Modern Day Palimpsest

A palimpsest (/ˈpælɪmpsɛst/) is a manuscript page, either from a scroll or a book, from which the text has been either scraped or washed off so that the page can be reused, for another document. - Wikipedia

Change is one of few constants in our world. No matter how much we may wish that things will always stay the way they are, just how we like them, they will inevitably change. Imagine your bedroom, the instant after you've cleaned it. In that one moment, things are precisely how they ought to be, and ideally they would always stay that way. But we know they won't; the mound of clothes in the side of the room will inevitably reappear, and your things will slowly, but surely, find their way into odd nooks and crannies about the room. Change is. Change was. Change will ever be.

Long ago, before things upon which one would write were plentiful, the monks (who were predominantly the ones making and keeping books, prior to the printing press) had a problem. Sometimes, as they wrote, they would run out of parchment, with no opportunities to get or make more. And so, in order that they could keep writing, they would take parchments from older works (perhaps less useful ones), scrape off what had been written before, and write anew for what they were then working on. The parchment's use changed; it had been devoted to one set of ideas, and it was rededicated to a new set.

In fact, this notion of overwriting is not terribly uncommon today. Computer memory works similarly; when you delete a file, it typically does not immediately leave your disk. Rather, only when the computer needs the space for a new file will it do anything to the old one. And, we can see it in more physical instances as well. Take, for example, campustown.

Panda Express, previously Follett's Bookstore, marks the main entrance to Campustown and Green Street from the University

Originally full of single-family homes, the area has developed rapidly into a commercial and student-residential zone, with several restaurants, bars, shops and apartment complexes all catering primarily to students. Major changes have also affected the traffic flow through the area to be more pedestrian-friendly (intoxication level notwithstanding) and the design of the facades of the storefronts.

Green Street's main strip, the original storefronts of Campustown

Most of the growth is centered around Green Street, colloquially known as the home to the campus bars (though many lie on side streets next to Green, and others lie merely nearby, like on Daniel Street). New construction always seems to be ongoing on Green Street, with new high rises popping up regularly.

Campustown is quickly growing, looking specifically at the very new high rises in the background. Notice that the closest tower (on the right) lies back from Green Street aways, so as not to give as imposing an impression from street level.

But, with such rapid growth and such limited land resources, something had to give. The change was too rapid. The area became palimpsestic.

Different locations handled the change in different ways. Cly's built a large storefront to hide the fact that they were housed in a particularly large house (which you would never really have a reason to notice, but can be plainly seen even from the Green and Sixth intersection). In other locations, the houses were just ignored; the tower built on top of Gameday Spirit blocks in a house that has no immediately obvious access to any streets. In any case, the buildings were writing over themselves.

Behind this building lies a single-family home, with no easy access to it. Prior to the building of the tower above Gameday Spirit (on the left), this house was visible from Green Street. Now, you would have no way of knowing it was there, but for the space barely visible between the towers on all sides.

In other locations, the changes happened in different time frames and different speeds of growth. All the way down past Fourth Street, two especially tall apartment complexes have been built. However, on the corner of Green and Fifth lies two suburban-model storefronts, one for Pizza Hut (whose tiny parking lot behind the building looks completely laughable) and one for Walgreens (Walgreens doesn't look quite as out of place, but the lack of eye-level windows does spark a noticeable difference). The Fifth Street developments took place before those at Fourth Street, at a time when merely building a store was a significant development in and of itself. Now, developers have their sights set on higher goals.

In the background, we can see more high rises, while in the foreground we can see an ill-fitting suburban-model Pizza Hut

But, we can still see the roots of what this area was if we only walk down the alleys. Even down this way at the edges of the development, we still find houses hidden away behind new buildings. In a sense, this new construction always comes with the cost of tearing down what was there before it; we just happen to be so lucky as to see some of the predecessors today in this area.

This house lies roughly 20 yards off of Green Street down an alley. It is surrounded on all sides by more contemporary construction.

The house pictured above and Green Street.

The rapid development of Campustown has its limits, though, as all things do. Most of the current changes are happening on Green Street between Third and Wright, and there are patches with a lot of catching up to do. More development may also branch off of Green Street before it pushes out even further towards Champaign proper. Campustown is growing up in a big way, but it's not sprawling out.

The Red Lion stands at the edge of the current development. Likely, it will remain safe for a while as things between Fourth Street and Sixth Street catch up to each other, but its fate may not be so certain after that.