I have been watching the new Alumni Center on Main Street go up. It is a fine piece of architecture, a handsome building with sandstone pillars. Who says we cannot design attractive buildings in the modern era? It is heartening to see the Keene State campus evolve. Especially during this “Great Recession.” Everyday I took pride in my community, watching the hard-hats bringing a dream to life. Still, there is one thing that bothers me. I was hoping for a fine public space fronting the building facing the roundabout, a place where people could gather and socialize. Instead, lawn turf was rolled out. Trees, Norway Maples?, were planted at strategic intervals.
How much better it would have been to have had a European style pizzeria. Cobblestones would have looked fine. And stone benches. And a fountain with bubbling water where children could throw coins and make wishes. A place where people would feel welcome.
Why a lawn. Why the “keep off the grass” message? We Americans love our lawns. We love the sense of property they afford. Like the French kings of old with their riding estates. And great American robber barons with their formidable lawns seaside Rhode Island. The impressive members-only golf courses that we see on TV. I wish we appreciated our public spaces, our public gathering places, our sense of community as mush as we do our lawns.
Steven W Lindsey
State Rep, Keene, NH
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