UNC Charlotte Campus Master Plan

[jb4563]

Strange ain't it?

[jb4563]

It was a sad and disturbing tragedy that unfortunately shows the regard that administrators have for existing architecture.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I wish people would choose words better. This is a tragedy, http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/07/05/idaho.children/index.html

How a library looks or looked is hardly a "tragedy"

[jb4563]

my idea was always to take the street that flows past the track stadium and to the new research campus...take that and line it with a new main street full of shops and restaurants and connect it to university place.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

State law prohibits leasing state property to businesses which would make a profit.

It is a nice idea, but part of the problem would be that it would attract people you don't want on campus and that have no business being there. They already have a big enough problem with people coming onto campus to break into cars.

I almost think an alternative would be to build some residence halls at Mary Alexander and the new Mallard Crk Ch Rd and turn that new stretch of Mallard Crk Ch Rd into something like East Blvd/Kenilworth area.

[dubone]

i think it is a great idea for uncc to shift back to a more traditional/classical (even if it is a neo/evolution/adaptation form) style of architecture. College and university buildings are built to last for centuries, and the modern style just tends to look like crap when it ages, whereas brick buildings in a backward-looking architectural style just looks more distinguished as they age.

Both Duke's West Campus and Wake Forest's Winston-Salem campus were built during the last century. In the 20s/30s when Duke's west campus was built, you could have easily mocked them for using a gothic style that looked like it had built centuries earlier in england or something. Now, it just looks as gorgeous as ever and it looks older than it really is, which is very good for a university that really isn't that old in the scheme of things. It somehow lends credibility.

Given UNCC's lack of longevity means it needs to go out of its way to create a sense of gravitas. lowest-bid, no frills buildings do not help matters.

[Raintree21]

State law prohibits leasing state property to businesses which would make a profit.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

What is CPCC considered? Would that be state property since they are part of the state community college system? I say that because they are leasing a large portion of one of their new buildings at Elizabeth and Independence (next to Athens) to another restaurant, LuvB's.

[peaceloveunderstanding]

yea I like the new buildings too, they seem pretty classy to me and will only grow in class.

[Sabaidee]

What is CPCC considered?  Would that be state property since they are part of the state community college system?  I say that because they are leasing a large portion of one of their new buildings at Elizabeth and Independence (next to Athens) to another restaurant, LuvB's.

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Which I don't get either, most public universities used private contractors to operate their food courts and cafeteria, so how would that fall under.

I hate how public universities operate, they will charge you an arm and a leg to use one of their dorms and with the same price you are better off renting your own apartment.

[orulz]

I hate how public universities operate, they will charge you an arm and a leg to use one of their dorms and with the same price you are better off renting your own apartment.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Not necessarily. How many apartment complexes do you know of where you're a five minute walk away from the library, the classrooms, and 10,000 other students? It's the ultimate in convenience.

Dorms may seem a bit expensive compared to renting, but once you factor in the convenience, the environment, as well as all the expenses such as transportation and utilities, on-campus dorms can come out ahead pretty often.

It's unfortunate that dorms are often old and poorly maintained (along the lines of a blighted slum.) But no matter what college you attend, there are always some dorms that are up to more modern standards of livability.

[Sabaidee]

What I'm talking about is traditional dorms and apartments close by to campus. You ended paying the same price for the traditional dorms if you get an apartment, but with traditional dorms, it's smaller and you share the actual bedrooms with a community shower and with luck you'll have air. If you live in the apartment style dorms, the price goes up by a few thousand. Room and Board at most NC public schools range from $3000 to $8000 a semester and you only stay in those dorms for only 4 months a semester.

[Miesian Corners]

i think it is a great idea for uncc to shift back to a more traditional/classical (even if it is a neo/evolution/adaptation form) style of architecture.  College and university buildings are built to last for centuries, and the modern style just tends to look like crap when it ages, whereas brick buildings in a backward-looking architectural style just looks more distinguished as they age. 

Both Duke's West Campus and Wake Forest's Winston-Salem campus were built during the last century.  In the 20s/30s when Duke's west campus was built, you could have easily mocked them for using a gothic style that looked like it had built centuries earlier in england or something.  Now, it just looks as gorgeous as ever and it looks older than it really is, which is very good for a university that really isn't that old in the scheme of things.  It somehow lends credibility. 

Given UNCC's lack of longevity means it needs to go out of its way to create a sense of gravitas.  lowest-bid, no frills buildings do not help matters.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Meanwhile real world-class universities build new structures that reflect imagination, human spirit, and progress. These might ring bells as universities that embrace those ideals: MIT, Harvard, Yale, Princeton. And where would Notre Dame be without "Touchdown Jesus"? Even Oxford, the oldest English-speaking university in the world, has modern buildings that reflect the age in which they were designed and built. How does making everything red brick with pediments and domes lend credibility...especially when the new research building at UNCC faces a strip mall?

JB, I've been told before I have no taste, but never in regard to the Atkins Library. The recladding of Atkins not only was expensive, it is completely out of context. It looks silly.

[monsoon]

UNCC actually has 3 on campus apartmemt complexes and during my sophmore year I stayed in one. They were in good shape as the penalities for messing them up were fairly severe. Maybe they have fallen into dis-repair now. During my Junior & Senior years I rented an Apt. off-campus mainly for the peace & quiet.

[49er]

State law prohibits leasing state property to businesses which would make a profit.

It is a nice idea, but part of the problem would be that it would attract people you don't want on campus and that have no business being there.  They already have a big enough problem with people coming onto campus to break into cars.

I almost think an alternative would be to build some residence halls at Mary Alexander and the new Mallard Crk Ch Rd and turn that new stretch of Mallard Crk Ch Rd into something like East Blvd/Kenilworth area.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

that attitude is the problem with UNCC, trying to make it, in essence, a gated community. It needs better integration into the surrounding community. If its state land then sell the part you wish to develop!

If I were part of that new University City Partners group I would be working to use UNCC as the "downtown" of University City.

[cltniners]

before the univ is trashed anymore, let's turn our efforts into getting more funding for the 4th largest campus in the unc system. the u of charlotte should be the largest and most powerful u in the system.

[Sabaidee]

The University City Partners are getting more organized in regard to traffic and how new developement are being built. Hopefully with the new chancellor, UNCC will play an important and more urban role with University City Partners. The previous chancellor just ignored how UNCC intergrated with its surrounding.

[dubone]

before the univ is trashed anymore, let's turn our efforts into getting more funding for the 4th largest campus in the unc system. the u of charlotte should be the largest and most powerful u in the system.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

they need to embark on an endowment push. NC State and UNC Chapel Hill have had century(ies) of fund raising to get where they are. None of the UNC system campuses receives more than subsistence from the state anymore, so all of them are relying on that more than ever. You are probably right that UNCC should be the largest and most powerful, but a 2 billion dollar endowment is not ever going to be appropriated by the state of north carolina.

[jb4563]

JB, I've been told before I have no taste, but never in regard to the Atkins Library.  The recladding of Atkins not only was expensive, it is completely out of context.  It looks silly.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I think it looks good with the funds they had.

I am assuming you thought it looked great before?

[jb4563]

that attitude is the problem with UNCC, trying to make it, in essence, a gated community. It needs better integration into the surrounding community. If its state land then sell the part you wish to develop!

If I were part of that new University City Partners group I would be working to use UNCC as the "downtown" of University City.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I think it should be gated even more, like Wake Forest. I am tired of the riff raff thinking they have any business on that campus.

[jb4563]

What is CPCC considered?  Would that be state property since they are part of the state community college system?  I say that because they are leasing a large portion of one of their new buildings at Elizabeth and Independence (next to Athens) to another restaurant, LuvB's.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I should clarify...from what I know.

I think certain businesses are allowed to be in buildings that are already built by the state, as long as the state owns then building. (ie eating establishment)

But, a business cannot build their own building...its one of those confusing beaucracy things.

[appatone]

The University City Partners are getting more organized in regard to traffic and how new developement are being built. Hopefully with the new chancellor, UNCC will play an important and more urban role with University City Partners. The previous chancellor just ignored how UNCC intergrated with its surrounding.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I just went to their website after seeing a clip on WSOC about UCP. Apparently they want to push for adherence to more urban and transit oriented zoning prior to the light rail going in so that they are ahead of the curve. There is some progressive thinking going on up there and I hope these more progressive types can gain a little more teeth to back the control of sprawl. UCP's website has some great little studies and renderings of things that could happen to area and I would suggest that people go through and take a look at least for interest sake.

University City Partners

There's info on the Urban Corridor Study, The Land Use Initiatives, and under programs you can view the results of a previous design competition based on reconfiguring University City and other projects done by UNCC Arch students for the area.

[Miesian Corners]

I think it looks good with the funds they had.

I am assuming you thought it looked great before?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Since I obviously have no taste, what does it matter if I thought it looked good before?

But since you asked, no, I don't think it was ever a great building, but contextually, it made more sense when it was clad in precast concrete panels. Sort of like bricking up the Belk Carillon. Not great, that carillon, but it is what it is. Don't you think that the money being wasted (my opin) on all that brick could be better spent on things that really matter at a public university?

And if you want to go to a gated university, Bob Jones is just down I-85...have at it.

Cltniners, I am not trashing the University's quality of education. In fact I am back in school there (God, how I loathe that drive from uptown at 5:00 every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday). I am simply stating that bad decisions have been made regarding the architecture of the campus and how well the campus is integrated into the landscape around it. Bricking up every building on campus does nothing to combat the real problem of how crappy development around UNCC is.

[cltniners]

i will def. agree that the ball was dropped in the univ area. i think it reflects a mindset by charlotte leaders that the univ is not important to charlotte. anyone who thinks this is simply foolish. mayor pat gets it and hopefully with dubois at the helm, things will change.

[jb4563]

I saw they have bids out to replace all the bricking and windows on the library....wonder if it will look different.

I know it is being replaced because the masonry is crumbling.

[peaceloveunderstanding]

which parts are crumbling? The newly done parts?

[squatopus]

I'm pretty sure that the bricking on the tower part of the library (floors 4-10) is brick "wallpaper." If you look closely, you can see the different sheets where they meet

One of my professors my freshman year explained that he was perplexed at how fast all that brick could go up on the library tower so fast. He walked by one day during construction, looked up, and saw the construction company raising the "sheets of brick" up and putting them in place.

I did read where the bricking and windows were being replaced...should be interesting what they will be replaced with!

[jb4563]

which parts are crumbling? The newly done parts?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes, the mortar on the tower is crumbling from what I understand.