“Archie” (pronounced Ark-KEE)  is the Notre Dame nickname for architecture students.

Notre Dame’s got four major colleges for its undergraduates — Arts and Letters (the best college, hands-down), Science, Engineering, and Architecture. Architecture is by far the smallest program, and as a consequence, they’re also a very closely-knit community. Their degree actually takes five years instead of the normal four, and one of their five years is spent abroad in Rome. Because of how close the architecture students are and because of how few of them there are, they’ve got their own name — the archies.

The reason I’ve named this blog post after the archies is because these pictures were taken in the new architecture building. Bond Hall, the old architecture building, is being repurposed for offices, and the architecture students now have this new one for their classes and studio space.

The new building has gotten mixed reviews, at least as I’ve heard from the architecture students. It’s kind of got a weird shape that doesn’t really fit in with the rest of ND’s gothic style. It’s also way off on a somewhat distant part of campus, which I imagine is pretty annoying since they have to take all of their classes there. For reference, it took me a solid 15 minutes (and probably more like 20 if it were icy or I had a lot of books to carry) to walk there from my dorm, which is fairly centrally-located.

I see why there are complaints, but I do rather like the inside. There’s a lot of natural light, which not every building has (I’m looking at you, O’Shag), and I think they did a good job of mixing the austerity of an academic building a warm, homey color palette.

That’s coming from me, though, a person who knows nothing about architecture or interior design. To my untrained eye, it’s a nice building to be in. And good for pictures, which is what’s important to me.

Jacket: Thrifted (Goodwill)

Top: Free People

Skirt: J. Crew (thrifted)