I’ve got a fascination with abandoned buildings.

As many people do — I’m not trying to claim that that’s a unique feature of mine. I love following urban exploration photographers on Instagram and subreddits like r/AbandonedPorn.

In reality, though, I’ve visited very few abandoned places in my life, mostly out of the concern for the legality of trespassing and the potential of meeting unfriendly junkies. I went to my old elementary school once with a friend, but that’s it. I’d like to actually visit some of these cool places I see online, but I also don’t want to die/get arrested, you know?

As it turns out, though, Notre Dame has (at least for now) an abandoned building of its own. Or rather, it’s not really very abandoned — it’s in a pretty central location on campus and it’ll likely be repurposed and functioning again by the start of the next academic year. I suppose empty is the better word.

It’s the old architecture building, which, since the beginning of the spring term 2019, has been out of commission. They recently opened up a brand new architecture building (which I literally visited for the first time just a few days prior), and so the old one has been sitting empty for a month or two. I think they’re in the process of moving some office buildings in, but at the time of me taking these pictures, it was pretty much vacant.

Honestly, I’d love to see it turned into a new building for the art and design students. I’ve discussed the dilapidated art building extensively here, and while I do believe the state of dilapidation adds to the charm, Notre Dame could really use to offer its studio art students a nicer space. The design building, West Lake Hall, is honestly worse. It’s way off at the edge of campus, and most people believe it’s a maintenance building for storing lawn mowers. Not really a good image for the design department.

You’d think that the old architecture building, which is already set up with studio spaces, would be an excellent place to move the A/AH/D (art, art history, and design) department, but I guess Notre Dame has other plans.

Anyway, Father Jenkins — or anyone in ND administration — if you happen to be reading this, you know what my ideas are.

That’s about it for today. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in the next one with more updates on my life at Notre Dame. Don’t forget to check me out on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Bloglovin, Twitter, and Tumblr! For business inquiries, shoot me an email at lensembledujour@gmail.com!

Dress: Vintage (thrifted, Brick Lane Market)

Jacket: Thrifted (Goodwill)