Centennial Hall is a deeply flawed building

Every time I enter the building I get perpetually angry

Toby Mohr

More stories from Toby Mohr

Dual Champions
February 22, 2024
Centennial+Hall+is+deeply+and+intrinsically+flawed

Centennial Hall is deeply and intrinsically flawed

Centennial Hall, adorned with floor-to-ceiling windows, home of Einstein’s Bagels, huge lecture halls and seemingly every student services center imaginable is deeply and intrinsically flawed.

Let’s start with the hallways. If you have a class in Centennial Hall between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., good luck getting through the main hallway.

I have a class in Centennial Hall at 11 a.m. and the main hallway is impassable.

Between the crowd of people leaving the building after class, the crowd of people entering the building to go to class and the long line of caffeine and carbohydrate-craving college students outside Einstein’s, the narrow main hall is imperviously packed with students.

Everytime I enter the building I get trapped in an immovable crowd of bodies and I get perpetually angry.

Once you bump, shoulder and nudge your way through the unnecessarily narrow main hallway, you must navigate through a confusing maze of hallways with seemingly random room numbers.

It took me months to figure out the strange twisting block pattern of hallways. A piece of advice; use landmarks. The elevators and bathrooms are in the same place on each floor; a few constants in a maze of change.

If you are able to navigate the twisting maze of hallways, the room numbers are a whole different obstacle. Each room is labeled with a random sequence of four numbers with no relation to its neighbor.

If the building designers had rolled dice to decide each digit, the room numbers would have made more sense.

In all fairness, despite its many defects in functionality, Centennial Hall has a few redeeming qualities.

First, and most obvious, is Einstein’s Bagels. If the slow-moving crowd in the hallway lulls you to sleep, grab some coffee for a caffeine pick-me-up. Or if you’re hungry you can grab a snack, all you need to do is wait in line for an hour or two.

Additionally, Centennial Hall’s classrooms and lecture halls are far superior to any other building.

Most lecture halls in Hibbard and Phillips are dark and crowded with little room between seats. But Centennial lecture halls are brighter with natural light, more spacious and with bigger seats.

My favorite thing about Centennial Hall is all the windows. One side of the building is almost completely glass. I really like the use of natural light, it helps to alleviate some of my anger from the main hallway — some.

The windows and natural light create one of nature’s greatest phenomena; sunbeams. On the second and third floor chairs line the windows and bask in the sunbeams.

They provide a perfect spot to study and take in the sun, or a quick nap in between classes, and enjoy a wide view of campus.

In conclusion, once I perfect my time machine and go back to the ancient time pre-2013 I will be having some words for the Centennial Hall design committee.

I will go back in time to expand the main hallway and use normal room numbers to make Centennial Hall actually functional as an academic building. I would also want more windows and more sunbeams.

Mohr can be reached at [email protected].