Places to study (with side rant on municipal segregation)

Between research for professors and research for fellow Fellows, neither of which have set hours or an office to go to, this summer I've had to make my own routine, including choosing and alternating places to work. The work isn't too different from class projects, so I think of it as study time.
One of my first finds was just downhill from the Duderstadt library, which is a good place to study during the year, but too lifeless in the summer.

I'd never seen them turn on the fountains before!

An old standard from during the year is the Traverwood Branch of the Ann Arbor District Library. It's rather impressively lavish. When I think about how expensive it must have been to preserve and use tree trunks from the site as load-bearing elements, inlay the wood patterns on the floor, dig the underground parking, install and program the automatic window shades, and design the automated book checkout system, I stop being skeptical that Ann Arbor actually is the richest city in Michigan.

My favorite tables, although these are usually full in summer. Image copyright AADL, CC BY-NC.

So long as I set aside the moral implications of a library system having that much money to spend, in complete isolation from so many municipal needs just East of here, the Traverwood Branch is a great place to study. In May and June, I went there for a large part of the day, most days of the week. And I went for some nice walks over lunch.

The view from a mini-forest ("Nature Area", to the parks dept.) over the golf course, 1/4 mi from library

There's always the desk in my study, which has shuffled a little to the right from where it was last Fall. It's okay for lazily checking off the simple tasks. When it's not too windy, the picnic table outside our back door is a great way to get going on a big project.

And when I'm feeling wacky or need a new perspective, I continue my tradition from freshman year: find a sculpture and sit on top of it.

Sculpture by Clement Meadmore, on my route to campus.