This is the ceiling of the Palmer Auditorium at Connecticut College in New London Connecticut. It was built in 1939 and its architect was the same fellow who did the Empire State Building. As I was sitting in it last week listening to the College’s leadership extolling the virtues of themselves, I got to thinking, “this is a really cool room.”
It led me down a rabbit hole related to the virtues of sending your kid to one of these older historical colleges for the mere fact that the physical assets scream old, solid, serious, legitimate. I am nearly certain that as child I thought the faux Latin and Greek inscriptions on the Walker Art Museum at Bowdoin had been chiseled into the limestone by live Romans and Greeks. I was impressed.
I learned that Connecticut College will begin a historically informed $20M renovation to the building soon. I am happy to hear it and hope the ceiling looks just as good when the renovation is complete.