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Old Posted Nov 15, 2014, 9:56 PM
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MrChills MrChills is offline
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Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Glovertown, Newfoundland
Posts: 539
Quote:
Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker View Post
Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN) - St. John's

Easily one of the ugliest university campuses in North America. The old core is quite nice, and some of the newer buildings are lovely - but the bulk of the university dates from the Smallwood era when industrial architecture from the Canadian mainland were considered superior to our outdated heritage styles by the authorities.

That's not a slight, by the way - I literally mean industrial architecture. Smallwood thought we should live and work in buildings that looked like factories in southern Ontario.

The campus is located adjacent to Pippy Park, one of the largest urban parks in North America - which, unfortunately, pushes St. John's out to either side, giving the illusion of a city that is much smaller than it's actual (still small, of course) size. It's divided in half by the Prince Phillip Parkway, a major four-lane commuter route that's effectively the ring road for post-war St. John's. It has a tunnel network, the Munnels, as well as large skywalks - including one that houses the main cafeteria and food court.

But it is the largest university in Atlantic Canada, and growing considerably. In addition, Newfoundland has - by far - the lowest tuition in the country behind Quebec. The Province also decided to abolish the provincial portion of student loans, providing non-repayable grants instead. For local students, MUN will be, by far, the least expensive post-secondary education option in North America with an average cost for a four-year degree well under $20,000.

Memorial is generally recognized as a good school in most disciplines, but it is renowned around the world for its folklore and marine-related programming. Especially folklore. It is one of the top universities in the world in that field.











*****

And a few slightly outdated aerials from Bing maps.

The old core:



The bulk of the campus:



Some of the outlying buildings are interesting enough, such as the world-famous Marine Institute:

What kills me about MUN is that every single building that they add on, they do a totally different design and colour scheme! Take a look at this mess and then compare it to the majority of other shots I am seeing it, it's brutal how patch worked the campus is.
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