The Tartan Online: The Carnegie Mellon administration hopes to develop the University Center into the space facing Forbes Avenue within the next three years, with additions including an exercise area for strength training, cardio exercise rooms, a cycling studio, and a multipurpose exercise studio.
A town hall presentation was held by the University and Cannon Design on Wednesday in Rangos 3 to discuss Carnegie Mellon’s future University Center, part of the University’s 10-year master plan to expand and renovate its facilities.
7 comments:
Well, I got really excited instantly when I saw the title of this article, but this seems irrelevant to me since they are going to expand it by 2016 by the time I will be gone. Out of all plans that they proposed, the most attractive and thoughtful plan seems to be building a studio theater. From this plan, I could really feel sincere effort of our administration. When I had to do some kind of rehearsals for my club event, I could not find an appropriate or available spot other than studios in Morewood garden dormitory. As student's activities in performing and acting are increasing, I think it is an awesome idea to have some spaces for this, which can also be then turned into be music concert places depends on how large they are building. As I have attended CMU for one year, I also have thought what would be an ideal appearance of UC because university center is what most colleges have as their center place in the campus. In my freshman year, although I could find everything I needed at UC, I always could not help comparing the appearance with other schools' like USC or UCLA. Therefore, it would be great if they decide to add some aesthetic beauties into the building whether they are inside or outside. Anything that will make UC more lively and welcoming will be appreciated. I am not sure how much they are planning to expand since we don't have large extra space to do so, but I hope this will happen soon, so that every student including me can see the renovation.
More space is a really good thing. Scotch'n'Soda really does need a performance and rehearsal space again since they can't use Purnell space. It will be great to have more space for any of the dance teams to practice and perform in as well. They multipurpose rooms really do a lot for those kind of groups. In my opinion they should just skip over the weight rooms and put in a few multipurpose rooms because they can be used, obviously, for multiple purposes. I know of three that are decent sized that groups can use: one in the UC upstairs, one in Morewood Gardens, and one in Skibo Gym. These locations are VERY spread out on campus and quite inconvenient to most people. This is such a big performing arts school and the whole athleticism thing isn't really prevalent here that the practice space should be crucial. Might just be because I am an arts kid though...
It will be nice to have an actual centralized center of campus that is recognizable. When my family first came to visit after visiting other colleges, my mother couldn't figure out which building was supposed to be the UC. It will be good to have that as a landmark. I've seen some people walk into Purnell looking for the food court in the UC; it was a little sad.
Even though we will no longer be here by the time that this addition really becomes useful, I think that it is an amazing opportunity to have a new studio theatre space and more work-out facilities. To me, the best use of this expansion is the creation of a new theatre/studio space. This is not just because I am a theatre student. I believe that this is a great opportunity to help enrich the theatre/dance/music community outside of The School of Drama. However, I cannot picture how they will fit all of these additions in such a small space. I hope that these additions move quicker than expected. I would love to see what they end up becoming before I am gone!
I have mixed feelings about the fact that I will not be around to see this expansion completed. On one hand, I will have graduated, so that's certainly a positive. On the other hand, I will have existed for all four years here with a University Center that is frankly sub-par, and will never get to experience one that may actually be up to a standard. The current University Center is at the very core too small, with a bunch of other layout and design issues peppered in. I have to wonder if anyone was even paying attention when it was built. The stores, where I work, have no space. The workout facilities, which I attend fairly often, have even less space than the stores. The restaurants are poorly placed and the design of Entropy is abysmal. Unfortunately, I will probably also be dealing with an unacceptable level of construction inconveniences during my senior year. I think it's great that a MUCH needed improvement on the way, but terrible that I see the near future of the University Center being such a mess.
I think that it is really interesting. The UC is is a very popular place on campus because it houses the bookstore, auditoriums, and various places where students can get food. Personally, I have never had time to use the exercise equipment because I don't have time. With that being said, I don't feel like I could respond to wether this part of the renovation. I would love to see the university do something with the campus food on campus. Right now I feel that there are not enough options for students to eat healthy. This could easily be fixed by adding more fruits and vegetables to the meals.
I think its a great idea to continue the expansion of the university. I would like to see more buildings like gates built however. More and more college campuses are taking major strides into modern architecture and I think cmu is falling behind. Too much emphasis is placed on unifying new buildings with already existing ones on campus, which stifles the potential creativity for new buildings. I also agree that the new studio theatre is a great idea! Student groups and non drama students should have a place to do their work as well, and although it might not have all of the bells and whistles that purnell has, cmu is a strongly interdisciplinary school so we should give the engineers a place to do theatre as well.
These renovations certainly sound exciting. The notion of a new performance space in particular sounds great. The building schedule sounds pretty ambitious though. I'm no contractor, but it seems like pretty fast turn around to slap on another part of a building in under a year! I hope they can do it though because it would be neat to see the finished product before I leave CMU! It seems like the vast majority of features they touted will directly affect students. It's nice to see such an interest and commitment to improving student affairs.
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