Beauty in Building

Over the 2023-2024 academic year, Simpkins (The Departmental Building of English) has been a faithful neighbor to the upcoming Center for Performing Arts. The building’s construction, which began in late 2022, has been a constant over the year, with passing students able to gauge the site’s progress by the constant shifting of large machines. From the WIU webpage, this progress can be monitored with a live video feed, often featuring the resident lattice crane at work, with its symbolic yellow color and proud waving of a WIU flag. As the year progressed, English students and faculty alike have grown accustomed to the spectacle of construction, learning to hear its racket as ambiance and to see its structures as art.