Rudolph Hall: “I See You Bitches!”

My first memory of the word ‘intimate’ was during freshman year of high school, where our English teacher, in a typical bout of a lull in teaching motivation, showed us a film in lieu of class. In this particular Michael Bay film, as Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson were about to have sex, he dramatically pauses the film and quips, “Eh–it’s not illegal to show highschoolers two robots being intimate with one another, is it?”. Despite my self-congratulatory smugness at having an extensive vocabulary arsenal, this word escaped my mastery as of yet, and in high school, I did not have a supercomputer in my pocket to look it up. Intimate! Was that third base? Groping? Butt stuff? I had no idea. Using good ol’ deductive reasoning, I presumed then and there that it was just probably a euphemism for sex. Eventually of course, older and only slightly wiser, I realized sex, although the most provocative, is only a small fraction of intimacy, now one of the latest topics and buzzwords the architectural discourse at-large concerns itself with. Indeed, Rudolph Hall is a witness to countless moments and incidents of such fleeting closeness. Extracted from the archives of occurrences that take place in these hallowed halls, here are just a few…

Sometime during Fall Semester 2016: After becoming taken by [[[[’s “radiant face during Building Project construction” (as quoted by a professor), [[[[‘s crush on her intensified as the school year progressed. Brief glances, constant strategic routes that passed by her studio desk, and buffered interactions through mutual friends ensued, but none of these were as tense as that one night they found themselves alone together in one of the laser cutting rooms (or should they be called closets). The tension between them must have been fervent, as during one of the infamous Halloween parties of YSoA lore, it culminated in a prolonged hookup session. The morning and weeks after, [[[[ and [[[[ engaged in the typical awkward dance of the will-they-won’t-they, until [[[[ finally asked [[[[ out, becoming one of the “met-in-grad-school architecture couples” that SoAs churn out every so often. They got married last fall, their wedding officiated by the aforementioned professor. Not so transient anymore, eh?

September 8, 2022: Rudolph Hall’s enigmatic walls…their continuous masses rise unbroken through levels, impose severity (only tempered by a certain equally pervasive orange-hued glow), and bite back when prodded! I haphazardly initiate a moment of intimacy with the walls, leaning against it for respite in a moment of idleness while photographing Rachaporn’s lecture. The discomfort against the jagged roughness is palpable even when I am still—Rudolph’s concrete makes it clear immediately that he doesn’t like to be touched, only admired. When I finally push off my weight after a few moments to resume my photography, it nicks my left elbow, voicing its discontent. My faint scar there serves as a reminder to not trifle with Mr. Corrugated Concrete.

Every single fucking day:
Elevators—-the quintessential embodiment of transient intimacy witnessing hundreds, if not thousands, of transitory interactions and cut-off conversations per day. Part awkwardness, part tension, part uncertainty, one wonders if there should be an attempt to make conversation with an acquaintance they’ve met only briefly, or would a cursory ‘hello’ suffice? Or, when inadvertently beginning a conversation with a friend moments before entering the elevator, only to have a stop cut short, does one resume the conversation elsewhere at a later? During the ten seconds in that metal box, proximity and enclosure facilitate an intensity of intimacy. The elevator is a liminal space of waiting and standing still like no other place is. You can twiddle your thumbs and ignore your fellow passenger, or force out some small talk that rings hollow, because you are not finishing a conversation in ten seconds.

Basement Shower—-[[[[[[[ [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[ [[[[[[ [[[[[[[[[[[[[[ [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[ [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[ [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[ [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[ [[[[[[[[[[[[[[ [[[[[[[ [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[ [[[[[[[[[ [[[[[[[ [[[[[ [[[ [[[[[[[ [[[[[[[ [[[[[[ [[[[[[[[[[[ [[[[[[[[