#utkarch

[fmarsha1arch111]

transitions,

the nations are always transitioning, from one to another,

people transition their borders, their boundaries, their lives

according to circumstance, whether by choice or by force of the                  more powerful,       more “civilized”.

Right or Wrong, it happens: past, present, future, no matter

will this feeling ever be overcome? the desire to conquer, to possess?

[abader-utcoad2017]

The Aerial Hill

From up above—wayy up above—one doesn’t see “The (infamous) Hill” of The University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Instead, one sees Circle Drive in its 2D circular movement of vehicles; one sees vast expanses of greenspace emanating out of Ayres Hall; and one sees the clear linear progression of buildings enclosing Circle Drive on three sides. In addition to the movement of vehicles, one’s aerial perspective shows the uncovered path pedestrians take to reach The Hill from the rest of campus—namely the bridge over Phillip Fulmer Way.

But it was not always this way. Four years ago, the bridge over Phillip Fulmer Way didn’t exist and students felt the full wrath of the elevation increase. Seven years ago, the beautiful, bricked patio of Ayres Hall (on which one could be Queen of the World—with the King standing right behind) facing out towards Volunteer Boulevard didn’t exist. Fourteen years ago, the green space opposite this patio was a parking lot. As one dives deeper into the past of The Hill, the buildings framing Circle Drive begin to shift, some fly off the aerial photographs and are replaced by others while others remain stagnant, stalwart since at least 1935.

Taking a step back even further into aerial imagery brings one to the roots of The Hill. In 1794, the flagship campus of the University of Tennessee was founded on only this parcel of land, which encompassed the land currently known as The Hill and Neyland Stadium, which is now known as the University of Tennessee Historic District. Twenty-eight years before contour maps existed, UT students were making the treacherous walk to the top of “University Hill”—the name given to the peak of The Hill on today’s contour maps. Even today, these contour lines fail to portray the everyday effort exerted by students to climb this sloped landscape. Ninety-four years before color was brought to cartography and one hundred and forty-eight years before the first aerial image was documented, UT students navigated The Hill with nothing more than a 2D, black-and-white, most likely inexact map of the campus.

Today we have quite a different experience: navigating campus with our virtual maps and guided GPS directions and satellites and drones recording aerial videos of our every movement. We see the world today from a bird’s eye view, only we are on the ground, staring at our screens, looking down.