Calvin Durand Hall, affectionately known as the Wood Lounge, is one of the most visually arresting spaces on the Lake Forest College campus.
Built by famed architect Howard Van Doren Shaw in 1907-8 and modeled on the dining hall at Trinity College, Cambridge, its soaring wooden beams, walls of leaded glass windows, and dark paneled wainscot punctuated by uted pilasters exemplify a handsome and re ned Collegiate Gothic aesthetic.
The Wood Lounge is one of the College’s historic gems. It is also a beloved study area and a tangible element of our school’s culture; the Lounge’s implicit (and strict) policy of silence has been passed down year after year from seniors to rst years.
A student’s priority, especially at a rigorous college, is to study. Everything else, from extracurriculars, guest lectures, career events etc., should be secondary. However, it seems our College has confused its priorities.
Image Credit: Samuel Mercier ’16
Over the years, the Wood Lounge has been the victim of a haphazard slew of poorly-attended events feeding every spectrum of the Forester Five rainbow.
Disassembling the Lounge not only damages its furniture and oors, but abandoning it on the weekends denies students their cherished academic refuge.
Instead we are forced in a disheartened exodus into the emotionally sterile library, or into our prison-like dorm lounges. There we torture our eyes under obnoxiously bright CFL bulbs, suffer through a clamor of blaring espresso machines, chattering peers, and ushing toilets, and ‘lounge’ on the stiff polygonal furniture that seems more suitable for an asylum than academia.
To make matters worse, lack of maintenance on the Lounge has left its wainscot and radiator covers buckling from water damage and several of its windows inoperable.The balcony suffers from tilting tables, rundown railings, and filthy carpet.
Still, the College was able to come up with funds to remove the historic leaded glass window onthesecond oorandreplaceit with a vinyl door that would be equally at home on the side of an ethanol plant. It also bought a number of vinyl chairs and blue couches from a circa 1993 YMCA daycare to replace their tattered predecessors – decoration that is jarringly out of place with the Lounge’s intended aesthetic.
The trusses of this Oxbridge- esqueroomarechokedwithbanners denoting our ability to “ACCESS #EDGE,” whatever that means.
If unclear, this is a reminder to the College administration that sensitivity to historic space cannot be optional.The problem with this antipathy is twofold: it disrespects the integrity of the building and it damages the culture that encompasses it.
The College is blessed with priceless architecture from some of the most signi cant rms in Chicago. The genius of these buildings speaks for itself… no “#edge” adhesive need be stuck on for us as students to appreciate it.
Either the College needs to prioritize renovating other spaces to make them more aesthetically pleasing and usable, or it needs to envision new venues so as not to interrupt a deeply cherished academic space or damage our architectural heritage.
