Thick Description

Kumler Chapel
Greg Simecek

Kumler Chapel is quite different from other buildings at Miami University in many ways. Amongst all of Miami, many of the buildings are very much alike. Most have large entrances with pillars to welcome its visitors. They are mostly used for the college operations, as far as classes or administration, and they are of course brick. Of all the buildings, only a few of them are located in far off Western Campus. Kumler Chapel is one of the buildings located in western campus. But this is not the only thing that makes it different from the “normal” Miami building.
Kumler Chapel is not made of brick, but instead it is made of stone. The stone allows it to be different, and makes the building seem more significant, more of a holy place. Yet it does not lose any physical or visual sturdiness because the stone seems even more firm and rigid than the surrounding brick buildings (which is not easy to portray). Kumler Chapel also has a different type of architecture than its neighboring buildings, as well as most other buildings at Miami. Its large wooden doors that meet at a point on the top do more to suggest its significance. The windows are also large and most of them are colorful stained glass. The chapel in many ways looks like a castle. Its towers of stone, wooden doors with steel braces across them, the steeply slanted roof, and stone gussets remind anyone who sees it of the medieval times.
The location of the chapel is also unique, not only because it is secluded in the far corner of western campus (which is in the far corner of Miami University), but also because of the scenery around it. Behind the chapel is a large hill, one must cross a bridge to arrive at the chapel from behind. There are also many trees around; some of them are very old, and very big. The seclusion of the chapel, combined with the beauty of its location and uniqueness of its architecture makes it seem to anyone who is arriving at it for the first time like they have just come across a wonderful secret of Miami’s campus, and it is just that.