My favorite experience of Explore Columbus was the bus tour.  I thought this was a very beneficial tour and great addition to the class.  Since most of our tours were downtown, we did not get to see a lot of residential buildings.  The bus tour allowed us to see a wide variety of styles of homes.  In Upper Arlington we saw homes of many architects, some of whom were apprentices to Frank Lloyd Wright.  I really enjoyed seeing John Schooley’s home and the other homes like it.  I also thought it was interesting to see how the homes along the ravine adapted to the landscape.  One home had an entrance at the ravine as well as on the street above.  In contrast to these houses, we visited Bexley, which had very elaborate mansions.  We saw the governor’s mansion and the home of the university’s president. Overall, my favorite part of the tour was Rush Creek.  Theodore van Fossen designed a neighborhood of very unique houses inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright.  I did not expect to find such a unique neighborhood hidden within Columbus.

Megan Pettner