Douglas Cooper: The Westwall Mural

	The Westwall Mural copyright © CMU/Douglas Cooper The University Center Mural Douglas Cooper, Artist School of Architecture Carnegie Mellon University E-mail Douglas Cooper at dcooper+@andrew.cmu.edu Jonathan Kline, Artist Assistant John Trivelli, Artist Assistant Michael Dennis Associates, Architect back to the University Center Mural About Douglas Cooper The Eastwall Mural The Northwall Mural Forbes Field How was the mural made? Frequently asked questions CMU Campus: University Center, Purnell Center		Photo: Bill Redic Westwall Mural The Westwall Mural looks out from the Campus to the Oakland District to the West. It is set in the present day. In the foreground are the newly completed University Center, the soon to be realized Purnell Center for the Arts, and the older buildings of Henry Hornbostel's original campus. Along its lower edge I have incorporated personal anecdotes from my student years. With the Westwall Mural I used an unusual strategy to address the problem of the Rotunda's long diagonal sight lines. Here I borrowed a technique from Baroque painting called "anamorphic perspective." With this technique images are made to order for diagonal viewing. Seen from the acute angle of the image above, the campus (in particular the football field) takes on a powerful convergence indeed! However, that same accelerated depth appears absent from the view at the left which shows the same area in the mural, but views it frontally. So in this case, the angular view accentuates depth; the frontal view does not. Much of the success of this angular view owes to its alignment with the building's circulation pattern. Visitors are tending to move along this diagonal path anyway for it goes from the central stairway to the main dining room. The view in the mural just leads them where their hunger is already taking them!