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PROPOSED: J&W Downcity Campus Plans


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I like the plans.. but why not build higher instead of spreading out? That would mean they'd require less acres to purchase and hopefully that would give them full support from the Mayor.

So instead of having one building for college of business and one for the hospitality college.. build one on top of the other. And instead of having the new dorm for 500 students from the student center.. just build the dorms on top on the student center. And this parking garage and hotel.... Hotels have parking garages connected to them all the time... so why not make those into one building?

I really don't want to read that cost is the issue here :/

higher cost/height could mean more density and more room for taxable business AND room for that innovation economy we want

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i agree with both the mayor and JWU on this one. it would be nice to see them sell off their buildings on westminster to consolidate in the jewelry district. however, i would also like to see the new land used to lure tax-paying businesses.

the dorm is said to be 6-7 stories. they could go something like 12-15 stories. most colleges don't combine a student center with a dorm, though it could work. they should combine the parking garages and if the hotel really needs one, add a small one for the hotel in the hotel, not next to it. and they could most definitely combine the college of business and the hospitality college in one building. there's no reason they need to be separate.

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It would be hard to build a campus with only two or three high rise buildings. Most campuses are spread out with some green space in the middle. That is what they are attempting to create here. And it looks like the planning is well underway. Which is why they decided to start a PR campaign to prime the pump for their plan.

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While I think tall office buildings are great I don't see how that adds to an 18 hour neighborhood. Our downtown core was a ghostown before residential and attractions became more pervasive. I think migrating and moving the students into the jewlrey district will create a need for small businesses to cater to them. Plus I think the greenspace will add to the walkability of the area. There are still plenty of places for office towers. There are tons of properties in the district now that are sitting idle or are low slung industrial buildings that could be razed.

I also agree that J&W should go taller. A good plan may be to add some extra floors and leave them unfinished for future expansion. That way we get the height and hopefully prevent J&W from trying to buy up more land in the future and pulling it off the tax rolls.

Also while I think it's great to say we want all this prime office space and have a vision for the area are we going to be able to find tenants or for that matter developers? We still have downcity that is clamoring for businesses and still have pleanty of empty parking lot parcels.

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It would be hard to build a campus with only two or three high rise buildings. Most campuses are spread out with some green space in the middle. That is what they are attempting to create here. And it looks like the planning is well underway. Which is why they decided to start a PR campaign to prime the pump for their plan.
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I'm perfectly happy to have the university build and maintain green space, takes pressure off the city to do such.

Looking at the plan, they are wanting what, a block and a half of 195 land, the rest is land they already own. I'm happy to see them leave Westminster, the building they have at Matthewson is dead space in the streetwall of Westminster, that really needs to be active retail to further the health of the Westminter District.

As for stacking buildings, or building larger structures, I would assume this is a long term plan, I can't imagine they will be breaking ground on 9 new buildings in 2011. They build one school, then build another, build one dorm, then another, and another as need/funds permit.

We're talking about 19.2 acres of 195 land, but there's probably twice that amount of developable land in Downcity, the JD, Cap Center, probably more. I'm not worried about J&W taking 4.5 acres. In fact I'm excited that J&W will probably be breaking ground on new buildings as soon as the bulldozers clear out, we need to ensure that buildings start going up right away, and the way the economy is now, I don't see that happening quick.

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“There’s an overall vision that is emerging,” Kaplan said. “…we are all very aligned around a mixed-use vision with significant office space,” he said. “I do think that [Johnson & Wales] can fit into the vision that we’ve all been working on.”
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Also while I think it's great to say we want all this prime office space and have a vision for the area are we going to be able to find tenants or for that matter developers? We still have downcity that is clamoring for businesses and still have pleanty of empty parking lot parcels.
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I'm not aware of many universities with skyscrapers for anything other than dorms (correct me if I'm wrong). Many urban campuses do design in greenspace (Yale, Penn, Columbia, Harvard, NYU, and several others pop immediately to mind) and few of those use skyscrapers for anything other than housing.
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The Cathedral of Learning at University of Pittsburgh is a classroom building, the tallest in the US.

It must be said that it functions terribly as a classroom building - I cross-registered and took a Mandarin class there (didn't take, the only thing I can say in Chinese is 'you're ugly!') You had to show up 30 minutes early because you had to take one of the few, slow elevators. Also the footprint is tiny so there are only a few small classrooms on each floor. It is set amongst acres of greenspace, though. Overall, it always seemed to me be a very silly building since it was so ostentatious and so very impractical. It has a fabulous vaulted gothic lobby, though - great fun to draw.

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I can think of lots of universities with tall buildings (higher than say 12 stories) that are not dorms - NYU has a library that is like 35 stories and notorious for students offing themselves. MIT has multiple skyscraper qualifying buildings that are classrooms /labs. Wherever space is at a premium, building up is the way to go.
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