CMU School of Drama


Friday, September 14, 2018

CMU's Tepper Quad opens as a hub for collaboration, study and socializing

www.nextpittsburgh.com: It’s been nearly three years since ground was broken for Tepper Quad. Today, the sprawling 315,000-square-foot building officially opened at Carnegie Mellon University.

14 comments:

Vanessa Ramon said...

This article does a great job of explaining the strengths found in the new Tepper building. The building is not only elegant and spacious, it is also designed in a way to promote collaboration and transparency. When you walk into the building it feels as if you can see the whole building just by standing in one space. When you look closer, you notice that you can see right into classrooms and meeting rooms, there are many seating areas in which you can have meetings or study together with your peers, even the food court is an inviting open space in which communication and collaboration would be promoted over a yummy burger. Overall, the building seems like a clean open space that I am looking forward to exploring more.

Sidney R. said...

The new Tepper Quadrangle is truly stunning. The careful design of the building creates a bright, inviting atmosphere with the help of rows of windows to bring in light. This complements the industrial look of the concrete within. I make my way over to Tepper for my business class, but also to take a study break or enjoy a meal. I agree with the article that it is an opportunity to step out of a specified college, and into a space with a variety of students from all different colleges. At the grand opening, I learned about the Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship, where students can meet to discuss ideas for start-ups. This is not limited to business majors—the Tepper quad invites all seven colleges to participate. This is such a strong aspect of Carnegie Mellon that sets it apart from other universities. One could tell the impact that CMU and its students truly have on the community at the grand opening, when hundreds of people gathered to hear the President speak.

Rebecca Meckler said...

The Tepper Quad is truly a breathtaking building. The windows and the natural light make the building especially nice in our often rainy and dreary Pittsburgh. I attended part of the opening ceremony and it was fun to hear all of the speakers talk about how they see the building being used. What was unanimously stated was that everyone sees the building as more than a building for the business school, they see the building as place for everyone in the Carnegie Mellon community to meet in and enjoy together. Though I can not speak for all disciplines, I don’t know if I see inter-disciplinary working relationship that everyone speaks so highly of, but I hope the Tepper Quad encourages the interaction. Additionally, It's wonderful to have the space for the school to grow. I look forward to seeing what innovative ideas come out the Tepper Quad in the next few years.

GabeM said...

The new Tepper Quad at Carnegie Mellon is indisputably the prettiest addition to Carnegie Mellon’s campus. As a current undergraduate, the Tepper Quad has been an amazing place for both socializing and studying. The size of the new building offers plenty of space for sound to dissipate even with such an open concept with massive window walls and columns that draw the eye upward towards the skylights and unobstructed natural lighting. Additionally, new fitness centers help promote the Universities wellness initiatives since the only gym on campus previously was in the University Center. The innovative classrooms offer open concepts but still value privacy. The Tepper Quad utilizes distance learning rooms that allow students to interact with potential professors and entrepreneurs all around the world with two way video calls, audio interaction, and interactive question and answer discussions. Finally, new food options for students, faculty, and the public add a refreshing new option to the food options on campus. They have a lot of healthy options for a great price and are very accommodating to various dietary needs.

Madeleine Evans said...

It really is quite nice to have a building that "was designed to be used by students, faculty and staff as a place to study, innovate and collaborate" here on campus, and that it was "conceived as a shared space for all seven of the university’s colleges and schools." It really is an enjoyable space to be in, and I have enjoyed having meetings or grabbing lunch there. What really struck me from the article was the following passage, " Innovation is even more likely when people step out of their own silos and interact with folks who are doing very different work. The impact of speaking or dining or just crossing paths with someone who studies something wildly different than you can be the spark for big ideas and big progress." I often time feel like Purnell is a silo, and we have our options with-in that silo that limit us even further. It is an important reminder that we need to interact with others and not keep to ourselves. The building has wonderful natural light and a lot of seating spaces that allow for anyone to walk in and find a place to work. I think that they did a really nice job with this building, and I am glad I get to experience it in my final year here.

Kaylie C. said...

When I came to CMU, I was honestly intimidated by Tepper's design. There were obvious choices made by the architect which made the building stand out from the rest that I did not agree with; specifically the choice to make the traditional yellow brick thin and long rather than blocky. My highschool created a brand new STEM building the year I arrived. The outside matched the rest of the school perfectly, but the interior was far from inviting with glass everywhere and and very few of the traditional workspaces many people, including me, need to get work done. Then, I heard about the food in Tepper, and I decided to give it a shot anyways. First off, Tepper has the best food on campus hands down, but also I find the use of exposed concrete to create a more grounded ambiance which makes me feel less opposed to using the space as a study area. Their gym is also great, if a little difficult to find (what is the deal with this school refusing to make the ground floor the first floor?). I am not so sure how much collaboration I will experience due to this building's existence, but I do know it is a common space for students of all disciples to eat at. It has already been one of the few things keeping some of the DPs out of Purnell, and I can't thank it enough for that.

Hsin said...

Facilities is always a key elements in an working/studying environment. It affects how much people can put their ideas into reality, how people can interact and collaborate with each other. A good hardware often allows more chance of its user to build their project, with a space that not only saves your physical materials, it's actually saving your thoughts and plans. It's a concept about base of your works, people tend to working better if they can organize the place of working and thinking. For instance, keeping a calendar on your table makes you control your time much more easier, saving all the time you spend on check schedule over and over again. A good environment for collaboration means also a place that great and productive minds can be in each other's reach. The space CMU providing aimed to do the both, so in my opinion, we are taken care of.

Maggie Q said...

Ah the Tepper Quad. As a resident of the Hill community, I envy those in morewood who barely have to roll out of bed to grab that luxurious pesto panini. But in all seriousness, Tepper increases the value of an education at Carnegie Mellon offering another location for students to work, eat, exercise, and most importantly collaborate. The open first floor compliments the huge glass windows that make me excited to sip some coffee and look out the wall when snow is falling. The article does an excellent job describing the openness of the building to all students, in no way is the building limited to those in the Tepper School of Business. With a student body who values academics and working hard this building offers a great place to fulfill that goal. Where I think the tepper building could improve is in the temperature control, for 201 million dollars the building is really cold, requiring a sweater even for a quick snack. Overall the building is a great addition to CMU and as Farnam Jahanian said “It says a lot about who we are as an institution — and where we are going.”

DJ L. said...

The new David A. Tepper Quadrangle truly is a stunning new addition to our campus here at Carnegie Mellon. At 315,000 square feet, there is a place for almost everyone in the first building of the quadrangle. From the Swartz Entrepreneurship center to a new state of the art gym, they have it all. I am fortunate enough to be able to take a class in this new space this semester. The room I have this class in is absolutely beautiful and one of the best parts is getting to eat at Rohr Commons, the new restaurant in the Tepper building, before class starts. After working at the grand opening, I ventured into class and started to take notes as my professor lectured as if it was any old class day. But with only twenty minutes left in class, the dean of the business school walked in with a man he introduced as Joel Adams. At the same time, everyone in my class began whispering to each other as we had just realized something big. We were sitting in the Adams classroom, and Mr. Adams was standing before us. That was an awesome experience made possible by the new Tepper Quadrangle.

Chai said...

This article has informed me a lot about the nw Tepper building. I myself, have already been many times. I was not aware of its huge goal to bring people of different majors together in one building, but am happy to read about it for that is exactly what it has done.My friends and I love to go there for it has amazing food, and is a beautiful atmosphere that is welcoming. People from all different majors go there, unlike many of the other on-campus dining areas, which will almost always have more people of the same major inhabiting the space. Although that can be a positive thing, so is this diverse space. One of the things I truly do NOT like about the Tepper Quad, is its lack of safety precautions. I was there earlier this week with a friend when we heard a loud beeping coming from downstairs and a faint announcement. We asked ourselves, “whats going on?”, and joked about it being a fire alarm. Isat and had to really concentrate on the muffled calm female announcement going on downstairs which stated that in fact, there was a fire. I saw the downstairs area being evacuated, but then saw the majority of the people on the other floors to be unmoving, unphased by the weird unclear noises going on around them. Even the lights for emergencies that were flashing downstairs were not flashing upstairs. The building is beautiful but it should not sacrifice student safety.

Megan Jones said...

Am I the only one who thinks that the new Tepper Quad looks like an airport? Between the high ceilings and the huge windows it’s really bringing me back to Newark Airport Terminal C. In all seriousness though it is exciting to have a new building on campus, especially one so close to Purnell with new food options. It’s also great that there’s a new fitness center in it, as even with the recent renovations the gym in the UC gets really packed on weekday afternoons. The one major problem I have with this building is the parking situation. Some of the Freshman and first years might not know this but before the Tepper Quad existed that space was a big parking lot. They’ve put back a handle of spots since it reopened, but it’s nothing compared to what it used to be. Would it have been so difficult to add on a basement multi-level parking structure to the project (I mean probably but still it’s a nice idea)? We are facing a huge parking crisis on campus, and they just keep on raising the price of parking passes every year. As the school keeps growing I hope they find a solution to this because as of right now this is not sustainable.

Allison Gerecke said...

I personally love the design of the new Tepper Quad, and enjoy how it encourages students to spend time there. There’s something about being in a beautiful building that I find just indescribably fun, and Tepper is definitely one of those places for me. I love the natural light and open spaces, and enjoy how it encourages students from all different colleges to come in and work and collaborate. We’ve been told many times by many people to get out of Purnell as much as we can and to meet people studying other disciplines, and I think having the Tepper Quad so close by encourages that. I think there are many elements of the physical design that encourage this collaboration as well, such as the classrooms that are considerably more open than we as students are typically used to, or the conference rooms designed specifically for working together on projects. And to me its functionality as not just an academic building and workspace, but also a gym and food court, make it a true community hub rather than just another building.

Anonymous said...

I’m not a fan. I love the idea of spaces that invite collaboration and discussion and creativity, but I’m not a fan of a university building a new building when there are a host of other facility related issues that need to be addressed. Yes, a portion of the money came from private donations, I get that but there is so much more that could be done on this campus to really make it a great place to be as a student or faculty/staff. The building is bright and airy and makes use of the footprint well but again, did we need it? Instead of a new building or as part of it, they could have very easily added a new parking garage behind morewood to decrease the constant parking issues on campus. As an institution, money is thrown at research and projects and making the campus “pretty” but in reality, the deeper issues should be addressed (like the constant rising costs of tuition) before we spend millions on a new flashy building.

Marisa Rinchiuso said...

I am very conflicted on this topic. On the one hand Tepper really is magnificent. I have the fortune of getting to take class in there and it is honestly the nicest lecture halls I've sat in. The spaces are open and bright, flexible and technologically savvy. It is really a 180 from our life in Purnell. (I know Purnell is relatively new, but I do not attend any other college so I can only speak to my experience.) Even though it is beautiful and spacious and new, is it better? There is something about the charm of an older space that really speaks to the people inside of it. I ran into this same dynamic with my old high school, HSPVA. The school was a converted Synagogue from the 70's that could hold 500 people. By my years there, it was worn down, holding 750 people and artists were out of space. Musicians played in the halls, we build props in the parking lot and our entire creative writing department were literally in annexes in our faculty lot. Although it was crammed and old (and mold ridden), there was a certain charm to the sound of a jazz quartet as you took your Physics final, or to the fact that there was no cafeteria so we all sat on the pavement to eat lunch. I feel the same worry about always wanting "fresh, new innovation hubs" because it puts our lives into little Mr.Clean bubbles instead of letting us dig through the trenches a bit and create a home in the mud.