Burdell’s Building Bracket: Round of 32, Day One

After whittling down the field by half, the next 8 matchups are here with the people’s choices to make it through to the second round.

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Welcome back to the biggest little bracket challenge anywhere in the business. For a refresher, here’s the bracket: Second Round Part One.pdf. Note: all buildings in the historic district will be referred to by their construction name, if appropriate (see: Aaron French Textile Building, now home to various international programs and such).

Round of 32, Day One:

Center Campus:

No. 1 Lettie Pate Whitehead Administrative Building (Tech Tower) vs. No. 8 Cpt. Lyman Hall Chemistry Laboratory

Tech Tower:

This one is self explanatory, so I won’t mince words. There’s sixteen illuminated letters on the top, and one of Tech’s most prized-but-unlawful traditions is to take the T closest to the highway, in order around the tower, until they are all gone. Tech’s oldest building is worth a history column on its own, but nowadays houses gorgeous administrative offices, thanks to a recent renovation. Tech would not be the same without its crowning icon, which remains the de facto, if not de jure height limit for buildings on campus.

Hall Hall:

It is my firm belief that Lyman Hall is the most under-appreciated figure in Tech’s history. He literally worked himself to death on the job raising funds for the chemistry lab that would eventually bear his name. Now, it is home to administration and lives in the shadow of the west stands of Bobby Dodd Stadium.

No. 4 Fred B. Wenn Student Center vs. No. 5 Robert Ferst Center for the Arts

Student Center:

Soon to be Tech’s newest building, Wenn and its complex hosts such icons as Tech Rec bowling, Under the Couch, the Tech ballroom, the Post Office, and, of course Chick fil a, the greatest eating establishment known to man, except for all the better ones that are, ya know, off campus. But, as far Tech goes, it’s near the top.

Ferst Center:

It’s a nice theater. It was just renovated, though, to be honest, I can’t say I’ve stopped by since it reopened. One of the few places to find the arts here on the Flats does its job acceptably.

No. 3 Clough Undergraduate Learning Commons vs. No. 11 D. M. Smith Physics Building

CULC:

Did you know The Internship was filmed here?

D. M. Smith:

Named after one of Tech’s legendary professors, D. M. Smith was notable that when he retired, his students over the years wrote pamphlets about him to preserve the man’s notoriety for years to come. He is more than deserving to be the namesake of the former physics building, now home to Tech’s Public Policy department. And the lecture hall has some well-padded chairs, which is an underrated perk, even if the bathroom situation is a little bit sketchy.

No. 2 Andrew Carnegie Library vs. No. 10 College of Design East and West

Carnegie:

Financed with a grant from the Carnegie Foundation to serve as Tech’s first library, it was very quickly full to the rafters with books. Now long since replaced by Price Gilbert and Crosland from its original function and home to the President’s Office, it houses some of the more elegant space on campus. The building is small, but a gem of an architectural asset buried in the nook between Tech Tower and Highland Bakery, the outpost also known as the ghost of Junior’s Grill past. Notably, the Class of 1903 fountain is quietly located just outside of the front door.

Architecture:

Even though it didn’t become its own college until the 1970s, they got their own building in the 1950s. They used to do all of Tech’s architecture in house, and these facilities are no different. Architecture West is certainly a unique style on campus.

North Campus:

No. 1 McCamish Pavilion vs. No. 9 Parker H. Petit Biotechnology Building

The Thrillerdome:

This is one of the places that need no introduction. Even the most casual of Georgia Tech fans have, for the most part, visited McCamish Pavilion. Built as Tech’s first true basketball arena, replacing the Heisman Gymnasium, the Armory, and the elegantly named Crystal Palace, McCamish is also notable as the face of many of Tech’s larger formal events, like Senior Capstone, the Spring Career Fair, and Graduation.

Petit:

A BioTech Quad showdown with MoSE is fun enough, but Parker Petit’s namesake Tech building is home to the excellent and relatively new Biomedical Engineering department. Also, it has cool tunnels connecting it to the rest of the quad, so that’s fun.

No. 5 Ken Byers Tennis Complex vs. No. 13 Jesse Mason Building

Byers/Moore:

Tech’s multi-million dollar investment into turning a ravine into a sports complex led to one of the nicer facilities in college tennis. The Jackets regularly field competitive tennis teams, including the only national championship officially awarded by the NCAA.

Mason:

The rather tall home of Civil and Environmental Engineering has an absolutely beautiful renovated first floor, if not a rather utilitarian exterior. Oddly, since it was built more recently than when Tech became co-ed, it doesn’t have both a men’s and women’s bathroom on the top three floors, instead choosing to alternate genders and floors.

No. 3 Russ Chandler Stadium vs. No. 6 Marcus Nanotechnology Building

The Rusty C:

Another old favorite to many readers of this site, the site of Russ Chandler Stadium at Fowler and Ferst has been, in some form or another, the home of Tech baseball since they stopped sharing space at Grant Field with football. With Phase II of the modernization of what is already one of the best fields in the sport coming, one of the most dramatic settings in college baseball, bracketed by Atlanta skyline, is idyllic, iconic, and historic, and about to become even better.

Nanotech:

Something wild was happening there the other night after the Pittsburgh basketball game, but the building’s still standing, so that’s dope. The remains of the Frank Neely Nuclear Reactor are somewhere under the building, so the site has always been host to some interesting projects. The unique façade allegedly helps reduce vibrations from passing traffic, and if that doesn’t confirm that they do fascinating stuff in there, I don’t know what would.

No. 7 Christopher W. Klaus Advanced Computing Building vs. No. 15 Joseph H. Howey Physics Building

Klaus:

It’s a big shiny building full of computer scientists. The nicer, sleeker, and larger cousin of the College of Computing includes a parking deck and lacks chemistry classrooms. The atrium alone is one of the nicer spots on campus and it frames two sides of a nice little quad and even includes the stately Binary Bridge.

Howey:

I couldn’t dedicate a whole history column to one of my low-key favorite minor traditions at Tech, but here’s as good of a place as any to talk about it: I love all the hometowns written in the cracks between the bricks of the walls of the Howey Lecture Hall bathroom. I think it’s really cool. I have no idea how it started, but it’s charming. It’s a little thing to feel a part of, especially for someone like me that was a freshman from farther away when he first found it. Probably isn’t a coincidence that the aesthetic of my favorite deep dish pizza place in Chicago is largely based on the rampant vandalism that covers every wall. But that doesn’t stop Howey from being a bland, windowless building shoehorned with four lecture halls for all the physics, math, and computer science lectures almost everyone needs to take but absolutely no one loves.

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Even though I’m #MadOnline about O’Keefe losing to Klaus, it’s still okay, because Howey got that great upset. Anyways, leave your thoughts and comments below and look for part two tomorrow! Cast your vote by Monday night at 9:00 PM for part one of the Sweet Sixteen.