Masonic cornerstones & underground steam tunnels.

I go to a school of engineering in colorado. The colorado school of mines. I was just wondering, and i would definitely like to hear form some masons on this one.

What is the signifigacne of a masonic cornerstone? It seems like all of the buildings on campus have these things. Also the builidings on campus are connected by a series of steam tunnels underneath. The steam tunnels house pipes that carry steam and hot water, from a place that i bet everyone is familiar with. The coors brewery. It is a system devised to cool the brewerey while heating the school. These tunnels run all the way from campus, to coors (a distance of over a mile, as a crow flies) and they are more than large enough to walk through. This is all brought to us by the legacy of our good "friend," Pete Coor,s who lost at his recent attempt to dabble in politics. Thank god for that.

Also a couple of buildings with cornerstones have gold tops (gold windows on the top of stratton hall (an almost perfectly cube shaped building), and a gold dome on top of simon guggenheim hall, a buliding with chimes that chime every half hour. It also plays music on some days, or at certain times of the day.

I am also curious about the new government building, that we needed but no one really wanted where it was put. It is one of the most advanced and efficient justice centers/courts, in the country, not to mention the state. There is a system of doors that lead to elevator shafts in each wing of the building. There is one door in EVERY courtroom that leads to these elevators. These elevators go to a sub basement where a tram takes the convicted through an undergoround tunnel to the meduim sec. prison/jail right next door. The architecture of the bulding is incredible. There is a six or so story glass cylinder topped wiht a galss dome, this froms the entance and atrium of the building. The two wings are arcs the touch tangent to the cyinder, forms this shape when viewe from above---> )O(

Behind the building on the mezanine there is a breathtaking view of the mountains, with the larges masonic cornerstone I have ever seen, dead smack in the middle of the mezanine. There is also an Oboleisk in front of the building, it is about 20 feet tall.

Do underground tunnel systems correspond with any other masonic buildings. Is there anywhere else with this type of concentration of buildings with cornerstones (i would say that 75% of the academic buildings have cornerstones)?

[edit on 5-5-2005 by Eyeofhorus]

Since the beginnings of the state, Colorado masons have been dedicating buildings using a ceremony called "laying a cornerstone". This dedication is done for public buildings throughout the state. This ceremony has been performed on thousands of buildings ranging from the US Capitol, to the Colorado State Capitol, please contact
www.coloradomasons.org...
for more information on cornerstones.

As for the Steam tunnels, they are not part of Freemasonry.
Masonry is viewed in to denominations, Operative and Speculative. Freemasons work in the speculative masonry, not physical architecture.

As far as the "tunnels" are concerned:

It's not uncommon for "campuses" to have utility tunnels some cities have them as well. They carry steam/hot water/electric/phone etc from building to building. They are nothing more than a "chase" (like a plumbing chase) from one building to another. The campus I attended (and work for) has the same thing. I've been there more times than I care to. It's hot/dark/damp/nasty. So if you're thinking of something "exotic" you'll be sadly mistaken. Again these are not uncommon.

As for the tunnel between the courthouse and jail. To me that just makes sense. Harder to escape if you're confined. It also reduces the risk to the prisoner if there is a potential for a revenge attack on them.

Originally posted by Golfie
As for the tunnel between the courthouse and jail. To me that just makes sense. Harder to escape if you're confined. It also reduces the risk to the prisoner if there is a potential for a revenge attack on them.

Or maybe it's there so that if they try to escape through the tunnel, they'll end up right back in court! Saves police officers the task of looking for him and taking him there anyways!