Only the brick shell of Rand Hall will remain after its “renovation”; the historically and culturally resonant interior—the entire structure above the second-floor slab including the third floor shown here, along with all exterior clerestory and steel frame factory windows—is being gutted and replaced by an overblown expression of architectural vanity and adolescent posturing: “look at me!” say the hanging book stacks. The low-value spaces that have proved so useful and flexible over the past 105 years are being replaced by a high-value single-use inflexible space that is already obsolete before it is even completed, an epic squandering of physical and monetary resources. More information can be found here. (Photo by Jonathan Ochshorn, Dec. 2017)