Column: Doudna worth the buildup

By: Liz Surbeck/Columnist

Posted: 9/5/08

Vaulted ceilings, mammoth glass walls, breath-taking theaters, bridges and halls that seem to lead to other dimensions rather than classes. This is the sort of thing that makes a person say, "Wow." This is Dounda.

I have been a freshman at Eastern for just barely two weeks and, still, up to that point I had yet to see the inside of the Doudna Fine Arts Center. Like the other freshmen, I have the privilege to start my time at Eastern right at the same moment as this new building. Having been deeply involved in my high school's fine arts program, what I found the day I walked into Doudna blows out of the water what I, or probably anyone else, have experienced.

Antoine Predock, the architect who designed Doudna, has the building in his Web site portfolio with many other equally inspiring buildings located at other universities that include Ohio State University, University of New Mexico and Rice University.

Predock states on his Web site that Doudna's nature in design "evolves, folds, and merges one moment to another as classes, exhibits, critiques, rehearsals, performances and concerts spontaneously interact." That is exactly what it does and more.

Doudna is very unique on many levels. It is understandable that this isn't just some ordinary campus building because at least two particular things might first strike someone right as they enter the building.

The first, and most apparent, is the happiness and contentment everywhere - in the halls, the classrooms and the offices. In this place everyone, from the newest student to the most veteran construction worker, smiles as they walk passed each other as though saying silently, "Man, aren't we in the most amazing building you've ever seen? And it is all ours."

The second is that, also unlike any other campus building, there are maps for students and other visitors for the building. I can say this with confidence from my own experience. Take a map. No matter how direction-oriented someone's inner compass may be, just take a map and save a lot of colliding into rooms and halls that didn't seem to be there before.

As a new student also trying to explore the equally new building, freshman Sarah Fairchild said, "I'm standing one place and there is the red room underneath the bridge. I want to go down to explore it, but there is no way I can find out how to get there." Be smart. Just take a map.

The future of Doudna is being filled with as much potential as what is now going into it. Already its first event starts Saturday, which is a display of the ceramic and bronze works by Ruth Duckworth.

Work is busy for fine arts students of all kinds as theater rooms fill themselves up with props and scripts, clay and metal leave storage and become shaped and molded in the workshops, and music rings with clarity from the perfectly acoustic recital hall. In a short amount of time, Doudna has become alive.

Liz Surbeck is a freshman journalism major. She can be reached at 581-7942 or at DENopinions@gmail.com.