Flowers

[Kath Sullivan]

As you look back on your Chronicle experience, what do you think was most important about the office? Was it the location? Did the space foster camaraderie among the staff? Was 3rd-Floor Flowers an asset to the paper or a hindrance, and why?

[Rocky Rosen]

I don't know that there was any one thing that made the office great, as much as the general feeling that it was a place to hang out as well as work. It felt that way to me even before we added the lounge, but the lounge helped. I think all the messy desks (none of which matched another) and stuff taped to the walls by generations of staffers also contributed to the creative climate. The latter also served as a healthy reminder that we were part of a long tradition.

I think some of the fears about The Chronicle becoming less cohesive with a Central Campus location are legitimate concerns. But I'd argue that the same danger would come with a new newsroom that reeked of being new.

[Shannon Mullen]

I realize Central Campus has changed significantly from what I remember 20+ years ago, but I'm still sorry to hear that's where The Chronicle is headed - it sounds terribly office-park-y to me. Of course, I work at a suburban paper, the Asbury Park Press, that abandoned it's very Flowers-like headquarters in its namesake city back for an modern office building out on the highway in the early '80s. Suffice to say it'll be very different, even if you somehow transferred all that charming detritus to the new office. I feel much could be gained, though, if the new location incorporated old photographs, memorabilia and maybe profiles of some famous Chronicle alums to more consciously communicate this sense of tradition. I think this would play well with older alums returning to campus by establishing that connection to the past. As fond as I was of the old digs, there really wasn't any of that, unless you took it upon yourself to crack open some of the moldering bound volumes.

[Janet Holmes]

I date from the Chronicle vintage with Chris Colford's "FOUR MORE BEERS" sign taped on the door. (Immediately post-Nixonian, for you youngsters, when Judge Sirica's young boy John was in my class.) The newsroom was an oasis, the typewriters were manuals, the politics were passionate (we celebrated September 11 for its Chilean overtones, running a "VICTORY IN CHILE" poster as the front page on an otherwise no-news day, and got stung for it). Those were the days when typesetting was on the same floor as the newsroom, and Feinstein phoned in his sports stories after the game while Peaches tried to type with the phone cradled on her shoulder. I moved with production to the parking lot area nearer the hospital--and hated it for its remoteness. I absolutely love the tradition that was there on third floor Flowers (I hope the stuff taped to the walls in Rocky Rosen's day included the one about "It is marvelous to watch a bottle of Wild Turkey ascend from the underbrush and soar into the heavens." Or something like that).

I never thought I'd sound like this. You kids with your HTML, pah! I typeset on a Compugraphic, using filmstrips that spun around like a washer on spin cycle, you babies! But if moving to Central Campus changes the "cohesion" of the Chronicle, maybe it needs to be changed. The rest of us work quite well in the Blackberry world, & no reason to think it would be different for students. It's just a different model.

[Beau Dure]

Rocky has a good point about the tradition. The mess that has accumulated over decades isn't just trash. It's institutional memory, easily retained at a professional newspaper that has 25-year veterans stalking the aisles but not so easy to maintain at a student newspaper in which a junior is in charge.

The new newsroom should be modern, with all the gear needed to interact with the outside world, but not sterile.

[Chris O'Brien]

Thanks for chimin in everyone! This is good stuff for us all to remember and think about: How can a new space retain institutional memory? How can we make something new without making it sterile? Assuming The Chronicle needs to find a new home in the next couple of years, I'm wondering if you folks have any thoughts about how to carry those things over to a new home? Is it just about moving all the stuff? Or is there something else?

[Heather McCalley]

Although I was not a writer, there was definitely "something" to the fact that The Chronicle editorial offices were on the third floor, walk-up! There is the physical sense that you are going UP to a place that is different from places that are DOWN, like The Pits dining area or especially The Hideaway. When you walked up to The Chronicle, you had arrived somewhere lofty, even if it was just to complete a classified ad form at the top of the steps. The place was set apart from the ground floor where mundane things happened, and from The Chronicle offices, staffers and visitors could look out the window onto the main quad, right next to the Chapel, the place where History happens, the place where Duke News happens.

It would be terrible to be Removed to Central Campus!

[Craig Whitlock]

Forgive some unsolicited advice from someone who -- due to exhausted eligibilty -- is no longer permitted to work in the Chronicle's newsroom, wherever it winds up. But a couple of old fogey stories come to mind.
Back in the day, post Nixon but pre Clinton, a basketball coach named Dean Smith decided to take his mama to visit Duke Chapel. He rammed his Cadillac into one of Duke transit's finest diesels, within spitting distance of the editor's window on 3rd floor Flowers. Needless to say, on-scene coverage of this news event was thorough and made the national wires.
The editor's office serves as a wonderful perch to snoop on all sorts of campus goings-on. Just like all his predecessors and successors as president, HKH Brodie often failed to return reporters' phone calls prior to deadline. How to tell if his secretary was lying when she said he was out of town? Just gaze out the window to see if his yellow Mercedes stationwagon was parked in its usual spot outside Allen Building or not.
Location, location, location. It's a real-estate cliche for good reason. Ask yourselves: How much news at Duke occurs on Central Campus these days? How much on West Campus? Is there even a comparison to be made?
Email and cell phones have revolutionized reporting, no doubt. But the physical world is going to remain with us for the foreseeable future. And there's no substitute for seeing the news, hearing it, tasting it and encountering it. If you are going to reflect the ebb and flow of life on campus in your news pages, make sure you place yourself in position to do it.

[Therese Maher Pfeifer]

Like many others, I found the ages of memorabilia adorning the office to be endearing. I hope the current staff wants to transfer this history to their new digs. But, it is their office now. So I vote for what they want in an office. Perhaps consideration could be given to repurposing relics of old. For example, are the paste up tables still used? If not, could they serve a new purpose in the new space -- maybe as the display case for a collage of the nostalgic elements that have accumulated at Flowers; maybe as something else?

I agree that it is important to keep the hang out atmosphere. The Chronicle definitely is a social organization.

BTW, Shannon definitely set the standard for having a messy desk. I still aspire to reach that standard today! ; )

[Chris O'Brien]

First off: Thanks for all the great thoughts and memories. One note: It's by no means a foregone conclusion that The Chronicle will move to Central Campus. Duke's plans for this space remain in flux, though they become clearer soon. Also: The Chronicle's Board (the Duke Student Publishing Company) has adopted some principals for determining a new location for The Chronicle, and those include the idea that The Chronicle should remain at the center of student life.

[Jason Greenwald]

Amen to just about everything that's been said in this forum. Being at the center of things not only made it easier to keep tabs on news, it also served as a draw for Chronicle editors and reporters to go to the office. Walking across the quad after a class? See what's going on upstairs at the Chronicle. Just had a meal down the hall at the CI? Might as well check in on the sports staff upstairs. See a light on upstairs after an evening at the Hideaway? Well, you get the picture. None of this is to suggest that the Chronicle can't be successful on Central Campus, if in fact that's where the paper moves -- just that there is real value to being in the center of things, and for more reasons than one.

[Rachel Cohen]

I echo what several people have said about the central location of 301 Flowers encouraging staffers to spend time there even when they weren't working on anything in particular. I remember frequently swinging by between classes and chatting with whoever happened to be around.