A flight over JMU…
May 15, 2021, 2:12 PM
On May 10, while Elyse and I were on a weekend trip down to the Shenandoah Valley to see the parents and such, we stopped at JMU, and I took the drone for a flight over the far side of campus across Interstate 81. That is a part of campus that has definitely changed since I was a student, as it’s a lot more built up than it used to be. There are lots of buildings over there that weren’t there when I attended. There’s also a new indoor arena over there called the Atlantic Union Bank Center, or, as the folks on Reddit have taken to calling it, the “Algerdome”, after JMU’s current president, Jonathan Alger. I flew from a facility that was new since I was there, on the roof of a massive parking garage next to the Algerdome, built on the former site of Blue Ridge Hall. That higher vantage point was helpful because it gave me a better line of sight to my aircraft and a better signal for my remote, as there were fewer buildings getting in my way up there.
And here are the photos:
Potomac Hall. (Yes, I realize that it was renamed Chandler Hall a few years ago, but it will always be Potomac Hall to me.)
Potomac Hall, viewed from directly overhead.
Chesapeake Hall, viewed from directly overhead. Note the rounded shape of the features on the front of the building (bottom of the photo) compared to the squared-off features on Potomac Hall.
The College Center, since renamed the Festival Conference and Student Center. The “Festival” name originated with the dining facility that exists in the building, and everyone already called the building “The Festival” based on that dining facility, so I suppose that it wasn’t a big stretch to name the whole complex (save for the adjoining Leeolou Alumni Center) for the Festival dining facility.
Aerial view looking past I-81 towards the main campus.
The far side of campus, viewed from near I-81.
The ISAT/CS Building and adjoining buildings behind it.
Overhead view of the tower on the front of the ISAT/CS Building. I felt like this was a nice companion piece to a photo that I took in October 2001 looking up the same tower. Perhaps one day when I have more time, I’ll fly a little closer to it and get a more detailed downward shot.
The Festival, the Algerdome, and the dorms.
Rose Library, which is a second library that was built a few years after I graduated, named for Linwood Rose, the president of the university when I attended.
The East Campus Dining Hall, otherwise known as E-Hall, which opened in 2009. This area was a field when I was a student.
View above the parking garage, facing the town.
So all in all, I’d say that I didn’t do too badly for a late-afternoon flight. This worked out really well because this was a week when the university was pretty much closed, being the Monday after graduation and all. Therefore, I didn’t have to worry about overflying people, because, quite simply, there weren’t any because the place was dead. This was fun to do, and I would love to fly at JMU again on similarly quiet days like this.
Categories: Harrisonburg, JMU, Photography