Lowry Mall
Stephen Bybee
Columbia, MO
1996
During some of my very formative and creative years in Columbia, Lowry Mall was my backyard. I was taking art and photography classes in the art department at MU, and the brick-paved confines of this campus space had everything we needed…a bookstore well-supplied with art and photography supplies, the campus library, multitudes of benches in both shade and sun, a McDonalds that seemed to never close, and incredibly well-designed views of campus that would make Haussmann envious. And the wonderful thing about Lowry Mall was how empty it could be…between classes, during holiday breaks, and especially in the summer. This image was taken on a rainy June evening in 1996. This is the oldest image in this exhibit, and it shows Lowry Mall with the very attractive signage of the Missouri Bookstore, the distant dome of Jesse Hall under scaffolding for a reconstruction project, and the beauty that a summer rain can bring to an empty space late at night.