Foreign Language Building

From U of I Wiki

The Foreign Language Building is located at 707 S. Mathews Ave in Urbana, on the southeastern corner of The Quad just south of Davenport Hall. The building has a distinctive architecture, making it look like an upside down pyramid. A popular myth on campus is that the building was designed this way because it housed a secret supercomputer named Plato. Supposedly, the building was designed such that if it was bombed, it would fall outwards, protecting the supercomputer on the inside. Additionally, it is rumored that the building's interior layout was made to prevent Soviet spies from stealing secrets from the supercomputer. In actuality, Plato was real, but not a secret government program. Instead, it was the University's first electronic learning system, similar to WebCT and Mallard which the University currently uses.