The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/tag/engineering-quad/)
Just as Ithacalves have become a ubiquitous symbol of the Cornellian campus experience on the Hill, so are our quads. I have compiled a list, ordered worst to best, of the glorified courtyards that define the outdoor gathering experience for Cornellians
After a quick morning Zoom class in my dorm room or a hefty dinner and bubble tea from Collegetown, I can typically be found climbing my way back to the engineering quadrangle and opening the partially transparent doors to the humble abode that has become my second home. I definitely am not alone — the simultaneous relief and motivation that sitting in Duffield gives me is a drug that hooks every engineer immediately after their first semester at Cornell. I will take this to my grave and to every life I am reborn into afterwards: If there was housing connected to Duffield, I would not hesitate to live there.
The Duffield-Upson-Phillips conglomerate is clearly the shining star of the engineering quad. While the other surrounding buildings may be a classic brick and mortar structure, my second home glimmers in the sunlight in all of its silver glory. As the sun streams into the atrium, the students sitting there are refueled by probably their only source of vitamin D. The atrium’s floor-to-ceiling windows are not only stunning to look at but also completely functional for the wellbeing of all the struggling students inside.
Within its walls, the various seating arrangements can also cater to almost any type of study session.
On Monday morning, students made their way across the Agriculture, Engineering and Arts quads that were flooded with signs sharing messages about incarceration and drug epidemics in the United States.
The sculptors “moved over 2.5 tons of local soil material by hand to create a custom-poured earth mix,” according to the CCA website.
One day, Cornellians woke up to find two unassuming, beige-colored structures in the Arts Quad that didn’t entirely seem at home there.