Sunday, November 29, 2009
CMU wants to level buildings for park space
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "Carnegie Mellon University wants to demolish three buildings, from 4618 to 4628 Forbes Ave., and turn the site into a park where students can display their artwork and visitors can relax on benches."
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16 comments:
When I first heard about CMU paying 7.5 million dollars for certain buildings on Forbes, I wondered if now, when the city and its schools are suffering economically, these type of purchases should be made. After reading this article, I'm happy to see the news of a park. I think it would be a great addition to that area of Forbes, and represent CMU really well. With so much land being filled with construction, it would be nice to see a building being remove for the sake of land.
They've just started the demolition of a couple of the buildings down by the newly christened PNC bank on Forbes. I think that a Park that displays student art is an interesting idea...I wonder how the logistics of that is going to work, or what the chance of this going through is.
I think the possibilities of the property are endless, and I wouldn't be surprised if a park doesn't happen and something else pops up instead.
The park seems like it could be a great idea to showcase the work of the students in a community environment, especially so close to the Museum of Art. Although it may be a great idea, the logistics of hosting an art gallery in a park might become a burden that the university doesn't want to take care of. The other end of things include that the gallery would only be available in certain seasons and weather dependent.
I agree with Brooke, I would love to see a park built where a building stands. I would point out though that the "artwork" displayed on campus is frankly quite disappointing, why don't we replace these dull works with student work instead? Who wants stacked grey and blue balls on the cut anyway? Why not a peer's work? That would be far more interesting and much less expensive!
While I agree that a park is a nice idea, it is sad to hear that they are tearing down buildings. It seems like a lot of money wasted just to have a place to put up art. As Allison mentioned, don't we already have a campus where art work could go up?
The park is a good idea. The retail and commercial space it mentions is not. But for the amount of money being spent I wish the plan was a bit more inventive. Perhaps an open air amphitheater, or a space that really connects with the fringe of the Pitt community as well as the museums. I also hope that the land will once and for all create a face for CMU. There is no real official entrance for our campus and I find that rather disappointing.
The location of the land (near all the craig street restaurants) makes it a great place for students to eat and hang out but only if the land is connected to campus in some more concrete way. As of now it's really a satellite parcel with no ties to the main campus.
I've walked past the area down there several times, and got really excited about the new undertakings. I know the economy isn't in the best place for this kind of thing right now, but I think its great the university is helping to stimulate the economy as well as better student life by filling a whole in our needs. Right now we don't have a good place to show off some student accomplishments, and designating a special place to get this done sounds like a great idea.
I think the idea of a park is a great one, its feasibility however in my mind is unlikely. I would love to see an area in which CMU students can congregate, eat, shop and get work done. Perhaps some sort of open air , i hesitate to use the term mall, type of thing. This would ideally include eating establishments, perhaps some boutique and chain stores. Basically, a safe, close place in which we can be students. The economical benefits of this plan I think are multifaceted. First, the school gets to collect money from retailers and merchants using the space. Second, it gives students a place to go in-between classes, and third, develops a really gross looking area into a functional place for one of Pittsburgh's Universities.
Thank goodness they're going to do something in the meantime. I'm sick of going down to Craig and seeing how, after making this huge monetary purchase, all we've managed to do is put a huge banner up in front of a dilapidated house.
Hearing of the idea to make a park for people to enjoy, at least in the meantime is great. Having more places to publicly display art is always good, and bringing more nature to that area which is already so filled with buildings is good too.
I do wish it was more inventive though. Our tuition dollars went to purchasing this land, and for them to just fill it with nothing doesn't seem like the best move at this point since the economy is doing so bad. I'd much rather see a nice park area, but in conjunction with another campus service or building, too.
I do wonder how long the park will stay on its own, since the demand for on campus parking and classroom space keeps going up...who knows? Maybe they'll make it easier to access from our main campus too.
This seems pretty exciting. I know I'll want to go meander in the park once it's made. The fact that students would get to showcase their work makes it and even better buy. I'm not sure which buildings there are though, so I can't say too much on the side of what would be torn down.
Each time I see another story about what CMU is doing with its newly purchased land, I wonder when the university is going to publish another campus master plan. Even though the 2002 master plan isn't that old (all that's been built from it are the CIC, GHC, and New House), the land purchases aren't mentioned at all in the 2002 master plan, and these purchases will have an impact on our campus, which should be reflected in a master plan.
When I came back from Thanksgiving break, I noticed that demolition begun on the south side of Forbes, which made me wonder what was being done with the land. It's nice to hear that someone knows what's happening, but it would be better if CMU made an announcement to the CMU community in addition to some vague comments in a newspaper article.
While I'm all for parks and areas to relax, I'm a little struck that of the possible locations, they've picked the areas that they have to build a park for visitors and students. It's a little bit out of the way and off campus. Does this mean that we'll get some kind of short cut directly to the area? I think that just doing something with the land rather then letting it sit there is benneficial, I just find myself question the proposed usage given it's actual location.
I am at a lost. Was it not just last year we got an email from the university practically begging for money because the recessions had caused some loss of funds? Why is the university pouring into another million dollar project? Did we not just put up two buildings with garden roofs? I understand the want to expand but the university is doing just fine right now for space and should look to resource that money more towards the students and their academic ventures.
A park space? How about parking space? There are all sorts of good uses for this chunk of land--a park sounds nice, but we already have Schenley. How about something more useful? And as for an art gallery, don't we already have a few of those floating around as well?
I hate to be the cynic here, but I think we should think long and hard about what we end up doing with this very valuable, very expensive piece of property. Let's make it count.
This sounds like a really exciting space, though a little lavish. Do we really need more green space when we are in such a financial hole? Why did we buy this land when we're already paying on of the highest tuitions in the country? If they're trying to get more people to come here or give CMU a better community image, lower tuition. That will attract more people and make us look much better than any park ever will.
To play devil's advocate:
While a park and open space would be nice and pretty, why do we need another one... we have the cut between Purnell and the UC. How can the university spend so much money on this land when it is in a financial pinch like the rest of the country? Who will manage the art displays? Will this be taken over by the Miller Gallery or will we have to pay some one else for this? I don't think this is a good idea. There are bigger projects the University should be dealing with.
Why are they going to continue to pay taxes? Isn't the University tax exempt or is this the city trying to bleed the University for more money?
There is not much in this article about the details. I am sure we will be hearing about them soon, when we are asked for more money.
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