On your left on Route 2

I love the first architectural impression one gets of Williams when driving down Route 2. After passing the blocky brick Greylock Quad, one goes by the soaring '62 Center, then the more Roman-style (?) Faculty Club. After Park Avenue and a hedge, one reaches the President's House, which I would ignorantly describe as "Georgian." Next is the New England plain-white Congregationalist Church, then the newfangled Schapiro Hall. Hopkins Hall's red brick is next, then the looming Gothic tower of Thompson Chapel. The last building on the left is Griffin, which is in the Federal style.

Williams is certainly not Duke, which has an all Georgian campus and an all-Gothic campus, and I like it that way. Our buildings truly run the gamut, which makes every part of campus different, and maintains a unique, possibly idiosyncratic character. That's certainly how I prefer to think of it: it would be quite another thing to say that Williams was built-up with absolutely no master plan, but anything's possible. I actually have a map in my room of Williams's bicentennial plan - it featured expansions to Sawyer, Griffin, Stetson, and Adams, and somehow neglected to foresee the new science center, theatre, student center, or academic buildings. Come to think of it, I'm not sure anything on that map actually came to pass. Nevertheless, I have my story, and I'm sticking to it.

The picture is an upload from Google "Streetview" - try out the drive for yourself.