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Welcome to the Round Room. Do you have any idea how it got its name? Ok, that was an easy one. How about this one…What is the purpose of this room? No, it is not a council chamber, although the Massey Board of Governors and the Massey Foundation meet here regularly. The Round Room at Massey College is a Ph.D. thesis Defence room. If you were defending your thesis you would sit in the red “Hot Seat” while 22 of your peers grilled you with questions. About two or three gradute students use this room every year for their defence. Rumour has it that Ron Thom did not want to design this room, because as you might have noticed, nothing else in the building is round! As such Thom used Mahogany instead of Red Oak and Cedar used in the other rooms of the College. The intricate glass dome hangs from an opposite dome on the roof of the room. The room is lit by natural light during daytime hours. To replicate that, Thom designed Neon tube lighting in the colour temperature of natural light to simulate a constantly lit dome even at night. The room also features three hidden closets behind the mahogany-panelled walls. It was Thom’s way to create the circular room. If you walk under the middle of the dome and speak you will hear the unique acoustical properties of this space.
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