LETTERS
Some like it, some like it not

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John David Sturman ("Letters," December/01) writes that the new Max Palevsky Residential Commons is "unsightly, disagreeable, distasteful, repellent, repugnant, repulsive, and ill-conceived." While I don't quite agree with the University of Chicago Chronicle's claim that the complex is "a blast of Mexican sunshine on any gray Chicago day," I do take issue with Sturman's opinion.

I'm very fond of Gothic architecture. I love sitting tucked into the cloisters outside Ida Noyes Hall. I love walking through the Burton-Judson courtyards and losing, for a moment, my concept of calendar time. I love Rockefeller Chapel, inside and out.
Max, as students call it, looks bizarre in comparison to the rest of campus. But Ida and Harper and Rockefeller were all built before 1930; Max was built in the past few years. Many of the newer buildings on campus, among them the Regenstein Library, adhere to more modern architectural aesthetics; they are no better a match to the older buildings than is Max.

I love Max. I love the courage it takes to build something so radically different from the rest of campus. After all, isn't one of the purposes of a liberal education to teach us to celebrate our differences?

Jena Barchas Lichtenstein, '05
Chicago

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