Quad Paths

This is an overhead view of the University of Chicago Quadrangle, circa 1914.

There are new buildings, of course, but the quad’s paths have not changed very much from their original design in the Olmsted Brothers Plan. The north-south and east-west paths continue through the entire quad and there is another path from Swift Hall to the roundabout. (sidenote: I'm not sure what the technical term for this is, but it has been turned into into a functioning roundabout for Scav.)

This is a very functional set of paths to create. Those along the cardinal directions are self-explanatory, and the roundabout provides a parallel route near their busy intersection. Each of the major halls (Cobb, Rosenwald, Ryerson, and Kent) plus Swift has a direct route to one of these arteries. There is also a thin path from 58th and University to between the Walker Museum (which is not a museum) and Pick, which didn’t exist in this photo.

As we can see, there are various asymmetries:

• 58th and University to Walker/Pick implies 58th and University to Eckhart/Ryerson. However, while the first path provides direct access to the Southeast Quad, the only reason you could possibly have to take the second path would be to reach the Biology building quicker through the Northeast Quad. I don’t know if they even have classes in the Biology building. Even if the second path did exist, the Quad would still be asymmetrical because Eckhart is longer than Pick.
• Ryerson/Kent to Cobb implies Rosenwald/Swift to the Stats building. However, while Cobb is among the busiest buildings on campus in terms of undergraduate classes, I have never heard of there being any in the Stats building.
• Swift’s path goes to the roundabout but Kent’s path goes to the diagonal Ryerson/Kent path. I’m not really sure why they did this, but maybe Kent to Cobb is a popular route.

In any case, there’s no obligation to actually walk on those paths (sidenote: Barring inclement weather, which I guess is a big consideration.) since there are no restrictions against walking on the grass. The grass can take some amount of foot traffic but if everybody were to walk on the grass, movement through the quad would actually be slower since you’d have to deal with people coming from all sorts of different directions. The grass would also degrade, although it’s usually in terrible shape during the school months regardless. (sidenote: But it is very pretty in the summer when people who are not affiliated with the university are most likely to visit.)

As such, while the existing paths serve path-walkers well, they provide an even greater benefit for people who do not walk on the paths because such individuals do not have to deal with any traffic at all. This raises the question of why anybody walks on the paths at all, and what characterizes those who do not. Simply put, people do not want to walk on grass because they are sheeple (sidenote: A charitable term, as sheep walk on grass all the time.) responding to the subtle coercion of men from centuries past, which they are attuned to because of their innate aversion towards walking on grass. I believe that rebels, in addition to having free will, lack this aversion, which is probably stronger if you live in an area with lots of lawns and weaker if you live in an area with lots of grassy public spaces. Such areas often coincide, but lawns are not common in my specific neighborhood. That is why I am the most effective walker in the history of the UChicago Quadrangle.