The Dove Tower and Steps to the Bottom of a Pyramid occupy the sloping field behind the new Information Technology and Engineering Building. They consist of two large elements: the first is a vertical element, placed approximately in the center of the triangular field. It is a ten-sided tower standing on its dome-like head. The tower measures 20 x 9 x 9 feet. It leans approximately ten degrees from vertical and is made from light-colored granite on an internal skeleton. Five levels of upside-down windows pierce the tower. The second element is a large horizontal element. It is an inverted ten-stop pyramid that is 27 x 27 x 10 feet deep and is mostly sunken into the ground. The two opposite corners of the pyramid form an axis between the tower on one side and the entrance to the building on the other side. The top surface of the pyramid is level, thus jutting out of the sloping ground. The highest point above the ground is the corner farthest from the tower which is approximately 3 ½ feet above the ground. Like the tower, the step pyramid is made of light-colored granite and is built on a concrete base form. The inverted pyramid provides a meditative space, leading our eyes down and taking us into a space 9 feet below ground level. This position below the ground provides a felling of protection and eliminates much of the surrounding world. It becomes a pure and internal experience that some will choose to follow and rest in under the looming shadow of the tower. Unlike the openness of the pyramid, the tower is a dense and impenetrable form. The tower is made of large, flat stones with deep penetrating small-arched windows carved into each stone, which leads into a dark and semi invisible interior. With its odd upside-down and leaning configuration, it becomes a tense landmark. It will allude to a variety of images, including fallen towers and columbaria and the houses of doves that stored human ashes at the same time. This project creates a complete array of emotional passages. While the pyramid offers a quiet and contemplative place to rest in, the tower unsettles us. Since the entire complex is leaning slightly, it creates physicality at an odd position that makes us aware of our own bodies and the force of gravity that connects us to the earth. The materials are warm, natural, low-tech materials, familiar in architecture for millennia. Much of the imagery originates in past vernacular structures: of architecture built without architects or engineers and out of experiential needs and imagination of a vernacular builder. It suggests the ongoing inner dialogue between the horizontal principle and the vertical one—between the earthbound and the spiritual. One of the goals of this project is to counterbalance the technological world of the students of the Information Technology and Engineering Building with a world of imagination and fantasy. The tower makes a historical connection to the function of the new building as dove towers, and doves in general, were an early way of sending information over a long distance.