sciences building, and backs onto Wellesley Street. You can see a covered walkway leading to it with a whole lot of airconditioning boxes on it, but they were a floor below and I didn't know how to get to them. But that building was my aim. I was pretty sure that the chemistry department was in it.

Anyway, continuing along, you come to a sort of foyer area, with a big window looking out over a roof to Engineering. In this foyer there is a very forbidding door:

















Everything about this door suggests "no entry to unauthorised personnel", so I went through it. Behind it - more corridors past more electrical labs. Except, these ones have colourful signs saying things like "danger - lasers in operation: eye protection required" and "danger: authoriesd personnel only". You keep moving past these labs and come to another forbidding door. Through this door is - of all things - the geology department. Back to the unrenovated 70s corridors. Yes, the geology department is lodged behind the electrical engineering department. This is an interesting place. There is this massive stairwell a couple of corridors in that looks like somewhere I'd been in a dream. It had samples of rocks and geological maps of Auckland. There was this rock called a volcano bomb that looked like a poodle turd. Seriously.

















This is part of the geology department. That is a geologist leaving his office. Behind me a bit is the door to Electeng. On the right (opposite the geologist) is a corridor leading to the big stairwell. On my right are some more stairs which I'm about to go up.

Up those stairs, and - what? - I'm back in Electrical Engineering again! It turns out Electrical Engineering takes up three floors of the Sciences building. Anyway this floor is really claustrophobic and I hurried along corridors fairly fast. The most unusual thing about this floor is that the Electrical Engineering Office is located here! In some totally middle-of-nowhere spot, I suddenly came across the office and reception for Electrical Engineering! It must be the most hard-to-get-to office on campus! To get to it, as far as I can tell, involves either a trip through Geology, or a trip through Statistics!


















This photo was taken facing away from the reception. On the left is a computer lab entirely fronted by dark windows with bright-red frames. It was a lot darker here than the photo makes it out to be. Here's your challenge: Starting at MLT 2, find your way to this computer lab. Down that corridor, and round a couple of corridors is the Stats department. Here is the stats department summed up in a single picture:

















Quite boring. By this stage I was more concerned about whether or not I was able to get out. I walked down the whole length of the corridor trying to find an exit that didn't lead to another department, and walked the whole length back again, only to find that when I'd taken the photo, I'd been only a few metres from the lifts. The same lifts that are opposite MLT2, one floor below.

So I never found how to get to the grey building, which had been my original aim, and I've barely started exploring the Sciences building, but go check it out. If you can find the Geology department, have a look at the volcano bomb. If you find the Electeng office, reward yourself with a PostGrad engineering handbook. Next time I'm gonna try again for the grey building.

Night~