Pond Lawn Domain

The domain I chose is the pond lawn domain. Encompassed by Eero Saarinen’s Earl V. Moore Building, housing the school of music, on two sides, and by forest on the remaining two sides, this peaceful spot of greenery is unknown to most students at the University. However, this adds to the magic of the pond lawn; you are largely left alone to absorb the charm of nature, to soak up the sun on warm summer days, or watch the snow fall on typical Michigan days. It is a public space, yet a domain where you infringe on no one else’s space and no one infringes on yours. This provides a feeling of comfort, because as Lavine explains, “Domain begins with a sense of our own bodies and a distance around them that we consider to be our own territory. Invasion of this boundary produces discomfort,” and at the isolated, hardly occupied pond lawn, there is enough space for anyone who dares venture those 50 yards from the rest of North Campus. The grace of this open green, open space is that it fulfills a role missing at the rest of North Campus. Between all the buildings and the seemingly random paths of the Grove connecting them, there is little space that can be used to the students’ discretion. What green space there is is not large enough to play sports, nor is it peaceful enough to study. At the pond lawn, students have an unparalleled freedom. They can come with a friend and a ball and play catch, or bring their laptop and book and study on the grass, enjoying the natural beauty and silence of the domain. On the rare warm days, students can even work their way into the little notch in the bushes surrounding the pond, sit on the tiniest of beaches, and dip their feet into the water, letting their worries dissipate through their feet into the pond as they relax in the peace, beauty, and sunlight of the pond lawn, a feeling desperately needed in the stressful college environment we all live in.