18 July 2009
I was in New Haven, Connecticut, for four days, beginning last Monday evening. The purpose: to work on a joint research project with a colleague from Yale. The team is the two of us, three postdoctoral researchers (from China, Iran, and Japan) and a PhD student (from Germany). We spent four hours per day in meetings, teaching each other about our respective areas of expertise, exploring preliminary project data, and planning next steps. I gave four hours of lectures and with the additional time needed for preparation didn't have any extended opportunity to take pictures. So these photos only provide a small window into the sense I have of this place.
Yale University is stately with harmonious neogothic architecture. It is tightly woven into the fabric of New Haven, a small coastal city in Connecticut. The land is flat, the trees are large, and (during the summer) the vegetation is lushly green. The city streets, which are laid out on a rectangular grid, criss-cross through the university campus, so it has an urban rather than a park-like feel.
On the Yale campus and in the immediate vicinity, the overall impression I have is of a place well-manicured and genteel. But apart from the campus, the city of New Haven is not doing well economically. It is gritty and run down.
I stayed in La Quinta Suites near the harbor and walked from there to Yale (about 2 miles). Close to the hotel, I had to cross beneath a freeway where heavy construction was underway. The sidewalks were a mess; the feel industrial. Another interesting characteristic of New Haven and Yale is that the historic Grove Street Cemetery is right in the heart of the city; in fact, it is almost in the middle of the campus. I made a brief visit there to shoot some photos. Two of the ones posted here have visual appeal. I include Gibbs for scholarly interest: he is one of the leading historical figures in chemical thermodynamics.
I encountered this billboard on the walk between my hotel and campus. Can you figure it out?
The final photo shows St. Mary's Church, which was founded in 1832 as the first catholic church in New Haven and the second in Connecticut. Amazingly, this building is adjacent to Yale's Mason Laboratory, which is where we met for work.
3 comments:
Hi Bill,
I checked out Logan Steel's website. Apparently they do "steal" of the week - bargins on various things they sell. http://www.logansteel.com/specials.htm
It is a great billboard, isn't it?
I'm sending you a photo of the rainbows that were in progress when I was talking to Ingrid last week. We both hung up so we could take a photo! They lasted forever!
Wow, Bill, I am loving the St. Mary's Church!!!
Beautiful stone work!! Your photos are truly beautiful.
Too bad the streets are gritty and run down, this is supposed to be a BEAUTIFUL state.
Hi Bill,
happy to see you included some of the motives we visited the evening when we were unlucky with the light. New Haven looks beautiful seen from the perspective shown with your camera. But I have to agree that the positive feeling fades into something else once moved away from the campus area to the real city. Because the economy is bad and heavily dependent on Yale University, New Haven people further away from the university are mostly poor and the crime rate is high. Nevertheless, it seems to be a good place to live for a while... Good luck with everything and see you next time when bioaerosol research is on!
PS: I also got locked out on Dunham roof!
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