Tour Two: McGaugh Hall

McGaugh Hall was built in 1991 by Canadian architect Arthur Erickson. At first glance of the building a futuristic architectural style is readily observed. The building is a 5 story low rise building made out of concrete and stainless steel. Some biological students have argued that the building represents a plant cell, which is perfect considering the fact that McGaugh Hall is located in the Biological Sciences part of campus. Whether or not Erickson purposely made the building green and white in order represent a plant cell remains debatable.

The building was originally named Biological Sciences II, but was renamed to McGaugh Hall in order to honor James L. McGaugh. Mr. McGaugh was Dean of the School of Biological Sciences and is currently a professor at UCI. The McGaugh Building is dedicated to different sciences such as Biochemistry, Neurobiology, and Cell Development. Many research labs can be found on every level, such as the Parker Lab.

McGaugh Hall

Prior to its construction in the late 1980’s, McGaugh Hall was once an array of simple trailers going by the name of the Biological Science Unit II trailers. In 1989 the site went under construction to replace the trailers with a large building complex to house the growing amount of students taking biological science classes.

From the outside McGaugh Hall exists imposingly as it rises from the hilly ground and stands out with its aqua colored frame, large windows, and concave beige towers protruding the otherwise rectangular shape of the building. The shrubbery and flora surrounding the building create a buffer between the building itself and the passerby while also hiding the vents that surround it. The spiral rock path outside of McGaugh Hall serves no purpose besides providing an aesthetic contrast to the green and vibrant building. The path is rarely ever crossed as its spiraling walkways do not provide a way out or a direct path to Aldrich Park.

On the inside however, the white-washed walls and tiles along with the bright overhead lights makes it resemble more of a lab with no outstanding features that catch the attention. The small corridors leading away from the main hallway are decorated with green tile on the floor adding to the plainness while keeping in tune with the outside color scheme. The elevators gently come out of the corridors with a curved shape to keep with the rounded edges of the building. Each floor looks almost exactly the same with the basement being the only floor that is noticeably different from the others. The inside is made to be simple and relatively plain since it is used mainly for laboratory uses which do not need an ornately decorated inside. The building receives a decent amount of natural light indirectly from the sun during the daytime.

 

 

 

 

 

UCI – Under Construction Indefinitely?

The University of California Irvine was founded in 1965 and has continued to grow in size. Some argue that UCI is under construction indefinitely and will never be completely finished. This may be true, but continuous construction is required in order to keep up with the growing population. With approximately 30,000 students at UCI, it’s easily understandable why more buildings continue to be built.

10 thoughts on “Tour Two: McGaugh Hall

  1. I particularly enjoy the sea foam green of this building. Largely because all of the rest of irvine likes the color brown. Thanks for being the first group to take us inside the building, that really helped me gain a larger understanding of the building.

  2. I had never been inside this building and I never gave this building much recognition or interest at all but after the tour I realized all the characteristics of this building along with the uniqueness of it as well such as the bike/disability access ramp. I definitely enjoyed this tour as well.

  3. I think the color of the building is the most interesting part of the building but I wish you would have explained what the tubes around it are for.

  4. I thought the group did very well in presenting McGaugh to the class. Although it is most definitely a strange looking building, it is a bit charming in its own way. I like it because it doesn’t try to simply fit in with the buildings that were already there and in my opinion stands out as the most eccentric piece of architecture on campus.

  5. This tour gave me a feel of how Pereria’s design was integrated to the futuristic design of McGaugh Hall. The part that captivated my attention the most was the part in which we as a class stood under a place where so much energy was put into the design. However, since many people don’t stand under it and we did, I gave us a different perspectives on the “feel” of McGaugh Hall,

  6. McGaugh Hall was a very interesting building to choose. My friends actually went inside and occupied an unoccupied conference room to study for finals. The architecture and sea-foam green exterior color led to my nickname of the building ‘Emerald City’. It was very interesting to learn about the amount of attention it took to create something as unneeded as the pill shape that we saw next to the back side of HSLH.

  7. I didn’t really see much attraction to the building, but after the tour I got a better perspective of what it was used for. For the group that presented this building what was the most interesting thing you found out about it?

    • What I found most interesting was the huge difference between the buildings interior and exterior. Outside the building we see a lot of detail (the green color, capsules, long glass windows, etc.) and beautiful landscape that is unnecessary and serves no essential purpose. The interior of the building on the other hand appears dull and boring (the hallways in particular), but it serves purpose! One must actually enter the labs and conference rooms in order to observe the true beauty and great purpose that they all serve. I also love the main stairway which may be dangerous but is grand.

    • Personally I found the color and material of the building to be the most eye-catching part. The aqua-colored structure with greenish windows and shiny metal tubing on the frame was the feature I liked the most and the reason I wanted to do a tour on the building.

  8. Wow. I enjoyed seeing the video on how they were constructing the building. The thing I liked about the building was that it was seen like this one building had two different buildings attached was cool and creative. The Green building made it connect well with the nature of the Aldrich Park.

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