都是关于霍基·斯通的

While 弗吉尼亚理工大学 invents the future, it does not forget its past. Nowhere is this reverence for tradition more evident than in the vista of the campus. 围绕着中心的钻场, numerous towering structures stand stately and strong, clad in the signature limestone that defines campus buildings.

弗吉尼亚理工大学 was born as a land-grant college, 和适当的, its distinctive buildings have been constructed from the product of Southwest Virginia geology. The university mines the distinguishing limestone at its own quarry on the fringes of Blacksburg. 原名“网上赌博网站十大排行的原生石”,人们对这块岩石更加熟悉了, 更深情地说, 霍基·斯通.

投射可敬的形象

Strong-armed stonemasons lay the finished limestone blocks to form buildings designed in neo-Gothic architecture, specifically and more descriptively called Collegiate Gothic. Harkening back to such venerable British universities as Oxford and Cambridge, this building style was strategically selected for the image it projects.

The earliest campus buildings were made of brick and were detailed with Victorian characteristics. This look met with considerable and official disfavor. 弗吉尼亚理工大学’s leaders in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were in consensus that the campus buildings bore an unsettling resemblance to the cotton mills and shoe factories of the time.

这所大学的第五任校长约瑟夫. Eggleston (1913 - 19), 简洁地描述了他的不快, referring to the original buildings as resembling “poverty-stricken mills.” In an effort to combat the stereotype of 弗吉尼亚理工大学 as a low-brow vocational school, Eggleston ensu红色的 that when it came to campus construction, bricks were out and limestone blocks were in.

新哥特式与霍基石的结合

The changeover to Hokie Stone came during the administration of President John M. McBryde (1891 - 1907). The first building using the native limestone was the campus YMCA, constructed in 1899. 里士满建筑师W.F. 韦斯特设计了这个朴素的结构, 今天被称为文科大楼, 罗马式的.

新哥特式的建筑, 然而, did not make its debut until 1905 with the construction of the chapel, 这是一座砖砌建筑. 面对着难以接近的砖块, the builders turned to native limestone for the structure that served in its later days as the campus library.

But the first building designed in neo-Gothic architecture and native limestone was the first McBryde Hall, 建于1914年，1966年被夷为平地. 今天, the sculptures from its façade can be seen along the walkway on the west end of the second McBryde Hall.

埃格尔斯顿一成不变的愿景得以延续, except for a brief departure from the style in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The departure followed a national trend, which had turned to modernism in architecture. 卡塞尔体育馆和考吉尔, Whittemore, and Derring halls are prominent examples of campus buildings of that time.

But in the 1990s a board of visitors committee expressed an intent that henceforth Hokie Stone should be used in all buildings constructed on the central campus, and in 2010 the entire board passed a resolution making that sentiment official policy.

Hokie Stone是什么?

Hokie Stone是白云石, a mineral found in the Appalachian Mountains and most prevalent in Virginia, 田纳西州, 和亚拉巴马州. 沉积岩, it formed from calcium and magnesium carbonate and occurs in muted shades of pink, 红色的, 灰色的, 棕色（的）, 和黑色的.

在地质学的时间轴上, 白云石与鱼类同时形成, 昆虫, 和爬行动物, 这使它成为地质学上的新来者. The formation of this limestone (technically known as Chepultepec and Kingsport dolomite) was an earth-shaking event. Continental drift forced the coastal plains of Africa and North America to collide, creating wrinkled layers of faults and folds. As these layers were pushed near the earth’s surface, they formed the stone that distinguishes 弗吉尼亚理工大学 today.

Environmental changes caused the color variations of Hokie Stone. The older pinkish dolomites resulted from their formation during an era when the region faced an arid, desert-like climate that had a bleaching effect on the rocks. The darker 灰色的 和黑色的 colors come from a time of swampy and wetter conditions.

一个石匠，一吨，一天

弗吉尼亚理工大学’s quarry operations produce some 50 tons of Hokie Stone per week, 大概2个,每年500吨. A single ton of the stone will cover about 35 square feet on a building.

那么这些石头是什么样子的呢?

Torgersen大厅, which includes a stone bridge that spans 校友 Mall and connects the building with Newman Library, 是由2,700吨石头.

To envision this mass of rock in human terms, each mason can shape about a ton of stone a day. The process used to arrive at that point includes cutting, dressing, and packing the stone. 采石场工人使用黑火药, 一种更安静的挖掘炸药, to blast Hokie Stone from its mother formation. The properties of this powder produce large, 切割干净的石头, thereby minimizing pulverization into wasted dust. Containing dust and noise is essential since the quarry is virtually surrounded by residential areas.

The 40-acre quarry provides 80 percent of the stone used in campus construction. 以确保颜色的变化, the university purchases the remaining 20 percent from a farm in Montgomery County, but 弗吉尼亚理工大学 quarry employees process it.