About the Building
Building plan created by: Van Dijk, Johnson & Partners
Featured on Westlake Reed Leskosky Design
The Mathematics Scale-Up Lab and other labs:
Our Scale-Up Lab, new Fall 2014, is located on the third floor of the building (Room 313), where the former Mathematics Library was located. Our building also has three Mathematics labs used for classes (and sometimes open hours) in Rooms 108, 114, and 158.
Mathematical Features:
Level 1:
Door Windows are square on this floor. The floor in the main hall has tiles in a spiral pattern derived from the Golden Section, the ancient Greek geometric formula. The wall that leads to the student lounge curves to the back entrance doors. The column holding up the the ceiling in the main lounge is cone shaped.
Level 2:
Door Windows are triangles on this floor. The wall surrounding the departmental offices is curved. The seminar room hangs out over the first floor wall and was recently renovated. The windows at the front of the main offices and research institute are built with small grids inside the glass. The offices on the east side of the floor are divided up into odd and even numbers.
Level 3:
The third floor of the MSB is named the Bhargava Floor, after T.N. Bhargava and Christine Bhargava. Their generous $500,000 contribution supported the completion of the Math and Computer Science building. Door windows are circles on this floor. The wall to the left curves out as you exit the elevators. The offices on the west side of the floor are divided up into odd and even numbers. The Faculty Lounge features a 3x3 grid of glass windows which reach to the high asymmetric ceiling. The Mathematics and Computer Science Library was converted to a Mathematics Scale-Up Lab. Inside, the sine roof ceiling, covered in glossy white strips, rolls above numerous computer stations.
Quotes:
Steven Litt - The Plain Dealer, Sunday, May 30, 1993
"Dedicated on May 6 [1993], the building sports the latest architectural fashion...The library roof ripples in a sine wave. The west facade leans at an angle. The curving, aluminum-coated back wall of the auditorium cantilevers out from a flat wall of brick like the cab of a truck. The computer science wing has a sloping roof and a facade of beige, stucco-style panels incised with - gasp! - a diagonal grid...The Lobby has a terrazzo floor with tiles in a spiral pattern derived from the Golden Section, the ancient Greek geometric formula for the creation of pleasing proportions."
Raymond Janson - Immediate Past Chair of the Board of Trustees
"Let no student ignorant of math leave here."
Carol Cartwright - 10th President of Kent State University (at building dedication)
"I assure you , (the architecture) cannot compare with the exciting work that is going on inside the building..."
The MSB is home to the Department of Computer Science and the School of Digital Sciences.