Alumni memories of Grinnell College reveal the importance of social spaces and the centrality of the people at Grinnell to creating a sense of place.

An examination of the Forum and JRC grills using interviews and GIS data suggests that both architecture and experience are important and interrelated factors that shape perceptions of atmosphere, with experience playing a particularly influential role for people who have memories that they associate with place

While the depth of a room in a building has often been found to lead to reduced interaction, this was not the case in Noyce Science Center in May, 2009. Facilities available to students were important to room use, and corresponded, in part, to student opinion on study preferences. While study areas separated the science majors, they did not exclude non-majors and underclassmen. In fact, more non-science-majors use study areas in Noyce than do science majors, though science majors spend more time in these.