I can’t find a thing on our “new” student center online. I’ve seen one picture ever and as I recall there were some pretty high profile architects wanting to produce for us… alas we picked some poor design. If you wanna see a stunning student center go here… the University might be familiar to all of you.
click on “work” if it is not already highlighted and then it should be the 3rd one of the 3 listed UC anybody?
That thing looks amazing. The architecture wouldnt fit with the theme we have on campus, which i do happen to like, but the inside look awesome. I hope ours turns out nice, and not a giant flop.
It amazes me that Cincy can have football, and produce a student center.
Who is the architect for our student union?
It amazes me that Cincy can have football, and produce a student center.It is a feat only such illustrious universites as University of Cinicinatti can accomplish. We simply arn't as good as them. They also manage to have their own identity in a state with an athletic powerhouse like THE Ohio St. University. I wonder how they do that?
Because Ohio State is the only big school in Ohio. NC has Chapel Hill, Duke, NC State, and Wake. Cinci doesn’t have nearly the competition that we do. The only other schools there with even a good enough reputation to be heard of is Akron, Toledo, and Bowling Green and nobody would even know who they were if the didn’t have football.
Don’t forget about Xavier.
Because Ohio State is the only big school in Ohio. NC has Chapel Hill, Duke, NC State, and Wake. Cinci doesn't have nearly the competition that we do. The only other schools there with even a good enough reputation to be heard of is Akron, Toledo, and Bowling Green and nobody would even know who they were if the didn't have football.Do you think people would know who they were if they were Ohio St. University at Cincinatti?
Because Ohio State is the only big school in Ohio. NC has Chapel Hill, Duke, NC State, and Wake. Cinci doesn't have nearly the competition that we do. The only other schools there with even a good enough reputation to be heard of is Akron, Toledo, and Bowling Green and nobody would even know who they were if the didn't have football.
Kent State, University of Miami (OH), Ohio University, Dayton, and Youngstown State, are all in Ohio. You have heard of them. Now take Cleveland State guess what they dont have football, so nobody really thinks about them. Also throw in Wright State, 14,000 students, no football, nobody cares.
Sorry this thread got hijacked.
That thing looks amazing. The architecture wouldnt fit with the theme we have on campus, which i do happen to like, but the inside look awesome. I hope ours turns out nice, and not a giant flop.It amazes me that Cincy can have football, and produce a student center.
Who is the architect for our student union?
I agree with the fitting into the theme part I just don’t agree with the theme, we’re a contemporary university barely 50 years old but we build with a style that resembles 150 years old. It doesn’t make much sense to look eerily like the big brother to the north who has all the history and our school which has very little. We should have gone the more contemporary route along time ago and by contemporary I don’t mean an updated neo-classical like we have. It’s sad when I have to go into a building on campus and hope the inside is only half as bad as the outside. I’m not saying build more buildings like garinger, b/c what we are buildings is pretty much the lesser of two evils, but if you are going to build this crap atleast get your axes aligned (woodward looking at the new health and human services building… sorry don’t have a picture).
The school will say cincy’s cost too much, but that doesn’t matter b/c the students are paying the bill… and for a little humor…
when they had the presentations a firm from Boston had UNC-Chapel Hill on the board instead of Charlotte… I don’t know whether to be surprised that they didn’t get the job for mixing up the names, or for not getting it when thats what the people of power want us to be known as/aligned with pretty much.
I don’t know who received the commission but I heard it was one of the poorer designs that could of won… probably the cheapest.
I agree with the fitting into the theme part I just don't agree with the theme, we're a contemporary university barely 50 years old but we build with a style that resembles 150 years old. It doesn't make much sense to look eerily like the big brother to the north who has all the history and our school which has very little. We should have gone the more contemporary route along time ago and by contemporary I don't mean an updated neo-classical like we have. It's sad when I have to go into a building on campus and hope the inside is only half as bad as the outside. I'm not saying build more buildings like garinger, b/c what we are buildings is pretty much the lesser of two evils, but if you are going to build this crap atleast get your axes aligned (woodward looking at the new health and human services building.... sorry don't have a picture).The school will say cincy’s cost too much, but that doesn’t matter b/c the students are paying the bill… and for a little humor…
when they had the presentations a firm from Boston had UNC-Chapel Hill on the board instead of Charlotte… I don’t know whether to be surprised that they didn’t get the job for mixing up the names, or for not getting it when thats what the people of power want us to be known as/aligned with pretty much.
I don’t know who received the commission but I heard it was one of the poorer designs that could of won… probably the cheapest.
I think I remember you saying you were an architecture major, could be wrong.
I personally like what we have. I think for “educational” buildings it works. If you drive down providence road, or queens, some of the old nice neighborhoods, the University would fit with that style. i think thats what we were going for, not that we are close in distance, but that we are a part of Charlotte. I think that our school looks more like UVA, than Chapel Hill. I also believe that if you build like we have it kind of makes our 50 year old university, not look so 50 year old.
I think when you go for contemporary, you have to think that this is an instituition that hopes these buildings will be up for many decades. If you take a picture of a kid that has on blue jeans and a plain red tshirt back in 1983, you couldnt tell what year the picture was taken. Now if a picture was taken of a girl in 1983 and she has on the polka dot dress, the teased hair with it in a scrunchy to one side, and she has plastic earings that dont match, and neon tights, you’ll probably know about what year that picture was taken. My point is that the buildings now are pretty timeless, boring yes, but timeless. When you go for a style, 15 years from now it might just look like crap.
I also think that people consistantly make the mistake that we are an urban university, we are in a large city, but we are 10 miles from downtown. It wasnt until the last 10-15 years that development really started moving in the now “University City”. Contemporary wouldnt fit where we are, contemporary does fit for Johnson and Wales, they couldnt have buildings like we have, and stick them on trade street.
[QUOTE=ninerID;212310]Kent State, University of Miami (OH), Ohio University, Dayton, and Youngstown State, are all in Ohio. You have heard of them. Now take Cleveland State guess what they dont have football, so nobody really thinks about them. Also throw in Wright State, 14,000 students, no football, nobody cares.
Sorry this thread got hijacked.[/QUOTE]
true, I forgot some, but no universities are looking highly upon by people around the country except those two. We have not only twice that many nationally universities commonly in the national spotlight, but some of the oldest and best schools in their respective specialties in the country.
[QUOTE=ninerID;212320]I think I remember you saying you were an architecture major, could be wrong.
I personally like what we have. I think for “educational” buildings it works. If you drive down providence road, or queens, some of the old nice neighborhoods, the University would fit with that style. i think thats what we were going for, not that we are close in distance, but that we are a part of Charlotte. I think that our school looks more like UVA, than Chapel Hill. I also believe that if you build like we have it kind of makes our 50 year old university, not look so 50 year old.
I think when you go for contemporary, you have to think that this is an instituition that hopes these buildings will be up for many decades. If you take a picture of a kid that has on blue jeans and a plain red tshirt back in 1983, you couldnt tell what year the picture was taken. Now if a picture was taken of a girl in 1983 and she has on the polka dot dress, the teased hair with it in a scrunchy to one side, and she has plastic earings that dont match, and neon tights, you’ll probably know about what year that picture was taken. My point is that the buildings now are pretty timeless, boring yes, but timeless. When you go for a style, 15 years from now it might just look like crap.
I also think that people consistantly make the mistake that we are an urban university, we are in a large city, but we are 10 miles from downtown. It wasnt until the last 10-15 years that development really started moving in the now “University City”. Contemporary wouldnt fit where we are, contemporary does fit for Johnson and Wales, they couldnt have buildings like we have, and stick them on trade street.[/QUOTE]good example. One only has to look at some of the older buildings on campus as well to see that contemporary style isn’t the best option. Contemporary fads change over time, but classic style is timeless. In 50 years, the age of much of the campus will be indistinguishable to someone who does not know the schools history.
Here are two Images I found. Plus one I hope we have in the future.
if your idea of contemporary is the buildings with the brick panels on it, I can see your point. If it is colvard, I can see your point. The problem with the contemporary buildings we do have on campus is they are piss poor, they’re not even remotely good. So the examples you have before you are not something you should look at. The problem with “educational” buildings are they’re not true to themselves, you like brick b/c it looks nice not because of what it can do or possibly mean, brick to you is distinguished. Columns out front make it look powerful, but many of those columns are rarely doing anything but being there for some false aesthetic, an image. Its cool if you want to look like UVA, I visit there 2-3 times a year… IMO we do not look like UVA. We attempt to, but just b/c you use some masonry and a style doesn’t make you like another place. It works there b/c many of their buildings are actually old, and are more aligned with the history and time of their construction, there’s an aura about it there. I just feel Charlotte should want to look like Charlotte and not look like UVA, Chapel Hill or anywhere else. I’m not hating on you ninerID b/c you actually speak well about what you like and for lots of other people, but good contemporary buildings can do the same as the “timeless” classical looking buildings, it all depends on how they work, function, and stay together, unlike any comtemporary examples we already have on campus.
[QUOTE=CharSFNiners;212337]if your idea of contemporary is the buildings with the brick panels on it, I can see your point. If it is colvard, I can see your point. The problem with the contemporary buildings we do have on campus is they are piss poor, they’re not even remotely good. So the examples you have before you are not something you should look at. The problem with “educational” buildings are they’re not true to themselves, you like brick b/c it looks nice not because of what it can do or possibly mean, brick to you is distinguished. Columns out front make it look powerful, but many of those columns are rarely doing anything but being there for some false aesthetic, an image. Its cool if you want to look like UVA, I visit there 2-3 times a year… IMO we do not look like UVA. We attempt to, but just b/c you use some masonry and a style doesn’t make you like another place. It works there b/c many of their buildings are actually old, and are more aligned with the history and time of their construction, there’s an aura about it there. I just feel Charlotte should want to look like Charlotte and not look like UVA, Chapel Hill or anywhere else. I’m not hating on you ninerID b/c you actually speak well about what you like and for lots of other people, but good contemporary building can do the same as the “timeless” classical looking buildings, it all depends on how they work, function, and stay together, unlike any comtemporary examples we already have on campus.[/QUOTE]
If I think of any contemporary style buildings I have seen from 70’s or 80’s on this or any campus I have ever seen, they are all outdated now.
I think the highrises are contemporary but timeless in a way.
if your idea of contemporary is the buildings with the brick panels on it, I can see your point. If it is colvard, I can see your point. The problem with the contemporary buildings we do have on campus is they are piss poor, they're not even remotely good. So the examples you have before you are not something you should look at. The problem with "educational" buildings are they're not true to themselves, you like brick b/c it looks nice not because of what it can do or possibly mean, brick to you is distinguished. Columns out front make it look powerful, but many of those columns are rarely doing anything but being there for some false aesthetic, an image. Its cool if you want to look like UVA, I visit there 2-3 times a year... IMO we do not look like UVA. We attempt to, but just b/c you use some masonry and a style doesn't make you like another place. It works there b/c many of their buildings are actually old, and are more aligned with the history and time of their construction, there's an aura about it there. I just feel Charlotte should want to look like Charlotte and not look like UVA, Chapel Hill or anywhere else. I'm not hating on you ninerID b/c you actually speak well about what you like and for lots of other people, but good contemporary buildings can do the same as the "timeless" classical looking buildings, it all depends on how they work, function, and stay together, unlike any comtemporary examples we already have on campus.
I would LOVE for us to have buildings like the one you posted at the beginning of this thread, but they dont fit with what we have. I think when you try to “go with the times” you get Virginia Tech, yikes.
I totally get what you are saying about “our own image” but sometimes I like to just play it safe. Some people say safe is boring, I think safe is just, well Safe. I think to understand why I feel that way you have to understand who I am, I am a very “consistant” person. If building A, B, C look like this, then Building D better be very close. I don’t like “cooke cutter” but I do like consistancy. I mean like the architecture building would have the same brick, but look like it was more “architect” inspired than, “financial” or “engineer” inspired. The Civil Engineering building should have, i don’t know, exposed Steel, b/c people seem to think steel when they think CE. If you look at Rowe it looks like a camera, get it “arts” building, the thing is cameras are digital now, they dont have the flip up lens to let light in anymore, and so nobody who sees it today thinks “oh that looks like a camera, ah I get it camera, photography, ART”. Instead I look at it, wow that looks like a dollar store camera.
To give you an example of consistancy, take the new engineering buildings up on the “research campus” entrance. Look at the front of each of them. The brick is pretty much the EXACT same, the concrete is not even close. It looks horrible, they look like they are from two different campuses.
I also agree with you that the “contemporary” buildings we have are poor examples of what contemporary can be.
Quck question, what campus do you like the most, which campus do you think give charlottes history, area, everything…do you think Charlotte should closely model?
I would LOVE for us to have buildings like the one you posted at the beginning of this thread, but they dont fit with what we have. I think when you try to "go with the times" you get Virginia Tech, yikes.I totally get what you are saying about “our own image” but sometimes I like to just play it safe. Some people say safe is boring, I think safe is just, well Safe. I think to understand why I feel that way you have to understand who I am, I am a very “consistant” person. If building A, B, C look like this, then Building D better be very close. I don’t like “cooke cutter” but I do like consistancy. I mean like the architecture building would have the same brick, but look like it was more “architect” inspired than, “financial” or “engineer” inspired. The Civil Engineering building should have, i don’t know, exposed Steel, b/c people seem to think steel when they think CE. If you look at Rowe it looks like a camera, get it “arts” building, the thing is cameras are digital now, they dont have the flip up lens to let light in anymore, and so nobody who sees it today thinks “oh that looks like a camera, ah I get it camera, photography, ART”. Instead I look at it, wow that looks like a dollar store camera.
To give you an example of consistancy, take the new engineering buildings up on the “research campus” entrance. Look at the front of each of them. The brick is pretty much the EXACT same, the concrete is not even close. It looks horrible, they look like they are from two different campuses.
I also agree with you that the “contemporary” buildings we have are poor examples of what contemporary can be.
Quck question, what campus do you like the most, which campus do you think give charlottes history, area, everything…do you think Charlotte should closely model?
I can’t say which one I would like Charlotte to resemble most b/c it would be somewhat hypocritical of what I’m saying. Charlotte should be Charlotte, not anything else. It’s tough here b/c the City of Charlotte is known for getting rid of most of its historic architecture, unless you go to Queens U., Myers Park, or areas similar. That’s why having a historical looking campus is odd to me. Then again it is hard to design for a city like Charlotte b/c its so odd itself with its rapid growth, w/o any real consistent mode of public transportation. I don’t want you to think I have a problem with classical looking architecture I think its fine and great when it isn’t applied (in our campus’s case I believe it is). UVA is amazing, but its one of the country’s first major institutions, College of Charleston is in a similar situation. Cincy’s campus has some good stuff around the stadium (the architecture building is horrendous though). For a good comparison of what I would like to see on campus to mesh with what we have pre-existing I guess Lerner Hall (a student center of sorts) is a pretty good example at Columbia in NYC. A different urban context obviously but it tries some different things, interpretting the old into something new but bridging the gap. I’m not 100% behind the building it has some awkward moments but has some nice one’s too. I think one thing that bothers me so much about the actual look of our campus is it never tries to mix things up like this example. It’s straight neo-classical or nothing on this campus, no re-interpretation. By doing that atleast the buildings don’t blur together but can stand as having some identity on their own as well.
Outside
Inside
[URL=http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://facilities.uncc.edu/capital/Specialpost/StudentUnion/StudentUnion.jpg&imgrefurl=http://facilities.uncc.edu/capital/StudentUnion.asp&h=147&w=450&sz=13&hl=en&start=21&tbnid=wzT4FxbY2kD0uM:&tbnh=41&tbnw=127&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dstudent%2Bunion%26start%3D20%26ndsp%3D20%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DN%26domains%3Duncc.edu%26sitesearch%3Duncc.edu][B][U]Here[/U][/B][/URL] are the plans for the new Stundent Union. I like it! Looks very nice. Huge difference from the Cone center… All for a mere $59 million. How much is a football stadium?
Description of new Student Union per Chancellor’s letter (12/8/06):
[B]Student Union:[/B] Although the Cone University Center has served us well for a long time, there is no question that we have outgrown it. A new Student Union, the largest and most expensive project ever to be constructed at UNC Charlotte, should begin with early site work in March, 2007. As noted above, the location is ideal—just across Craver Road at the end of the new Health Sciences/Education Plaza. This 186,000 square-foot facility, paid for entirely by student fees and Bookstore revenues, will provide offices and meeting areas for student organizations, student government, and University staff. It will feature a major food service facility, the University Bookstore, and a 600-seat ballroom. Because the Union will occupy the site of a major parking lot, work continues on a parking deck adjacent to it that will provide 1,000 new parking spaces. Access to the Union will be provided by a pedestrian bridge. Another bridge will provide Union access to the Squires, Cyprus, and Witherspoon residence halls to the north.[URL=http://www.administration.uncc.edu/chancellor/chancellor_files/Newsletter_2006-Dec-08--REV.pdf][U][B]Link to letter[/B][/U][/URL]
[URL=http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://facilities.uncc.edu/capital/Specialpost/StudentUnion/StudentUnion.jpg&imgrefurl=http://facilities.uncc.edu/capital/StudentUnion.asp&h=147&w=450&sz=13&hl=en&start=21&tbnid=wzT4FxbY2kD0uM:&tbnh=41&tbnw=127&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dstudent%2Bunion%26start%3D20%26ndsp%3D20%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DN%26domains%3Duncc.edu%26sitesearch%3Duncc.edu][B][U]Here[/U][/B][/URL] are the plans for the new Stundent Union. I like it! Looks very nice. Huge difference from the Cone center... All for a mere $59 million. How much is a football stadium?
impressive
as mentioned in the shoutbox, the new student center will have a sports “hall of fame” so to speak.
it will be interesting to see what credit the Charlotte Owls recieve.