Tales from Beyond Frick Park II
The construction of their union was, by all accounts, scandalous. Gates rose first, all brutal confidence and exposed systems. Hillman was slightly sleeker, more speculative, but still almost the mirror image of Gates.
The brutal, pragmatic thrust of Gates penetrated the very shell of the more delicate Hillman, and the campus pretended not to notice. Administrators spoke in soothing euphemisms: integration, interdisciplinary collaboration, shared vision. Students, dirty and horny, knew the truth.
Similarly, contractors reported noises that did not seem structurally sound. Grinding zinc, groaning masonry, clenched rebar. Forms strained and steel sang. It was loud, it was expensive, it was inevitable.
Unfortunately, their love is not perfect.
Gates lives in the now, demanding throughput and performance. The Hillman Center for Future Technology worries about the times to come, the generations they are raising, the ethics panel that hasn’t been formed yet. Gates calls Hillman impractical, Hillman calls Gates shortsighted. Through it all, they touch anyway.
Because true connection is about touch, about ventilation systems that force them to share breath, about bridges and corridors, about the moment you realize you are no longer sure where one building ends and the other begins.
By the power of touch, they have become CMU’s ultimate power couple. Tour guides skip over this, everyone pretends not to notice, but we all know. 5 million kilowatt-hours a year prove this.
Outside their union, Pausch bridge emerges, standing proud of this love. It looms, pointing towards the rest of campus, as if daring everyone to question the scale of their energy. After the sun sets, it spews strand after strand of color.
In contrast, Helix 1 curls downwards, soft and white and spiraling. A uterus, unmistakably so. Students descend every day, eggs ready to be fertilized with knowledge.
In SCS, we like to pretend everything is rational and computable. Inputs and outputs, proofs and contracts. Gates and Hillman know better. Love can be messy and complicated. Late at night, when campus is quiet, Hillman sometimes asks, half joking, “Would you still love me if I was a dorm?”