blueprints

the building that my major department's offices are in intrigues me. doesn't look like anything much from the outside, a hundred years old, maybe, but... brick, and, you know, a building. four corners, a couple of stories, big old front doors. it's no Winchester House, BUT. it has just enough staircases, in just enough slightly unexpected places, in just enough nonstandard sizes and directions, to make me want to spend the rest of my life walking around in it. this building is cool enough for me to major in sociology even if i wasn't interested in the subject. i wonder if i ask them if i can see the blueprints if they would call the police. it's that fun. if i ever have the opportunity to build my own house, it'd have staircases in the same vein as this building. the hallways are tiny (except for when they're huge), and when you make three righthand turns in quick sucession and open the door you're faced with, you're totally surprised to see a staircase there. how did they fit it in such a small space? i thought i was already on the top floor? and why is there another staircase directly across the tiny hall? truly great. total lack of respect for regularity, symmetry, and general laws of physics. i think most architects would agree that whoever designed this building should be shot, but i hope i can talk to him before that, so he can design my house.