The Blarney Castle is located near Cork, Ireland, and was originally built in stone in 1210, and the current structure was rebuilt in 1446 after being destroyed. It is a popular tourist destination in Ireland because of the Blarney Stone, which is said to give you the gift of eloquence, persuasiveness, if you kiss it.

My Husband and I had the opportunity to travel across Ireland in 2019, and one of the most memorable experiences from this trip was the Blarney Castle. The castle is a partial ruin, however there are accessible rooms and extensive gardens surrounding it. Being able to climb up to the top of this medieval castle was incredible, especially due to the age and the condition of certain areas on the property. Medieval architecture is incredibly interesting because it was designed to be able to defend most efficiently, the angle and direction of the spiraled staircases and the grates in the floors about doorways. Overall, I hope to travel to Europe in the near future to explore the medieval architecture further.

For my school’s eight grade field trip, we went to the Perot Museum in downtown Dallas. At the time, I was skeptical about the field trip, as spending the whole day at a science museum was not my definition of fun. However, when we got there, I did not really care at all about the actual science stuff that we were supposed to be doing, but instead just walked around the building, both the inside and around a courtyard outside the building. I had visited downtown Dallas many times before, and had seen this building many times before, but I had always seen it as a big gray box until seeing it up close. I became amazed first at the uniqueness of the architecture but then how the building also kept its main purpose as a museum at hand.

The first thing that I saw in my trip to the Perot Museum, that I guess I had missed in the past, was the escalator that cuts through the side of the building and allows you to look out into the city of Dallas. The architect knew the building was going to be a science museum, so numerous windows would not be ideal for visitors and the exhibits within the building. Therefore, windows could only be placed on places where there would not be any artifacts or exhibits, one of those places being the stairwells. This was incredibly impressive to me at the time as to how the building worked around the fact that its purpose was to be a museum and was still made into a unique, impressive design. In my opinion, without these unique inputs into the building with the staircase and the placement of the windows, it would look like a prison and would not be inviting to the kids that make up a large portion of the visitors.

In conclusion, this building influenced me in positive way, as it got me thinking about the unique ways that designers and architects must work around the general purposes behind the buildings that they are creating. Further, it gave me a greater appreciation for the unique ideas that designers are forced to come up with in trying to solve problems that they may have never seen before. In total, while the Perot Museum likely did not serve its purpose to me in teaching me about science, it did influence me positively in thinking and appreciating many buildings and the work that designers perform.

The Cathedral of Saint Mary of the See stands directly in the heart of Seville, Spain. Completed in 1506, the Cathedral superseded the Hagia Sophia as the world’s largest Cathedral. Built on the remains of a mosque the cathedral is a Frankenstein of gothic and Arabic architecture, a common motif in the southern parts of the peninsula. This combination of cultures offers some of the most interesting architecture I have had the pleasure of witnessing. I hope that anyone who has the chance to visit Spain takes some time to go see this building.

During my stay in Seville, I passed by the large steps of the cathedral every day on my walk to the markets. On the last day of my stay in the city, I decided on a whim to take a tour of the cathedral. After waiting in the summer heat for what seemed like hours I was admitted into the cathedral along with the hundreds of other guests. Through a side entrance, you are immediately welcomed into the nave of the cathedral which spans an incredible distance in both width and length. Chambers throughout the nave run to the tops of the vaulted ceilings which were awash in colorful light from the painted windows that are built just below. Each chamber held a vigil of some sort, usually made of gold and always behind a dark set of iron bars. These chambers run the entire length of the nave until reaching the central cross, in which many guests stood admiring the many intricacies of the cathedral. Beyond the cross and opposite of the nave were the choir and apse. Many prayed here, taking their seats on the wooden benches that lined the choir. The apse was a dais with a set of carpeted stairs leading to a wall of pure gold. Inside the wall, sculptures played out stories from the bible, each of them looking to have been masterfully sculpted from porcelain.
The other two ends of the cross led to separate parts of the cathedral, one leading to a museum of artifacts, the other to an outside courtyard. The outside courtyard allows one to get an idea of how large the cathedral truly is while also allowing you to gaze at the amazing detail work on the outer walls. After walking around the grounds for some time I took some time to admire the facade of the cathedral. The facade was made of the same white stone the rest of the building was made from, with small statuettes of saints guarding the door which had rusted into a wonderful type of green.

Overall, I would say that the Cathedral of Saint Mary was one of the most positive memories I have of my time in Spain. It was a building I was truly in awe of, one that I wondered if it could have really been made by people. While I am not religious I was still inspired by the dedication to one’s faith through the medium of architecture. It truly is one of the most impressive buildings I have ever seen to this day.

The Chemistry Building is located on the North Oval on OU’s campus and is connected to the Physical Sciences Center by the Chemistry Annex. It was constructed in 1915, and was originally named the DeBarr Chemistry Hall after one of the four original faculty members at OU. However, the building was renamed to the Chemistry Building in the 1980s after DeBarr’s involvement with the KKK came to light. The building continues to house some chemistry labs and offices, however most of them have been moved to Gallogly Hall and the Stephenson Life Sciences Research Center.

My experiences with this building are both positive and negative. The positives come from the time spent in chemistry lab, creating reactions that produced distilled alcohol and benzocaine to name a couple. However, this building, especially the annex, have an eerie feeling, as well as a musky chemical smell. Overall the building is one of the least inviting on campus, behind Dale Hall and the Physical Sciences Center, but brings back warm feelings from freshman year, as well as nogstalia

As a die-hard Dallas Cowboys fan, the opening of AT&T Stadium in Arlington in 2009 was very exciting for me, and I was looking forward to watching the Cowboys win a Superbowl from the stands. My first time going to the stadium was not until about five years ago, though, because tickets, parking food, and everything else associated with that stadium is extremely expensive. Further, I am not a fan of the stadium being in Arlington with very little surrounding it, as I am much more of a fan of stadiums located close, or directly within, a downtown area. Lastly, while the stadium has been associated with numerous Oklahoma wins, it has also been the host of numerous disappointing Cowboys’ seasons. Due to these reasons, AT&T Stadium has influenced me in a negative way, but that will still not stop me from claiming it is still the best stadium in the NFL.

Going to my first game at the stadium a few years ago was very difficult, being that the tickets were $250 dollars apiece for nosebleeds, and it was not like it was a good match-up or anything that might drive up ticket prices. Then, parking is an additional $50 just for you to have to still walk a mile to the stadium, and we could not Uber from our house because of the distance and cost of an Uber that far. Inside the stadium, food is way overpriced, and the views from the seats were not worth the price tag. Really, I think most people just end up watching the game on the massive big screen over the field, which it would have saved them a lot of money to just watch the game from home.

I think that the architecture of the building is unique and interesting with the huge silver dome being visible from miles away on the freeway, but it is only visible from that far away because there is nothing else in the vicinity. Arlington is a neat city and all, but surrounding the stadium, all that exists is parking lots, both the old and new Rangers’ stadiums, and Six Flags Over Texas just down the street. Personally, I think certain elements of the stadium would be a lot better if it were located closer to downtown Dallas. Also, with the Cowboys success rate in this stadium being minimal, it only brings bad memories in association with the building. Luckily, they will win the Superbowl this year, so the stadium will have a new, good memory behind it.

The Physical Science Center is my least favorite building on OU’s campus. One of the things I love about our campus is that the buildings all cook cohesive and look like they were built with the intention of matching. The Physical Science Center is just so far from matching any of the other buildings on campus. It is dark, gloomy, and looks like it would be a storm shelter or some kind of living space in a post-apocalyptic world. I even dislike the inside of the building, there aren’t enough windows and it seems like it goes just up and down. And honestly I still get lost in the building. Overall, I just think that the Physical Science Center looks gross and doesn’t go with the rest of the campus. It doesn’t make it better that it’s one of the tallest buildings on campus so it stands out more than it already would just being ugly.

Nielson Hall is located the South Oval of OU’s campus and is home to the department of Physics and Astronomy. The building is named after one of the University’s most renowned professors, Jens Rud Nielsen, who studied under Niels Bohr (who proposed the theory of the atom that we still use today) and lead research in infrared spectroscopy during WWII, and was built in 1946.

To me, Nielson Hall brings back many memories and experiences, however most of them are negative. For several semesters, I entered this building at 8:30 a.m. for physics lecture, and late at night for exams. From the outside, the building looks welcoming, with the large front staircase and abundance of windows, however inside is very dull and uninviting. The layout is quite simple, with the majority of the building being a long hallway with abundant doors on either side. The most positive experience I had here, was on the last day of Physics, knowing that I would not have to come into this building again.

Overall, I dreaded entering this building almost daily while taking physics, mainly because I dreaded the class itself. This building has left a lasting impression on me, and I hope I never have to enter this building again.

I think that La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain is probably my favorite building that I have ever seen in person. Construction started on La Sagrada Familia in 1882 and is set to be finished in 2026. One may think “why does it take so long to finish a building?” but once you see the detail that has gone into this building it is very clear. The building is a Catholic church and around the outside you see Jesus, the Virgin Mary, Jesus’ disciples, and stories of the Bible carved into the building. I love this building so much because so much time and effort has been put into it, and the detail is just breathtaking. I had heard about the church for years and when I finally got the chance to see it in person, it completely lived up to everything I had heard. Right in the middle of the city, this giant church is all you can look at, and you could walk around and look at the detail for hours and not get bored.

When I was in middle school, my family went on vacation to St. Louis, Missouri, mostly to see a Cardinals game check out the city for a few days. While we were there, I randomly became obsessed with the Gateway Arch. This building affected me in a positive way by giving me a greater interest in architecture and, more specifically, how an arch that large could have been constructed without collapsing. Seeing this building and learning about how it was built likely sparked my interest in engineering and construction.

Also, while in St. Louis, I was impressed as to how the arch stood out so prominently in the skyline of the city, signifying the importance of its message. That message, and the purpose of the building in general, is what I really took an interest in, because I felt it must have been significant enough to require a monument of that size. The idea that it was constructed to signify the westward expansion of the United States and to show the growth and prosperity of the nation had me thinking about how a lot of architecture and monuments have been used to portray events and accomplishments of the past. Further, when I went to the top of the arch, you could pretty much see the entire city of St. Louis and could figure out exactly how the city grew around one central point. It felt like looking into the past, looking over the river that Lewis and Clark explored and into the city that exploded as a trading outpost on the Mississippi River.

I have always enjoyed history and learning about the past, so this building influenced me positively by immersing me within the city’s long and unique history. Further, the engineering feat that it must have been to accomplish this monument so long ago inspired me to take an interest in construction and engineering and is part of the reason that I am majoring in construction science right now.

In 2016, my family and I had the opportunity to travel to Thailand for two weeks. During this time, we were able to explore Bangkok with the help of an old neighbor who grew up in Thailand, and Phuket. This trip was a very positive experience, however this trip has grown in meaning over the last couple of years.

This was my family and I’s first experience in Asia, as well as our first experience in a culture that is very different from ours. The Grand Palace consists of royal and throne halls, as well as government offices, and the Temple of Emerald Buddha. The palace was built to serve as the residence of the King and the center of administration. During our tour, we learned about Buddhism, the hosting of royal ceremonies, and about the traditional Thai architecture. When I was there, I was fascinated by the detail in all of the buildings, because I had never seen it before but never took into account all of the meaning behind the buildings and statues in the palace.

Looking back on my experiences in Thailand, I am very grateful for this once in a lifetime opportunity. I have a much better understanding of the traditional Thai architecture, as well as Buddhism, and the symbolic meaning of the Grand Palace to Thailand and the Royal family. This building has left a lasting impact on me, and hopefully I have the opportunity to visit again after this class, to be able to apply things I have learned to develop a deeper understanding.