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Center of College Avenue Campus to be renovated, Barchi says
- Thread starter rutgersal
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The shad are passing through and making it up the fish ladder into the millstone as per this story of the weston mill dam removal in millstone:
https://www.northjersey.com/story/o...d-return-nj-river-after-173-years/1852278002/
maybe some day we'll be able to catch them from the new walking/bicycle bridge
Good stuff. They should eventually replace the other 2 river dorms also with modern residence halls.
The College Avenue project and The Hub will be great for Rutgers. Cheers to Barchi and other university leaders for their commitment.
The River Dorms were supposed to be temporary, ,along with Records Hall, but those monstrosities are still there.
Thanks, very nice article. Shad are fun to catch and really get to be huge. Hard to hook, but really fight.
Funny side light with the picnic story.
Below is an image pulled from the Physical Master Plan that was released in 2015. It has the new cafeteria along George Street, roughly South of where Records Hall currently is.
I am SO stoked that they haven't forgotten about this. It is going to be a 100x improvement for the aesthetics of College Ave. I don't even care if they keep the river dorms for another 100 years - this will truly make college ave beautiful from end to end.
Here's a link to all the public info https://masterplan.rutgers.edu/reports/rutgers-2030-volume-1-new-brunswick
A new student center is a must. I wish they would put it where the "transit hub" is in that picture. Imagine a big beautiful Federalist style student center next to the river and facing the College Ave Gym from the other side of the quad.. The bridge over the Raritan and the main transit hub will lead there. It just makes sense.
Is that a new dorm on either side of the transit hub? Also any idea on building design? Will it match the new honors college?
Below is an image pulled from the Physical Master Plan that was released in 2015. It has the new cafeteria along George Street, roughly South of where Records Hall currently is.
I am SO stoked that they haven't forgotten about this. It is going to be a 100x improvement for the aesthetics of College Ave. I don't even care if they keep the river dorms for another 100 years - this will truly make college ave beautiful from end to end.
This will be absolutely terrific if it can get done.
Building on that concept, if feasible, I'd love to see a substantially large structure that integrates a student center/union with a transit center in that spot. It naturally creates a hub but not just for transit connections, rather for student activity of various kinds. If thoughtfully designed and executed well it would be a considerably grand building on the campus sitting on a bluff along the river.
Personally, I wouldn't "celebrate" a transit center in and of itself in that location. You could program great student-oriented spaces on a few upper levels, sitting on top of a partly disguised, ground-level transit center below. The elevations on the land-facing/George Street side and the river-facing side could be tastefully done to introduce a landmark/signature building to the campus.
Has anyone said where the money is going to come from? I wonder if the plan is to go to the voters again with a proposed bond issue. That bond issue would be on the 2020 primary or general election ballot, which generally has the best turnout (and thus the highest participation by liberal voters). If this is a bond issue, we again will have to got through the tedious process of getting all of the campuses and the state colleges on board.
That would be my guess, but maybe they think they have an alternative source of money?? I was thinking Devco, but would Devco finance a project like this that is almost entirely on the campus??
I think so...the yard and the honors college were entirely (or almost entirely?) on campus and Devco was involved in those developments. I could be wrong though.
Yes, but it seems to me that this project would be on the core campus, while the other developments were off the traditional campus. Maybe that would make a difference. You'll remember we had a poster from Devco for a while, and I think he made that distinction in talking about why Devo was doing the Yard project. But maybe I'm way off base here.
the Honors college is on the core campus between the Vorhees mall and Hurtado health center, almost in the center geographically of the New Brunswick campus
the plan is to tear down the ledge and Hardenburg hall to open up the river to the students. as is the dorms create a wall that impedes views creates a psychological barrier to the river. they're doing everything to undo that mistake plus
Yeah I know what the plan is. I just think having a big beautiful Student Union on the historic campus is a must. The student center now is extremely underwhelming. And putting a similar sized one with generic architecture in the quad is boring. Put it across the quad from the also future renovated federalist style College Ave Gym. The rear of the building can have big glass windows that look over the river.
The pedestrian bridge over the river from Livingston could lead right to it. Have an outside park with seating areas that is landscaped next to the river that the bridge leads to. It would be a perfect place for students to hang out at on a nice day. It could still be the "transit hub" or whatever. You could put that on the bottom floor.
Very true. Many of our Big Ten brethren have really amazing student union buildings. Visiting the campuses in person makes that plain.
My impression is that a lot of alum money went into those buildings. I hope some donors will step up here. The College Avenue student union is a disgrace by comparison.
Agreed, and it was/has been pretty much the worst of all five student/campus centers across NB/P for decades now. With five sub-campuses the resources have likely never been there to focus on one and build a signature student center/union.
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I love Barchi. This is amazing!!
It's better than Cook.
I'd rank them, in order of best to worst:
1.Livingston
2. Busch
3. Douglass
4. College Ave
5. Cook
It's also worth noting that a lot of these other B1G schools have ONE student center/union. We have five. That applies to a lot of our resources. Add up all the student centers or gyms and you'll get comparable facility sizes to what these other schools have.
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Aesthetically, Busch is nicer IMHO because of the wood Incorporated into the design and the big windows facing the bus stop let in lots of light
My bad, meant to list Cook at the end. Busch isn't as functional or as varied as Livi. Its main selling points are a well suited MPR, good spot for buses, better food court. But overall, it's fairly lacking in student friendly spaces.
This was something I found as an advantage as a student. Multiple options, environments to choose from. More resources available to you. The downside of it is that it removes a singular RU experience, a unity, and the ability to make just one or two OUTSTANDING dining halls, student centers, library, etc. So each our ours doesn't have the wow factor that a one campus school would have and I think we lose prospective students on that. And we lose the "RU warm in my heart, commonality of experience amongst alumni" as well, so the ties to the University as a whole may not be as strong after the fact.
There is something to be said for a common/shared experience and how it engenders a certain bond. We often lament the Rutgers-NB experience because it is physically spread out and vast and a relatively large enrollment. Yet it's not necessarily a deal breaker because not everyone is looking for the same thing and at a large school you have a better chance of finding it....whatever that "it" is. A key to bringing a campus community together is to promote one or more potential things to rally around regardless of other varying interests. One example is successful athletics (even though not everyone is a sports fan).
Back to topic at hand, and while not necessarily specific to campus gathering spaces, the following example similar to Rutgers offers a point of comparison. Is the freshman student experience at Michigan-Ann Arbor substantially impacted being 'stuck' on North Campus while schleping over to the Michigan Union or Quad on a campus bus becomes a PITA.
https://uunions.umich.edu/article/so-youre-living-north-campus
https://admissions.umich.edu/explore-visit/blog/north-campus-places-go-and-things-see
If Rutgers builds a destination worthy and quality student-oriented facility as part of the revamping of the CA campus core, it should improve the campus experience for all stakeholders. I think they have to think bolder and site it in a higher profile location toward the Raritan (yes, I know the river is not much to look at).
Back to topic at hand, and while not necessarily specific to campus gathering spaces, the following example similar to Rutgers offers a point of comparison. Is the freshman student experience at Michigan-Ann Arbor substantially impacted being 'stuck' on North Campus while schleping over to the Michigan Union or Quad on a campus bus becomes a PITA.
https://uunions.umich.edu/article/so-youre-living-north-campus
https://admissions.umich.edu/explore-visit/blog/north-campus-places-go-and-things-see
If Rutgers builds a destination worthy and quality student-oriented facility as part of the revamping of the CA campus core, it should improve the campus experience for all stakeholders. I think they have to think bolder and site it in a higher profile location toward the Raritan (yes, I know the river is not much to look at).
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I agree with the above. And I like how RU made Livingston somewhat the "freshmen" campus. This helps streamline a more common unifying experience.
And this is why I think the revamping of college avenue campus is such a critical project for RU-NB to continue progress towards a premier destination University. It already is somewhat the "heart" of the NB undergrad experience, but it lacks the treatment of a flagship campus. Key buildings are old and overused, the flow and sightlines are terrible, there aren't natural congregation areas, and it needs quite a bit of "beautification". If done well though, it would really enhance the undergrad experience all stakeholders as RUTEX said.
Somehow would love to see a light rail connecting all NB campuses. I know that's been long dreamed of and is a project so massive. But man that would totally change the game there in NB (from experience, to traffic relief, to parking relief, reduce class transition times, etc. etc.).
I agree with @ScarletKid2008
I didn’t find it too disadvantageous either.
But also agree with @RUnTeX that something really nice on College Ave. will help the school overall.
We aren’t like everyone else which IMO makes us who we are.
I didn’t find it too disadvantageous either.
But also agree with @RUnTeX that something really nice on College Ave. will help the school overall.
We aren’t like everyone else which IMO makes us who we are.
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