|
|
||
|
Navigation User login Who's online There are currently 10 users and 51 guests online.
Online users
Support OlyBlog OlyBlog is run by volunteers who care about Olympia. If you like what we're doing, make a donation: Who's new
Upcoming events
Favorite Olympia Blogs Bread and Roses of Olympia The Canaanite's Call Clubside Breakfast Time decorabilia Dark Woods Casino Party E. Side Neighborhood Assoc. Flummel, Flummer, Flummo In the Course of Events John G Bell's Blog Jon's Random Acts of Geekery judimendoza Last Word Blog Nafblog No Talking Heads Olympia Dumpster Divers Olympia Time One Pissed-Off Veteran Papa November Peregrinate Pirate Papa Plan B Olympia The Raccoon Arts Collective The Rambling Taoist Trees and Water Word on the Street What This Town Needs Yelley's Photo Blog Oly Public Bloglines |
Submitted by stevenl on Sun, 10/16/2005 - 9:45pm.
Yes, the rumors are true, the college was designed to be riot proof. The first new building constructed on the campus was the steam plant, which included "riot-proof" windows (Daily Olympian, 9/9/70, p. 3). The steam plant is also the building where vehicles have access to the maze of tunnels under campus. We used to take off our shoes and sneak past the guy in the little glass office and roam around in those vast steam tunnels. When we were down there, every now and then we'd come to a ladder which went up to those brick boxes you see here and there on campus. Then we could observe people walking around on Red Square through the grates. The original Red Square, a wide area surrounded by berms and narrow exits, had an incredibly slippery surface in the 1970s. We always felt it was that way on purpose for crowd control. The bricks were replaced in the 1980s. During the time the campus was designed, student unrest around the country was widespread. An article in the Daily Olympian for Oct. 18, 1968 (p. 6) entitled, "Evergreen Officials Probe Reasons for Student Unrest - 'It Won't Happen Here," discusses the fear of "anarchists" causing trouble and some hint about the plans to contain that threat.
»
|
OlyBlog.net OlyBlog is devoted to hyperlocal news and discussion specifically about Olympia, Washington. Contributors to OlyBlog are citizen journalists who care about their community and are tired of corporate media. If you'd like to contribute, please register for an account. Here is a list of local news beats that need to be covered. You can post your news as a personal blog entry, and it will be reviewed (and possibly edited) for promotion to the front page. You can also send news via email. All members of OlyBlog agree to abide by our Social Contract. You should also look at our comment and fair use policies. If you are frustrated about something said in a comment thread, go here. Olyblogger of the Month: Docents are fellow citizen journalists who volunteer to be at your service in order to help with any blog-related issues. They are: Rob RichardsInterests: community building; participatory art, democracy and economics; local politics; citizen journalism. emmettoconnell Interests: City Council, developing a local issues forum. enpen Interests: OlyBlog calendar, Oly street art, local artist interviews, his family, poetry and stuff. Robert Whitlock Interests: peace, justice, nature, nonviolence, media, environment Rick Interests: citizen journalism, hyperlocal media, the knowledge commons. Docent email list Latest Classified Ads Books & Collections ›Blog Local Evergroove Trivia |
Please keep the stories comin
Submitted by Sarah on Mon, 10/17/2005 - 12:01am.Now I do, thank you!
Steve, I recognize your name now, I was at SPSCC at the time.
If memory serves, you told us about the SPSCC ghost, was that you? (Storyteller, not ghost.)
Yes, Sarah, I remember you. I
Submitted by stevenl on Mon, 10/17/2005 - 5:51am.In fact, it is my understandi
Submitted by jgbell on Wed, 10/19/2005 - 1:45pm.In fact, it is my understanding that the ubiquity of a "red square" at every state campus was specifically due to utility for crowd control. Any demonstrations in these squares could be controlled with water from a firehose which would make the brick slippery and allow the force from a nozzle to topple people to the ground. I believe I heard this for the first time on a campus visit to WWU many years ago.
At the University of Washington, the Suzzallo Quadrangle, which was, I believe an open field, was replaced with red brick in 1969, at the time the undeground garage was built. There turns out to be a wikipedia article about UW's Red Square, but it claims the brick was used because there was fear that rain would leak through grass and soil into the garage beneath. I suspect that may have been the politic reason.
As an aside, and here's my most precious bit of trivia about Red Square at the UW, the chimney stacks are the height of the pyramids on the Giza plateau in Egypt.
Interesting. One thing that m
Submitted by stevenl on Wed, 10/19/2005 - 6:26pm.Those chimneys are close enou
Submitted by jgbell on Sat, 10/22/2005 - 11:43am.Maybe the UW could name those
Submitted by stevenl on Mon, 10/24/2005 - 5:51am.Indeed, but at least people w
Submitted by jgbell on Sat, 10/29/2005 - 1:07pm.Beautiful! Actually, my own g
Submitted by stevenl on Sat, 10/29/2005 - 6:05pm.1st post
Submitted by Sarah on Wed, 03/19/2008 - 2:55pm.