Throughout your daily life at Loyola there are various places that you as a Loyola student will inevitably find yourself at some point, be it Flambeaux’s, the Orleans Room, Bobet Hall, or really any of the Wolfbuck-friendly or academic buildings around campus.
There are other places that aren’t on campus, but are frequented by enough Loyola students to be considered staples of Loyola life as well. The recently renovated area between the library and Miller Hall is often populated by those who want a quiet place to study, and you can’t go a few days without hearing about The Boot in one context or another (if perhaps never in a “classy” context).
I like to think that the best places for hanging out Loyola-style are in the latter group, and you will notice that most of the places that are typically well-known around campus are kept in good order by the staff who work there. However, there is one place in particular that is not on Loyola’s campus but is frequented by enough students to earn a place beside The Boot in status, and that place is The Gazebo.
Recently The Gazebo in Audubon Park was repainted white to cover up all of the graffiti that had been drawn there over the years. The columns were then immediately seen as a blank slate by people who just had to draw an obscene object in a public area, and the cycle began again.
Why would you want to bring such negative attention to the fact that you are defacing a public memorial to the Wolf family? It would be one thing if The Gazebo didn’t already have a notorious reputation and if the things written on the walls were actual attempts at beautification, but it does and they aren’t.
What is interesting is the direct response to the recent repainting of The Gazebo. I would love to hear from the author how, “Paint over my (expletive) again and I’ll kill you,” is supposed to do anything positive for the memorial itself or the students who enjoy it.
I sort of understand one, I guess: “The gazebo is clean! Don’t (expletive) it up!”
In the end, though, it was probably just some hipster trying to show how ironic it could be.
I don’t want to stop graffiti, necessarily. I’m a huge Banksy fan and think that graffiti art can be awesome, but The Gazebo was erected in memorial of an entire family, and we as Loyola students should hold ourselves to higher standards than what is displayed in The Gazebo. There is no reason that such a beautiful place in Audubon Park should suffer because some of us can’t contain our enthusiasm for writing belligerent (expletive).
Richard Carlile can be reached at
