Walking Along
As we go beyond the Purnell Center for the Arts, we'll see the Cut. It's the grassy area between Warner Hall and the University Center. If the sun's out, students will be playing Ultimate Frisbee nearby. Carnegie Mellon typically hosts a concert every year on the Cut, for example, The Clarks, Blues Traveler and the Shins have performed here. Student Activities also holds end-of-the-year celebrations on the Cut!
Do you see it? The Fence? Check it out! In the early days of Carnegie Tech, there was a single bridge, which connected Margaret Morrison Women's College with the Carnegie Institute of Technology. This bridge was a meeting place for students. In 1916, the bridge was taken down when the university filled in the area. The senior class of 1923 put up a wooden fence to be the new meeting place. The administration tried to tear it down, but some fraternity brothers painted it as a prank to advertise a fraternity party. Ever since, painting the Fence has been a Carnegie Mellon tradition. The Fence must be painted between midnight at 6 a.m., in its entirety, using only paintbrushes. And, if you don't want your message to be painted over, the Fence has to be guarded around the clock. The original wooden fence was in the Guinness Book of World Records as the "most painted object in the world." In 1993, it collapsed under its own weight and was replaced with the concrete fence we see today.
If you look to your right as you walk on the path toward the Fence, you'll see the green roof of Newell-Simon Hall. Newell-Simon houses offices, meeting facilities and project labs for faculty and staff in the School of Computer Science, including the Human-Computer Interaction Institute and the Language Technology Institute. There is also an auditorium, food court and a unique robotic receptionist named Tank, who can answer all of your questions. The bridge connects the building to the fourth floor of Wean Hall, home to the majority of the School of Computer Science.
Doherty Hall is the first of the buildings at Carnegie Mellon forming a U-shape around the grassy area known as "the Mall." Doherty Hall houses the Department of Chemical Engineering, chemistry classrooms, offices, new state-of-the-art science labs and studios for architecture and art. It also boasts the university's largest lecture hall.
Let's continue, make a right and head down the walkway to Wean Hall!