University of Arkansas Projects

[Architect]

Surely you aren't suggesting they replicate Bell. That building is an abomination.

Bell Engineering is a fascinating work of architecture, celebrated at the time with numerous design awards. It contains some of the most unique spaces on campus, and is as relevant today as it was 20 years ago. In fact, its one of the buildings on campus that was an inspiration to me to become an architect. Why do you describe it as an abomination?

....and no, I have no connection the project.

[jdevers]

Bell Engineering is a fascinating work of architecture, celebrated at the time with numerous design awards. It contains some of the most unique spaces on campus, and is as relevant today as it was 20 years ago. In fact, its one of the buildings on campus that was an inspiration to me to become an architect. Why do you describe it as an abomination?

....and no, I have no connection the project.

I couldn't agree more, Bell is always one of the buildings I take "out of town" visitors to on a campus tour.

[CentralArkansas]

Bell Engineering is a fascinating work of architecture, celebrated at the time with numerous design awards. It contains some of the most unique spaces on campus, and is as relevant today as it was 20 years ago. In fact, its one of the buildings on campus that was an inspiration to me to become an architect. Why do you describe it as an abomination?

....and no, I have no connection the project.

It's ugly.

It's cool, I'll give you that. But the exterior is quite bland. It's as if you took the look of the average parking deck and applied it to a building.

That's just my opinion; certainly you are much more qualified in this area than I. But I will say I've never heard anyone rave about the building....

[Snaple4]

It's ugly.

It's cool, I'll give you that. But the exterior is quite bland. It's as if you took the look of the average parking deck and applied it to a building.

That's just my opinion; certainly you are much more qualified in this area than I. But I will say I've never heard anyone rave about the building....

I do all the time actually and I am a business student. I do agree that the concrete does provide for a dark and bland look but that is why there are so many curves/angles on the building. The whole thing changes constantly, inside and out (expect for the floor plan that just goes in a simple circle and seems to confuse everyone). It also fits in well with the surrounding buildings even with it being of a completely different architectural style. Even the ramp going down was once a road, lots of history in the building.

[Snaple4]

On another note, I was in the Willard J. Walker Building on the fifth floor on Tuesday when some people showed up outside of the door to the room I was in. I was in the south east corner practicing for my International MGMT speech. I asked them if I could help them and they said they were just looking around so I invited them in to look (the day it was misty and foggy). I tried to describe to them what you would see on a good day and told them that I though it is one of the best views on campus and insisted that they come back on a better day. Well one of them commented about how the women taking pictures was one of the Architects for the new nanotechnology building. Wish I could have spent some time with them to show them around and ask annoying questions but Dr. Whites Presentation was a little more pressing at the moment.

[zman9810]

UArk's planning page shows this:

Thanks for the rendering. Is there any indiciation of how this will be situated on the lot? The shadows on the rendering makes it look like the left side of it would be facing Dickson St. Also looks like there still be a lot of surface parking- I figured the building would take most of the lot and the Harmon deck would be the closet large parking lot.

[butttrumpet]

I heard that there may be talks of the University moving forward with another expansion of the football stadium. Apparently its going to involve a massive renovation of the Broyles complex and adding some seating to the north end zone. Anybody have any insight into this?

[cowbreath]

I heard that there may be talks of the University moving forward with another expansion of the football stadium. Apparently its going to involve a massive renovation of the Broyles complex and adding some seating to the north end zone. Anybody have any insight into this?

I think they are going to bring in a bigger video screen, and feed in a live video of a staged fan cheering section in Little Rock.

Ok, so that is sort of out in left field, but I couldn't resist being silly.

[butttrumpet]

I have been told that the contractor building the Garland Center is going to be using dynamite over the Christmas break to dig the hole for the new parking garage. I think thats kind of exciting...

[strmchsr77]

I heard that there may be talks of the University moving forward with another expansion of the football stadium. Apparently its going to involve a massive renovation of the Broyles complex and adding some seating to the north end zone. Anybody have any insight into this?

When they did the last big expansion, I had heard that they were eventually going to bring it up to over 90,000 seats at some point in the future. I never heard a timeline or how it would be accomplished. It would probably involve removing a portion of the Broyles complex and changing the way the jumbotron is set up.

[Mith242]

I heard that there may be talks of the University moving forward with another expansion of the football stadium. Apparently its going to involve a massive renovation of the Broyles complex and adding some seating to the north end zone. Anybody have any insight into this?

I'm sure it will be expanded at some point. Just not sure exactly when though. I think there's pretty strong competition in the SEC to keep expanding and upgrading facilities. I'll have to keep my eyes and ears open to see if anyone else has heard about anything happening anytime in the near future.

I have been told that the contractor building the Garland Center is going to be using dynamite over the Christmas break to dig the hole for the new parking garage. I think thats kind of exciting...

I keep forgetting to drive by there and take a look. Maybe I also need to go take some pictures as well. I like to take some pictures beforehand so I can remember what these areas looked like before a big project comes in.

[butttrumpet]

I'm sure it will be expanded at some point. Just not sure exactly when though. I think there's pretty strong competition in the SEC to keep expanding and upgrading facilities. I'll have to keep my eyes and ears open to see if anyone else has heard about anything happening anytime in the near future.

I keep forgetting to drive by there and take a look. Maybe I also need to go take some pictures as well. I like to take some pictures beforehand so I can remember what these areas looked like before a big project comes in.

Thats a good idea. I still wish I had pictures of Wedington before they expanded it from Garland to 540. Now I wish I had pictures of Gregg before it was expanded.

And in the future I bet I will want to see pictures of College Avenue before it was improved.

[Mith242]

Thought I'd post a few pics of the ground work being done at the future site of the parking garage on Garland.

[Snaple4]

http://www.nwaonline.net/articles/2009/02/...fzkuafmoves.txt

We are getting some more downtown development. This should be excellent sitting next to the Library. Two LEED certified building right next to each other. I am sure the city doesn't like that they can not collect property taxes on the land though.

So when do you think they will start developing the parking lot and old building on Dickson? I hope they build into the hill like many other buildings on campus are.

The Garland Deck is moving along nice as well.

[Mith242]

http://www.nwaonline.net/articles/2009/02/...fzkuafmoves.txt

We are getting some more downtown development. This should be excellent sitting next to the Library. Two LEED certified building right next to each other. I am sure the city doesn't like that they can not collect property taxes on the land though.

So when do you think they will start developing the parking lot and old building on Dickson? I hope they build into the hill like many other buildings on campus are.

The Garland Deck is moving along nice as well.

Thanks for the link. I'm not sure what or when the university will do something at the old radio site. But it seems like a very nice site to put a nice building on.

[butttrumpet]

I thought partially the KUAF move was necessitated by the new nanotech building on campus.

[Snaple4]

From my understanding that is where the NanoTech building might go. Not sure why I have this thought though.

[Senator]

The new nanotech building is definitely going right where KUAF is. That makes the most sense with the mechanical engineering and physics buildings just down the hill on Dickson as well as Bell Engineering and Engineering Hall right across the street.

Is it just me, or does that building not really appear to be a suitable new home for the university's most cutting-edge research? It looks rather bland, in my opinion. Even the new Garland parking deck looks nicer and more futuristic. There's no interesting angles, all that nasty orange brick...meh. At least it's supposed to be LEED or Green Globes certified ( http://planning.uark.edu/capital_budgeting...rch_nanolab.pdf ), but it just really doesn't look like a modern, sustainable building like the public library or something like that does.

Also, it would be silly to waste space on a parking lot there with the Harmon Deck so close by. If anything, they should just build the footbridge recommended in the skywalk study (http://planning.uark.edu/capital_budgeting/content/rfq_skywalkstudy.pdf) and keep some greenspace or a nice plaza or somethiing. Actually, after further research, it appears that they are going to build that footbridge (see the Garland Ave./Duncan Ave. Footbridge request decision here: http://planning.uark.edu/capital_budgeting/RFQ_projects.html ), so why keep a parking lot?

[Mith242]

The new nanotech building is definitely going right where KUAF is. That makes the most sense with the mechanical engineering and physics buildings just down the hill on Dickson as well as Bell Engineering and Engineering Hall right across the street.

Is it just me, or does that building not really appear to be a suitable new home for the university's most cutting-edge research? It looks rather bland, in my opinion. Even the new Garland parking deck looks nicer and more futuristic. There's no interesting angles, all that nasty orange brick...meh. At least it's supposed to be LEED or Green Globes certified ( http://planning.uark.edu/capital_budgeting...rch_nanolab.pdf ), but it just really doesn't look like a modern, sustainable building like the public library or something like that does.

Also, it would be silly to waste space on a parking lot there with the Harmon Deck so close by. If anything, they should just build the footbridge recommended in the skywalk study (http://planning.uark.edu/capital_budgeting/content/rfq_skywalkstudy.pdf) and keep some greenspace or a nice plaza or somethiing. Actually, after further research, it appears that they are going to build that footbridge (see the Garland Ave./Duncan Ave. Footbridge request decision here: http://planning.uark.edu/capital_budgeting/RFQ_projects.html ), so why keep a parking lot?

Thanks for the info and links.

[zman9810]

The new nanotech building is definitely going right where KUAF is. That makes the most sense with the mechanical engineering and physics buildings just down the hill on Dickson as well as Bell Engineering and Engineering Hall right across the street.

Is it just me, or does that building not really appear to be a suitable new home for the university's most cutting-edge research? It looks rather bland, in my opinion. Even the new Garland parking deck looks nicer and more futuristic. There's no interesting angles, all that nasty orange brick...meh. At least it's supposed to be LEED or Green Globes certified ( http://planning.uark.edu/capital_budgeting...rch_nanolab.pdf ), but it just really doesn't look like a modern, sustainable building like the public library or something like that does.

Also, it would be silly to waste space on a parking lot there with the Harmon Deck so close by. If anything, they should just build the footbridge recommended in the skywalk study (http://planning.uark.edu/capital_budgeting/content/rfq_skywalkstudy.pdf) and keep some greenspace or a nice plaza or somethiing. Actually, after further research, it appears that they are going to build that footbridge (see the Garland Ave./Duncan Ave. Footbridge request decision here: http://planning.uark.edu/capital_budgeting/RFQ_projects.html ), so why keep a parking lot?

Those renderings rarely represent what the buildings will look like when actually constructed. They are so general that the finished product could be much different. Hopefuly in this case it will be much nicer......

I certainly agree about the parking- I thought the whole idea behind the Harmon Deck and skywalk was to provide parking for all the new buildings in that area. With the limited area for future expansion on the Hill it is important to maximize the physical footprint of whatever is built- a more vertical building on that lot would be appropriate.

[strmchsr77]

Here is a link to the Garland Avenue parking garage construction webcam. It updates about every second or two.

WEBCAM

[Mith242]

Here is a link to the Garland Avenue parking garage construction webcam. It updates about every second or two.

WEBCAM

Cool, thanks for the link. I haven't been by there in a while.

[zman9810]

The new KUAF studios are moving along nicely. The site is across from the Fayetteville Public Library. They have raised about 2/3 of the $1.5 million needed and expect it to be finished either late this year or early 2010.

[Mith242]

The new KUAF studios are moving along nicely. The site is across from the Fayetteville Public Library. They have raised about 2/3 of the $1.5 million needed and expect it to be finished either late this year or early 2010.

Cool, thanks for the pic.

[Mith242]

While I was out checking out the small section of the Oak Ridge Trail I also took a better look at the U of A's Duncan Avenue Apartments. It was a dark cloudy day, not the best to take pictures. But it's been a while since I've taken any pics.

Some more pics to come later today.