July 20 -- on the way to art fair

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For artists, Art Fair is a grueling four days of sitting out in the sun, listening to people wonder how they can charge so much, and hoping that they can make enough money to live until the next show.

For spectators, it's days of crowds and (usually) hot weather. Over half a million people generally come (spread over the four days).  Parking downtown can be non-trivial on any random day, and during Art Fair -- forget it.  Even driving downtown requires clever routing if you wish to get where you're going without long delays.  Especially this year, with the AnnArborsbad Cavern where 5th Ave is supposed to be.

My better half dropped me at the intersection of Ann and Division, which was pretty close to the original part of the Art Fair (which used to be on South University, but now is on the University's property, right by the bell tower).

This is one of the oldest parts of town. Apparently college professors used to be very well paid, relative to ordinary people. There are lots of very big and fancy houses that were built for professors.

 I think this house now contains many apartments.

Same property as above.

Looking east on Ann, just to the left of the previous shots.

This gate guards the yard by the side of the house with the columns.

The "tree" trunk, inside the fence, is an old lilac.  Watch for a closeup on the 22nd.....

Across the street.  There is a very big house, and then there is this much smaller house on the same property. 

Fancy decoration on a student-ghetto house farther east on Ann.

Still in the same student-ghetto neighborhood, but this house looks to be owner-occupied.

Look at the window trim.  I was paying so much attention to the gingerbread, and the window trim, that I never noticed the closed shutters.  Now I wonder what's behind them.

Another student-ghetto house.

I believe this former church was architect offices for a while.  Not sure what it is now (I looked desultorily for a sign, but didn't see one).

See (through the left-most upstairs window) the skylight?  I bet it's a pretty cool space....

I like the rows of black stone.

This is the first dorm the U has built since the 1960s.  It's called North Quad, and it's on the property formerly occupied by the Frieze Building (which used to be Ann Arbor High School, before Pioneer was built).

It's a complex of buildings, not just one, which seems kind of odd to me.  The kids have to go outside to get to the dining room....  There are classrooms and faculty offices here, as well as the dorm.  Why it isn't all connected, I don't know.  Some sort of "security" measures, maybe.

It's on the southeast corner of the intersection of Huron and State.  The cars are heading east on Huron, and the white line in the street (bottom right corner) is the demarcation for the pedestrian crossing (we'd be looking south on State Street if I turned just a tiny bit to the right.

North Quad's separated buildings mean that you can walk right through the complex.

As with almost all of the U, there are very nice plantings (even though this is brand new -- it opened last fall).

This is the dorm part of the complex, along the north side of the quad.

They really worked at making this look not-new.  I like it fine, but I guess it seems sort of chicken-hearted, not making something in the 21st century vernacular.

Taken from the southeast corner of the North Quad complex, looking southeast.

The railings and stairs are part of the North Quad complex.  The barrels and snow fence are an indication of whatever work was taking place in the complex (a very noisy generator kept me from lingering there).  Art fair visible as white stuff in the middle ground.  The building with all the chimney-looking stuff is the Alumni Hall, which is kitty corner from the Power Center for the performing arts.

Beside North Quad.  Not sure what's up with this.  It looks like it is supposed to be shelter for bikes?  But it is so open that it can't do that very efficiently.

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