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New Engineering Building On the Horizon

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ruforever

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Dec 29, 2005
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It appears the Board of Governors will vote today to move forward on building a new engineering building on the Busch campus. The building is known as the Engineering Gateway Building. The renderings can be found on the Rutgers Engineering website. I am sorry but I don't know how to add the link, I am old school. It would be great if someone could lend a hand. From the renderings, it appears to be a remarkable building which will go a long way to enhance the school's reputation and make Busch campus more appealing. With the project, Rutgers seems to be making great strides in catching up to its peers.
This post was edited on 2/4 8:55 AM by ruforever
 
As a College of Engineering Grad of '07 it's about time!

The CAIT building was a start, but man walking into the trailer civil engineering offices/classrooms to finish my graduate degree in '12 made me realize how much a new building was desperately needed.
 
Notice that the contact person is the director of development. In other words, they are looking for private funding -- including from alumni.
 
Can somebody show me on a map where this will go?
 
From the rendering...

It looks like in the staff parking lot right behind the current engineering building, the electrical engineering building, and the side of the CAIT engineering building. AKA lots 60A and 60B below:

meeting-locations.jpg
 
Can't confirm but I would assume this would allow them to demolish the biomedical and civil engineering trailers and open that space up to a new parking lot.
 
Originally posted by PeteGiam07:
Can't confirm but I would assume this would allow them to demolish the biomedical and civil engineering trailers and open that space up to a new parking lot.
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Bio Med has moved out of their trailer into their new building near the suites. Civil however is entering their 3rd decade in the modular CEB. For the love of god RU, get Civil Engineering a real building...
 
They built CAIT when I was an undergrad but it was not able to house all of the Civil Engineering Program (Professors, Staff, Water/Fluids Lab, Computer Lab etc...). Only some moved, and I noticed it was mostly used for 1 big lecture hall and long term professors or consulting engineers.

I had more than a couple of my graduate classes back in 2010/2011 in that Civil Mod. Also had to give my final 3-credit masters presentation in small meeting room in order to graduate. It really is a sad little building.
 
This. Looks. Amazing. Wow.

Rear%20View.jpg

SSBE%20Rendering.jpg

Gateway%20View.jpg

Street%20View.jpg


In the strategic plan (below picture), what appears to be the backside of the building looks ridiculous with the curves. It shows up again on the "Vision" which can be found in .pdf form here.

1619451_10103514976790219_1408716250_n.jpg

As long as they stick to the current design and the waves are part of the preliminary drawings, I'm in love. And already kicked some money their way.

This post was edited on 2/5 9:44 PM by RUseaweed
 
This looks very good. Busch needs to continue to replace surface parking, add landscaping, and improve the circulation system with is annoying/redundant/confusing.
 
Does this mean they are going to tear down the current school of engineering building, which is a hideous nightmare. While building new buildings is great, its best if its accompanied by demolition of the worst offenders.
 
Looks like they are planning on keeping the Computational Biomedicine, Imaging and Modeling. trailer. The civil trailer looks like it will be replaced with a small building.

As far as the old building goes, there is too many staff/administrators/labs housed in that building. It obviously depends on money and how the new building goes, it will be hard to transport all those areas for new construction.
 
Originally posted by PeteGiam07:
Looks like they are planning on keeping the Computational Biomedicine, Imaging and Modeling. trailer. The civil trailer looks like it will be replaced with a small building.

As far as the old building goes, there is too many staff/administrators/labs housed in that building. It obviously depends on money and how the new building goes, it will be hard to transport all those areas for new construction.
Click to expand...

The issue is that you couldn't simply replace the old with the new. It would have to be phased. Basically build the new, tear down the old, then replace the old with something completely unrelated (or nothing at all - just extend the quad).
 
I still can't envision where this would be built. Would is be directly behind the current engineering building? This building was old when I went to CoE in the mid/late 90's. I actually visited the old ChemE section during last year's Rutgers Day.....which was a lot of fun. Any investment in engineering is a good thing for RU.
 
Originally posted by trzaska2000:
I still can't envision where this would be built. Would is be directly behind the current engineering building? This building was old when I went to CoE in the mid/late 90's. I actually visited the old ChemE section during last year's Rutgers Day.....which was a lot of fun. Any investment in engineering is a good thing for RU.
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Look at this pdf.

http://soe.rutgers.edu/sites/default/files/imce/pdfs/Vision%20Two%20Page.pdf
 
Originally posted by PeteGiam07:

Originally posted by trzaska2000:
I still can't envision where this would be built. Would is be directly behind the current engineering building? This building was old when I went to CoE in the mid/late 90's. I actually visited the old ChemE section during last year's Rutgers Day.....which was a lot of fun. Any investment in engineering is a good thing for RU.
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Look at this pdf.

http://soe.rutgers.edu/sites/default/files/imce/pdfs/Vision%20Two%20Page.pdf
Click to expand...
Looks like the civil trailer will be gone as its in the footprint of the new walkway ? I take it Civil will be relocated to The A wing of the old Eng. building, which isn't that bad considering that is adjacent to the Civil Lab and CAIT
 
Notice they choose to prominently point out the existing parking that is going to remain.
 
Originally posted by srru86:
Notice they choose to prominently point out the existing parking that is going to remain.
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you are missing out that the new building is currently parking lot. This is a huge reduction in parking in that area... a good step into greening up that part of busch
 
As I stated above, they are taking away two staff lots.

The civil engineering trailer looks like it will be a small building instead (perhaps a new lab or graduate offices).

Also there is a proposed parking lot behind the old civil engineering trailer. That means 1/2 the woods will be removed which makes a connection from the "black" football lot to the new building areas.
 
From the pdf, it states 'enable future master plan phases' and the way that they've centered the new eng. Bldg, I can imagine a time when they decide to demolish eng. bldgs. B and D and create a mall extension. Nice forethought.
 
Originally posted by rufancoe00:

Originally posted by srru86:
Notice they choose to prominently point out the existing parking that is going to remain.
Click to expand...
you are missing out that the new building is currently parking lot. This is a huge reduction in parking in that area... a good step into greening up that part of busch
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Understood and agreed.

As a College HR person I can tell you from recent personal experience that my phone has not rung so much with as many grouchy employees as when a few Faculty/Staff parking spaces were closed and people had to walk another 100 feet to get to work.
 
President Barchi spoke at an event hosted by the Rutgers Club in NYC several weeks ago and stated the project was moving forward and presented renderings to the crowd. It seems an announcement regarding the time table may be coming shortly. Barchi indicated funding was in place.
This post was edited on 4/26 7:09 PM by ruforever
 
It is a beautiful rendering, but its very name shows a big issue that RU will continually face - the students of its many professional schools have their classes all over campus, sometimes multiple campuses. As a pharmacy student I barely spent any time in the School of Pharmacy until my last 2 years - the classrooms weren't big enough for our class. At Temple the pharmacy students spend all 4 years in the same building, the medical students in their building, and the dental students in theirs. It fosters a much better feeling of a college community at the professional school level than I had at RU (the undergrad situation is different).

Without large classrooms, the students will have to continue to take classes all over campus. Hopefully enough classes are focused in the new building (should it be built) that a sense of "engineering community" can be built as well, one that leads to more satisfied alumni that give more money in return.

Just my 2 cents.
 
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JCG, Not too familiar with that section of campus,but derleider mentioned a building he would like demolished. Even if it is not beautiful,could the medical/dental/pharmacy school use that for their needs ?
 
Originally posted by HeavenUniv.:

JCG, Not too familiar with that section of campus,but derleider mentioned a building he would like demolished. Even if it is not beautiful,could the medical/dental/pharmacy school use that for their needs ?
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I don't know much about the medical school's building, since they just merged with RU. They've had that standalone ugly building for a while and I assume their classes are mostly there, but I really don't know. The dental school is in Newark and I don't know much about that campus. The pharmacy school is expanding its building now and that expansion includes classroom space, but I don't know if it includes lecture hall space.

Even if it does, the RU pharmacy model is that most of the clinical faculty spend most of their time at distant hospital and other clinical sites, since they are co-funded by those sites and have responsibilities there. Some are over an hour away. Their offices at the School of Pharmacy are small areas where they tend to spend little time (understandably). It just doesn't make for a very collegial atmosphere.
 
Originally posted by jcg878:
It is a beautiful rendering, but its very name shows a big issue that RU will continually face - the students of its many professional schools have their classes all over campus, sometimes multiple campuses. As a pharmacy student I barely spent any time in the School of Pharmacy until my last 2 years - the classrooms weren't big enough for our class. At Temple the pharmacy students spend all 4 years in the same building, the medical students in their building, and the dental students in theirs. It fosters a much better feeling of a college community at the professional school level than I had at RU (the undergrad situation is different).

Without large classrooms, the students will have to continue to take classes all over campus. Hopefully enough classes are focused in the new building (should it be built) that a sense of "engineering community" can be built as well, one that leads to more satisfied alumni that give more money in return.

Just my 2 cents.
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As an undergrad in the Rutgers Business School I certainly appreciated that we had our own building and that was where most of my classes were held (well, maybe half...but the other half were in the building right next to it). We also had our own computer lab and common areas. All of our classes were scheduled for us (though you could change your schedule, at your own risk). To jcg's point it made it feel like we were in our little school within a school. I actually didn't even attend my "Rutgers University" graduation, I just went to the Rutgers Business School graduation ceremony (held at the RAC).
 
Engineering buildings are not very far from each other and are all on Busch campus.

As an undergrad any of your classes related to engineering (civil at least) are in SERC (Science & Engineering Resource Center) which is full of classrooms, ARC also full of classrooms, HILL full of classrooms, or the actual 4 winged engineering building. As a civil engineer I also had classes in the Civil Laboratory and the CAIT building. None of these buildings are further than a 10 minute walk from each other.

As a graduate student all of the engineer courses I took where either in the Civil Engineering trailor, CAIT, or SERC.

The new building will hopefully get the civil majors out of that trailer building, it's an embarrassment.
sick.r191677.gif
 
Originally posted by PeteGiam07:
Engineering buildings are not very far from each other and are all on Busch campus.

As an undergrad any of your classes related to engineering (civil at least) are in SERC (Science & Engineering Resource Center) which is full of classrooms, ARC also full of classrooms, HILL full of classrooms, or the actual 4 winged engineering building. As a civil engineer I also had classes in the Civil Laboratory and the CAIT building. None of these buildings are further than a 10 minute walk from each other.

As a graduate student all of the engineer courses I took where either in the Civil Engineering trailor, CAIT, or SERC.

The new building will hopefully get the civil majors out of that trailer building, it's an embarrassment.
sick.r191677.gif
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Exactly. It doesn't foster a community atmosphere within a college when you're going between buildings for classes, none of them are the "School of Engineering". I had most of my classes in either SERC or ARC (it opened while I was in school), and those buildings aren't anything other than a place to sit and listen to a lecture. As a possible 'central repository' for engineering students, perhaps this building will help to rectify it.

I can say by comparison that I know Temple pharmacy students much better than I believe the RU faculty knew me and that the Temple School of Pharmacy has much more of a community feeling than I felt at RU. As a faculty member it took me a while to come to terms with that since students really do drop by my office at any time, which is mostly positive (except when they want you to drop everything the day before an exam when you have deadlines of your own).
 
I really don't understand the big deal about walking between buildings for classes. Schools within universities don't have to be in the same building. What's the point of going to a university if you just want to stay in one building every day? It doesn't seem as though Rutgers "inconvenience" of different buildings has hurt the program. It's ranked significantly higher than Temple's cozy self contained school.

No doubt that [rograms and buildings can be designed in a manner that provides a hub, of sorts, for students and the foster of a stronger community. Perhaps Pharmacy is lacking that at Rutgers (I don't know either way) but you don't have to have one single building.
 
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Originally posted by Scarlet Pride:
I really don't understand the big deal about walking between buildings for classes. Schools within universities don't have to be in the same building. What's the point of going to a university if you just want to stay in one building every day? It doesn't seem as though Rutgers "inconvenience" of different buildings has hurt the program. It's ranked significantly higher than Temple's cozy self contained school.

No doubt that [rograms and buildings can be designed in a manner that provides a hub, of sorts, for students and the foster of a stronger community. Perhaps Pharmacy is lacking that at Rutgers (I don't know either way) but you don't have to have one single building.
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No need to be rude about it. I went to Rutgers because I wanted the diversity of experience that a big university provides, but they describe the professional schools as a small community within a larger one, which IMO they don't really achieve. During my pre-professional years I had courses all over the place, which was fine. During my didactic pharmacy courses I was with the same people in every class (except in a few electives) and we moved from building to building together. No, the world didn't collapse because we were in various buildings all day, but the connection to the school wasn't as strong as I perceive it to be among the students here. That feeling is something that Rutgers wants (or should want) - perhaps the addition of the Engineering "Gateway" building and pharmacy school expansion will address that.
 
Originally posted by jcg878:


Originally posted by Scarlet Pride:
I really don't understand the big deal about walking between buildings for classes. Schools within universities don't have to be in the same building. What's the point of going to a university if you just want to stay in one building every day? It doesn't seem as though Rutgers "inconvenience" of different buildings has hurt the program. It's ranked significantly higher than Temple's cozy self contained school.

No doubt that [rograms and buildings can be designed in a manner that provides a hub, of sorts, for students and the foster of a stronger community. Perhaps Pharmacy is lacking that at Rutgers (I don't know either way) but you don't have to have one single building.
Click to expand...
No need to be rude about it. I went to Rutgers because I wanted the diversity of experience that a big university provides, but they describe the professional schools as a small community within a larger one, which IMO they don't really achieve. During my pre-professional years I had courses all over the place, which was fine. During my didactic pharmacy courses I was with the same people in every class (except in a few electives) and we moved from building to building together. No, the world didn't collapse because we were in various buildings all day, but the connection to the school wasn't as strong as I perceive it to be among the students here. That feeling is something that Rutgers wants (or should want) - perhaps the addition of the Engineering "Gateway" building and pharmacy school expansion will address that.
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I see what you mean and the "gateway" will be a welcoming.

Engineering is tricky. There are two many disiplines for one building though. There is Civil, Electrical, Ceramic, Mechanical, Chemical, Biomedical, Packaging and I'm sure others I'm missing.

In a perfect world I'm sure 1 "general" building and 1 building for each disipline would be nice. The school is too old though to have this. Don't foget when the campus was just on College Ave, There was just "1" engineering building... I think it was murphy hall?

The SERC study area is widely used by students as it is one of the few areas, besides the campus center, students can do work together and talk at a reasonable level. There are also "quiet rooms" and meeting rooms for students to use there. ARC has a physics center and tutor area on the third floor this is widely used for 1st year engineering students.

Enginnering classes move from lectures of 200-300 students your 1st two years to as low at 10 students (packaging engineering) your last two years. It's tricky and there are alot of disiplines involed to create perfect system for it. They just have to work with what they have.
 
Okay, so I had to go grab a schematic on where this is being proposed:

NewEngineeringBuildingOnBusch_zps03eb88ef.jpg
 
As mentioned above - the natural next step (clearly seen from this graphic) is to demolish Engineering B and D and extend the quad to the front door of this building, while at the same time, building replacements for those buildings in one of the two remaining parking lots (I would say the one on the right in the picture) on the wings of this building (which would give the added benefit of allowing the new building to be built before the demolition.)
 
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