I have not blogged for a while as I have settled into a teaching routine that didn’t include it.  I thought, therefore, that I would blog on “hump day” as I went through the first full week of classes.  Alas, I forgot that the work week goes from Sunday through Thursday, not Monday through Friday - so “hump day” is actually Tuesday, not Wednesday and I missed it.  So I apologize for being a day late.

I got a few pictures from my friends where I actually appeared in them.  So I thought I’d put them into this blog issue.  For the pictures in this entry I thank Georg M. Goerg from the Statistics Department.  At the top of this page, I’m standing by the CMU-Q sign that’s actually in front of the rear entrance to the CMU-Q building.  I can’t remember if I’ve made comment about the building, but it is a beautiful building with Italian influences designed by the Mexican architectural company Legorreta and Legorreta.  There is a lot of raw limestone slabs on the exterior and rich use of marble on the inside.  The colors in the natural materials both inside and outside the building reminded me of the colors of the surrounding city of Doha, muted beige and sandy desert colors.

  See me standing in the middle of an opening, surrounded by those colors and lights.

It is cool and peaceful inside the building with water effects in full play - moving water and reflection pools.  This is in blissful contrast to the hot and dry desert climate on the outside.

The blue picture is of an unusual courtyard where the rose-colored marble floor is actually a reflection pool ca. 4 inches deep, with small waterfalls filling it.  This room can be quickly drained and dried off to set up tables and chairs for a dinner function if necessary.  I’ve seen it done twice since I’ve been here.

The open areas in various parts of the building seem to always be transition elements between the sandy limestone walls and the rosy marble.  Here is a courtyard as an example of how one of the walls, painted a kind of light rust color helps make the transition between these colors.

  I think the building is magnificent as well as functional.

Here’s the same courtyard from a different angle, showing more of the rust-colored wall and marble floor.

As I explore more of this building I keep finding more beauty in it.  The Texas A&M building next door, (TAMU-Q), was designed by the same architectural firm and the two buildings, although quite distinctive, transition to each other nicely in both color and exterior building material.

  In the picture to the right, the TAMU-Q building is on the right side and CMU-Q on the left.

My father was an architect and I think he would have loved to have seen the architecture both here in Education City and in Doha in general.  It is a boom town for building, especially for residential skyscrapers.  I would guess that a significant fraction of the world’s architects are employed in designing buildings in this city.