Ivy Beleaguered

I work for a master's program at the University of Pennsylvania and our offices are located in the physics and astronomy building. You're probably thinking wow, she works in some gorgeous 150-year old turreted brick building covered in ivy with fresh faced co-eds sliding down shiny wood banisters, right? Yeah, unfortunately not so much. Buildings like that do exist on campus (okay, can't guarantee the banisters), but somehow I ended up in a creepy 1960s maze of a building, replete with "The Shining" hallways, giant containers of nitrogen and some pretty ominous posted signs. Oh, and at times a decent amount of urban wildlife too.

Fortunately, the area of the building my office is located in has been remodeled but therefore boring to take pictures of. Here are some highlights from the rest of this strange dinosaur:

And so it came as a great surprise to find out Paramount and Sony Pictures are filming a movie in our building this week. Clearly, Hollywood needed a total throwback to the swinging 60s set and they will not be disappointed! This cinder block palace delivers on ancient stained office chairs, mountains of vertical files, useless office equipment (adding machine anyone?) and pockets of stale smoke smell. Rumor has it Reese Witherspoon stars in the flick but for all my snooping around I haven't turned up anything good nor has anyone asked me to be an extra.

P.S. My greatest find at work? This fantastical Jetsons-like space heater. It has a label stating "Chairman's Office" but it's mine now!