Réne and Isaac

One has crossed the bridge from nerd to hopeless nerd when he or she walks quite a ways off the beaten path just to see a building named after his or her favorite mathematician. I suppose I am partially vindicated by the fact that I was searching for two buildings named after my favorite mathematicians. The beautiful tall building on the left is the Descartes building (owned by IBM) and the one on the left, and located adjacent to the Descartes building is the Newton building (owned by someone else). Réne Descartes was pretty much the inventor of Algebra as we know it, a philosopher ("I think, therefore, I am"), an inventor and a weirdo. All this certainly makes up for his sissy first name. I could go on and on about ol' Réne, but I love you people too much. Suffice it to say that he was born in Descartes, France (the city's name was changed in his honor), which is too far away to visit, so this is the best alternative. Newton was pretty much the inventor of Calculus as we know it, and did all sorts of other amazing stuff, and sits on the pedestal with the world of Mathematics' three best mathematicians, Newton, Archimedes, and Gauss. The only reason Descartes isn't on the list is because he didn't want to get up early enough to recieve the reward. Three cheers to La Défense for their talent in naming buildings.