Automobile access to the former ERC Circle has been eliminated.  So you can no longer drive up to the rec center or the engineering building.  That former driveway is now stunted at the new Lindner business school. 

 

On 3/12/2019 at 9:56 AM, taestell said:

Interesting to see that "for about a year, the building will be used as swing space." I wonder if they are so overcrowded that they need all of that extra space, or if they are going to take that opportunity to freshen up other buildings on campus.

 

I wonder if this has anything to do with Crosley Tower and relocating all the staff in there?

I think UC is just tight on space right now with increased enrollment. They are still using those classroom trailers parked where Wulsin Auditorium was located. I would bet that after they renovate Old Lindner into the new College of Law, they will keep around the old College of Law building for a few years and use it as overflow space as well. Then maybe they can build something permanent to replace the trailers.

5 minutes ago, taestell said:

I think UC is just tight on space right now with increased enrollment. They are still using those classroom trailers parked where Wulsin Auditorium was located. I would bet that after they renovate Old Lindner into the new College of Law, they will keep around the old College of Law building for a few years and use it as overflow space as well. Then maybe they can build something permanent to replace the trailers.

 

They most definitely are tight on space. It'll be interesting as you're correct, a lot of temp spaces right now along with the new 1819 iHub and the Digital Futures Building both off-site.

I was giving John Ronan a tour of UC when I was in grad school and he made an interesting observation about the campus. The campus intrigued him for its compactness. This led to a statement that I continue to ponder. As UC grows denser and denser, the architect's role is going to move further and further from the designing of an object in the landscape and closer and closer to designing the spaces between buildings. He was impressed by the negative spaces on campus; the path between the Geology Building, Old Chem, and the Physics Building, the artery between Steger and CRC, the plazas surrounding CCM, Calhoun, and Siddal. He told me that he wants to visit the campus again in a hundred years to see how the already very urban campus intensifies over that century. He was to design a new Alumni Center in and around the University YMCA. I think the project has been scuttled, which is unfortunate because I love Ronan's Poetry Foundation and Innovation building on IIT's campus, both in Chicago and worth visiting.

12 minutes ago, Chas Wiederhold said:

I was giving John Ronan a tour of UC when I was in grad school and he made an interesting observation about the campus. The campus intrigued him for its compactness. This led to a statement that I continue to ponder. As UC grows denser and denser, the architect's role is going to move further and further from the designing of an object in the landscape and closer and closer to designing the spaces between buildings. He was impressed by the negative spaces on campus; the path between the Geology Building, Old Chem, and the Physics Building, the artery between Steger and CRC, the plazas surrounding CCM, Calhoun, and Siddal. He told me that he wants to visit the campus again in a hundred years to see how the already very urban campus intensifies over that century. He was to design a new Alumni Center in and around the University YMCA. I think the project has been scuttled, which is unfortunate because I love Ronan's Poetry Foundation and Innovation building on IIT's campus, both in Chicago and worth visiting.

 

It's such a shame that it is surrounded on three sides by stroads. The designs of MLK, Jefferson, and Clifton are anathema to urbanity and represent what is wrong with planning in Cincinnati. UC could be an urban campus on par with Penn or Harvard if its surrounding streets tied it to the neighborhoods instead of creating a moat around it. 

1 minute ago, DEPACincy said:

 

It's such a shame that it is surrounded on three sides by stroads. The designs of MLK, Jefferson, and Clifton are anathema to urbanity and represent what is wrong with planning in Cincinnati. UC could be an urban campus on par with Penn or Harvard if its surrounding streets tied it to the neighborhoods instead of creating a moat around it. 

 

Truly a shame. I can only imagine how student culture would change if getting to Burnet Woods wasn't a game of IRL frogger. Jefferson does an okay job with the median plantings, IMO, but would do even better with a streetcar running up it. A streetcar on Jefferson would justify its width. Clifton does okay until Joselin, then turns into a drag race to MLK. 

55 minutes ago, DEPACincy said:

It's such a shame that it is surrounded on three sides by stroads. The designs of MLK, Jefferson, and Clifton are anathema to urbanity and represent what is wrong with planning in Cincinnati. UC could be an urban campus on par with Penn or Harvard if its surrounding streets tied it to the neighborhoods instead of creating a moat around it. 

 

The very logical first step would two-waying Calhoun and McMillan on the south side of campus. They were converted to two-way in Walnut Hills and as far as I know it didn't create mass chaos the way DOTE feared it would. With the new MLK interchange now open, providing a better way for large number of vehicles to get into Uptown, there is no reason Calhoun and McMillan need to continue to serve as one-way car sewers.

1 hour ago, Chas Wiederhold said:

 

Truly a shame. I can only imagine how student culture would change if getting to Burnet Woods wasn't a game of IRL frogger. Jefferson does an okay job with the median plantings, IMO, but would do even better with a streetcar running up it. A streetcar on Jefferson would justify its width. Clifton does okay until Joselin, then turns into a drag race to MLK. 

 

University Ave. should have never been removed from campus.  It formerly met Clifton Ave. opposite Probasco St.   That's where the drive for DAAP down to Crosley Tower is now. 

 

The way that UC is full of these crazy access roads leading to loading docks and dumpsters is obnoxious.  Added to that, few of the new buildings have front doors.  So the whole thing is just a bunch of hamster tubes. 

 

Not only is the school surrounded by stroads, no buildings face any of the stroads.  DAAP and Crosley float in space.  The 3 2 sisters float in space.  Marion Spencer hall has a Tim Horton's but not a lobby.  Turner doesn't face Jefferson because scary black people used to live across the street.  The Edwards Center wants to be in Blue Ash so bad. 

 

 

 

32 minutes ago, taestell said:

 

The very logical first step would two-waying Calhoun and McMillan on the south side of campus. They were converted to two-way in Walnut Hills and as far as I know it didn't create mass chaos the way DOTE feared it would. With the new MLK interchange now open, providing a better way for large number of vehicles to get into Uptown, there is no reason Calhoun and McMillan need to continue to serve as one-way car sewers.

When DOTE came to speak with the East Walnut Hills Assembly about converting Taft and McMillan to two-way in the neighborhood they specifically said they wouldn't be converting Calhoun and McMillan in near campus because of the number of cars using it. That most of them get on/off the highway is why the rest of McMillan/Taft could get converted.

7 minutes ago, jmecklenborg said:

 

University Ave. should have never been removed from campus.  It formerly met Clifton Ave. opposite Probasco St.   That's where the drive for DAAP down to Crosley Tower is now. 

 

The way that UC is full of these crazy access roads leading to loading docks and dumpsters is obnoxious.  Added to that, few of the new buildings have front doors.  So the whole thing is just a bunch of hamster tubes. 

 

Not only is the school surrounded by stroads, no buildings face any of the stroads.  DAAP and Crosley float in space.  The 3 2 sisters float in space.  Marion Spencer hall has a Tim Horton's but not a lobby.  Turner doesn't face Jefferson because scary black people used to live across the street.  The Edwards Center wants to be in Blue Ash so bad. 

 

 

 

 

 

It felt very piecemeal. I was never motivated to explore campus due to the zany layout despite being a very curious person regarding that sort of thing at the other schools I attended. I only ever went in four buildings, except once to the ID office. 3 of the 4 were the ones with food.

3 hours ago, taestell said:

 

The very logical first step would two-waying Calhoun and McMillan on the south side of campus. They were converted to two-way in Walnut Hills and as far as I know it didn't create mass chaos the way DOTE feared it would. With the new MLK interchange now open, providing a better way for large number of vehicles to get into Uptown, there is no reason Calhoun and McMillan need to continue to serve as one-way car sewers.

 

Calhoun and McMillan just south of campus average over 15,000 cars per day - or, rather, they did in 2009. Anecdotally it seems significantly higher now given all the new construction in the area since then, specifically the parking garages. In Walnut Hills, the numbers are around 8000 - 9000.

 

Given how dense Calhoun and McMillan are, I don't think they really function as barriers despite being two lane one way traffic. Outside of downtown I'd say that those few blocks are the best urban settings in Cincinnati. The other three sides of campus are different stories. Ideally, West Clifton would eventually see a streetcar line all the way north to Ludlow, perhaps in a dedicated lane, with adjacent dedicated bike lanes. The Law building and Wilson Auditorium site, IMO, play a bigger role in how UC's west side of campus meets the neighborhood than Clifton Avenue does. Both sides have tremendous potential.

3 hours ago, jmecklenborg said:

Not only is the school surrounded by stroads, no buildings face any of the stroads.  DAAP and Crosley float in space.  The 3 2 sisters float in space.  Marion Spencer hall has a Tim Horton's but not a lobby.  Turner doesn't face Jefferson because scary black people used to live across the street.  The Edwards Center wants to be in Blue Ash so bad.

 

Most college campuses seem to be inward-facing but at least UC is open to the streets around it instead of closed off. I lived a block from Columbia University for awhile and the entire campus is inaccessible from public streets aside from a handful of spots. And those spots have gates that get locked at night. I think these older campuses are purposefully closed off in order to create a sense of exclusivity for students. Nowadays, campuses are closed off to create a sense of security for the parents of suburban high school kids.

I think Calhoun/Taft and McMillan would benefit most from 2-way conversion east of Vine St. Those are the stretches that feel like highways and lack much in the way of good urbanism. Between Vine and Clifton, even with them being 1-way, the development feels sufficiently dense that I don't really mind it. If anything it makes it a little easier to jaywalk when you only have to look in one direction. 

2 hours ago, Ram23 said:

 

Most college campuses seem to be inward-facing but at least UC is open to the streets around it instead of closed off. I lived a block from Columbia University for awhile and the entire campus is inaccessible from public streets aside from a handful of spots. And those spots have gates that get locked at night. I think these older campuses are purposefully closed off in order to create a sense of exclusivity for students. Nowadays, campuses are closed off to create a sense of security for the parents of suburban high school kids.

 

Pratt in Brooklyn is (or at least was) the most fenced-off...literally just one physical entrance to the campus.  There were 1-2 exits, but they were those revolving metal things like what they have on the subway. 

 

Here is the main entrance:

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.6898102,-73.9652019,3a,75y,27.42h,94.37t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1slYlJ6yEUxDKwY6liHT3d2w!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

 

 

I hear you knocking, but you can't come in:

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.6922204,-73.9626629,3a,53.1y,199.57h,89.62t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sJtAVdOm9QUG4sPSe6-1Ehg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

 

 

Edited March 14, 20196 yr by jmecklenborg

On 3/12/2019 at 12:47 PM, jmecklenborg said:

Automobile access to the former ERC Circle has been eliminated.  So you can no longer drive up to the rec center or the engineering building.  That former driveway is now stunted at the new Lindner business school. 

 

What's the long-term plan for that outdoor space between the new Lindner, the ERC, and the Rec Center? How will it be landscaped? 

This is the only shot I've seen with the plan.

^thanks @tonyt3524 for the rendering. I hope that outdoor space succeeds as a place where students want to linger, but the rendering doesn't inspire much confidence. Too much of UC's landscape architecture is too open and exposed (especially around Sigma Sigma Commons), making students and faculty not want to hang out for extended periods of time.  The more successful parts of campus are more compact and give a better sense of enclosure. I hope they find ways to "shrink" this open space. 

18 hours ago, Ram23 said:

 

Most college campuses seem to be inward-facing but at least UC is open to the streets around it instead of closed off. I lived a block from Columbia University for awhile and the entire campus is inaccessible from public streets aside from a handful of spots. And those spots have gates that get locked at night. I think these older campuses are purposefully closed off in order to create a sense of exclusivity for students. Nowadays, campuses are closed off to create a sense of security for the parents of suburban high school kids.

 

Most campuses now understand that walling themselves off from their urban settings is not a good move and have worked to rectify the situation. Both Penn and Drexel have done a ton to better embrace their West Philly setting and it shows. Go to Google streetview and use the slider to see the difference. It's amazing how much they've opened themselves up to the community. 

32 minutes ago, jwulsin said:

^thanks @tonyt3524 for the rendering. I hope that outdoor space succeeds as a place where students want to linger, but the rendering doesn't inspire much confidence. Too much of UC's landscape architecture is too open and exposed (especially around Sigma Sigma Commons), making students and faculty not want to hang out for extended periods of time.  The more successful parts of campus are more compact and give a better sense of enclosure. I hope they find ways to "shrink" this open space. 

 

I always thought UC's open spaces tried to do way too much, and that's why people didn't use them as hangout spots. Sigma Sigma commons has all these hills and pyramid land forms, an amphitheater, fountains, etc. If they just created an open lawn with some trees for shade, it'd probably be used much more. Look at one of the finest college green spaces in the country- the Oval at OSU. It's about as simple as it gets, but it's massively successful. 

^Yeah, College Green at Ohio University is great too.  One of my friends proposed to his now-wife on that green.  Has anyone proposed near that Sigma Sigma torch thingy?

I feel like so many of UC's new buildings and open spaces are designed to be like contemporary art. A bit strange and confusing, and you need some sort of interpretive statement to know how to 'read' them and understand what they were going for. That cone shaped hill near Jefferson is supposed to be some allusion to native culture or the hills of Cincinnati or some BS, no doubt. 

consider contacting this dude. Maybe he can help to fill you in on his intent.

 

Andrew Leicester is a public artist born and educated in England who immigrated to the U.S. in 1970. He currently resides in Minneapolis, MN. For the past three decades, Mr. Leicester has created public art projects that range in size and scope from small courtyards to municipal transit plazas, park entrances and water gardens throughout the U.S., U.K. and Australia. Recent projects include “Parade of Floats”, sixteen sculptures lining pedestrian routes to the new Civic Center in San Jose, California, and “Flying Shuttles”, 27 integrated works into the exterior facade and courtyard of the new Bobcats Arena in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Mr. Leicester has received numerous awards for his work as well as fellowships from the Bush Foundation, the McKnight Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. Internationally recognized as a public artist, as well as a popular lecturer and panelist, he feels his art should exist in the public domain and form links between its specific location and host community. The iconography of his work, often humorous and multilayered, is derived from extensive research of the various social, historical and environmental characteristics of each location. All convey a striking sense of place.

For his projects, Mr. Leicester produces a variety of artistic elements within variously scaled settings that engage the general public both physically and intellectually. His most recent work addresses the issues of sustainability, most specifically wind and solar power, and reclamation.

33 minutes ago, edale said:

If they just created an open lawn with some trees for shade, it'd probably be used much more. Look at one of the finest college green spaces in the country- the Oval at OSU. It's about as simple as it gets, but it's massively successful. 

 

Except that doesn't look as good in a landscape architect's portfolio.

On 3/13/2019 at 2:54 PM, jmecklenborg said:

The way that UC is full of these crazy access roads leading to loading docks and dumpsters is obnoxious.  Added to that, few of the new buildings have front doors.  So the whole thing is just a bunch of hamster tubes. 

 

Not only is the school surrounded by stroads, no buildings face any of the stroads.  DAAP and Crosley float in space.  The 3 2 sisters float in space.  Marion Spencer hall has a Tim Horton's but not a lobby.  Turner doesn't face Jefferson because scary black people used to live across the street.  The Edwards Center wants to be in Blue Ash so bad. 

 

2 hours ago, edale said:

I always thought UC's open spaces tried to do way too much, and that's why people didn't use them as hangout spots. Sigma Sigma commons has all these hills and pyramid land forms, an amphitheater, fountains, etc. If they just created an open lawn with some trees for shade, it'd probably be used much more. Look at one of the finest college green spaces in the country- the Oval at OSU. It's about as simple as it gets, but it's massively successful. 

 

I agree. UC's effort to build a fancy campus with a bunch of starchitect-designed buildings feels more like an effort to show off and win awards and wow high school students who are taking a campus tour. There are still a bunch of part of the campus that are ugly or half-@$$ed (the classroom trailer park along Clifton Avenue, the infamous changeable letter sign [discussed here]), and many of their open spaces are harsh areas where students don't want to spend time, study under a tree, or sit on a bench and peoplewatch. The fact that campus is surrounded by stroads on three sides makes it worse. And while Calhoun/McMillan are somewhat pedestrian friendly, UC doesn't really have a proper entrance on the south side—you either walk down Scioto or Dennis past the Corry Garage, walk down Corbett Drive past the back of CCM, or use the pedestrian entrance between the YWCA (which is currently abandoned) and Calhoun Hall (whose street-facing entrance is closed).

Y'all are a tough crowd to please. I can't disagree more. I love UC's campus. It is truly different, in a very good way. The most urban microcosmic campus you will find (outside of campuses contained within single skyscrapers). Mainstreet flipped the script on what social space looks like on a college campus. So what if UC's main social space isn't a classic quad like the Oval or anything at OU or Miami; that's so 19th Century. Mainstreet on a spring or fall day looks like an ant farm of human activity. Open yer eyes!

 

And I don't care if you've lived in Corryville your whole life, I've lived, studied, and worked off and on that campus for 7 of the last 10 years. Anyone who is boo-hooing that people don't hang out on Sigma Sigma Commons hasn't taken a good look at it since 2005. I have students who literally call the east end of Sigma Sigma Commons  "Eno Grove" because of the double and triple decked hammocks (Eno is a popular brand) that spring up in the tree groves. When the weather is nice, it would be rare to not find a cricket game being played on campus and people sitting in the amphitheater. Heck, there might even be some Don Juan or Juanita playing their guitar on one of the sculptural hills. Does every part of a landscape have to have a purpose? Can't we just delight in the uncanny and absurd?

 

Tailgating on Sigma Sigma Commons has grown exponentially since I was in undergrad there 10 years ago. With the university orienting more buildings to open up onto the commons, the 2 sisters and 1 step sister, the business school, the new law school, and the trees growing taller, Sigma Sigma is only going to become even more popular. It's still important to note: Sigma Sigma Commons is already popular. And for real, half of the conversations on this board are about how shoddy new infill architecture in this city is and then when you have an institution that actually recognizes talent and pays for it, y'all poo poo that too. What gives?!  

 

The above comments confirm the stereotype that Cincinnatians can''t recognize the embarrassment of treasures right under their noses.

Edited March 20, 20196 yr by Chas Wiederhold

UC has the most beautiful, dense, interesting campus I've ever been to. The only complaint I have is that it doesn't interact well with the stroads around it. While every building or area can have problems, it's an incredible campus that's extremely versatile. I agree with Chas completely.

16 minutes ago, Chas Wiederhold said:

The most urban microcosmic campus you will find (outside of campuses contained within single skyscrapers).

 

George Washington University?  DePaul University?  Harvard?  I'd call those more urban because they're completely integrated into the surrounding city fabric.  Or are you using the term "microcosmic campus" to mean a self-contained campus separate from what's around it?  UC is actually more like a typical rural campus in that respect, but with the interstitial spaces squeezed out.  It's not really urban, it's just compact.  While there's elements of urban principles in a few places, it's very disjointed and there's no consistency whatsoever in either the buildings or the public spaces.   There's not enough room for the signature buildings to be objets d'art unencumbered by neighbors and viewable in-the-round.  However despite the building density, it's still a suburban/rural paradigm of buildings floating in the landscape (of which there isn't enough to do properly) rather than a properly urban typology of the buildings defining street walls. 

 

Essentially the figure/ground diagram is wrong for the density.  Look at the image below comparing Washington DC and UC.  Can you tell where DC's streets are?  How about UC's?  While the spaces themselves are quite heavily designed, there's no organization to it like in DC or in any old city.  McMicken Commons, the most formal open space on campus, is very poorly defined.  Imagine UC with a network of small pedestrian access streets and a couple of monumental plazas or quads with the signature buildings facing those spaces but with a certain level of formality and decorum.  That would be more properly urban. 

Depaul and George Washington aren't campuses, they just own multiple buildings in close proximity in a city. That would be like saying Gateway in Covington is an urban campus. That's not a campus. Campus to me implies that the buildings are arranged with the space between them for the use of a pedestrian, or gathering pedestrians only. Campuses are one of the only truly pedestrian only spaces in the country with the only exceptions coming to mind being an amusement park or indoor shopping mall. Where else in major cities do you have huge acres of land dedicated to a pedestrian only experience putting cars completely out of sight?

 

I love Cincinnati's campus. The weird 'look at me' buildings, even if you don't like them individually, create some very interesting and unique spaces between them that mixed with the topography of the campus are unlike any other campus I've ever been to. So many universities try to just replicate standard quads that they start to feel very samey. UC has the most in common with MIT in terms of unique buildings, but with more open space, and with University of Tennessee's topography. It's great. 

 

Also there is an RFP out for the space in front of Zimmer (the one with a nautilus pattern on the ground), so at least one of the bland hardscapes is being improved this summer. 

Edited March 15, 20196 yr by ucgrady

At some point around 1950, UC decided to grow toward the hospitals. If, instead, the campus had been expanded northward into the useless Burnett Woods, Corryville could have been left unmolested from Bishop St. eastward. 

 

Look at how MLK swerves along the top edge of the campus -- pretty much everything that has been built in a blob east of the Bishop St. line could have been built in a dense cluster north of DAAP.   The absolutely, positively never-used lawn between MLK & Clifton and the DAAP bunker is actually a huge space, but we speed past it so quickly we don't realize how big it is.  Turner, Daniels, Schneider, Morgans, Scioto, and Marion Spencer could have all been built between MLK and DAAP and the library.  Instead, we have a useless lawn. 

UC's campus is the bomb. It's Friday. I don't have the bandwidth to respond semantic warriors or haters. I will go down with this ship. I don't give a hoot about Hausman's Paris or L'Enfant's DC. I'm interested in Koolhaas' Lille and Bernard Tschumi's Parc de la Villette and Kohn Peterson Fox's Hudson Yards/High Line and James Corner Field Operation's Vancouver. Pragmatism, not historicism. There's my bias. That's why I think UC rocks. I'm not alone. If those places don't fit your definition of urbanism, such is the way of this wonderful world where the answers are made up and the points don't matter. 

 

Here, someone already wrote this argument from both sides. I'll save us all the prodding and poking:

 

Lessons from Cincinnati

What can Harvard learn from the Midwestern university's bold building boom?

http://archive.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/articles/2007/11/18/lessons_from_cincinnati/?page=2

 

EDIT for family friendliness

 

Edited March 15, 20196 yr by Chas Wiederhold

While I never had any reason to venture over to this part of campus while in grad school at DAAP, I had the chance to visit it last fall when a friend was in town and found it quite populated. Here are some pics from then:

 

 

I'm not saying that areas like MainStreet, Sigma Sigma Commons, McMicken Commons, McMicken Circle, etc. aren't good/popular. They clearly are.

 

What I am saying is that the average UC student who is spending their life on and around campus is spending more of their time in the parts of the campus that are not that pretty. Many students enter campus by walking down Corbett Drive or Dennis Street which are butt ugly. UC needs a proper entrance from the south and/or the southwest corner. They should do something about Clifton Court/College Drive as well.

 

Maybe my opinion is partially based on the fact that I worked as an intern and then an employee in the university's PR/communications office for a few years, and I saw how much that department (and other university-level departments) had their agendas set by the Admissions department, rather than by the colleges or by the current student body. The number one priority is making sure potential students see all of the shiny new parts of campus and decide to apply on the spot. As you get further away from parts of campus that potential students will see, and into areas that only enrolled students will go, there is much less concern given to how it looks and functions.

Inside the master plan to reshape UC Health

 

 

Work is underway on a master plan that could reshape UC Health's campus, CEO Dr. Rick Lofgren said. The result could be more buildings with distinctive architecture.

 

More below:

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2019/03/22/inside-the-master-plan-to-reshape-uc-health.html

From the article: The Neuroscience Building could be expanded up to 8 stories higher?? That's wild. One of Perkins + Will's best projects.

Edited March 22, 20196 yr by Chas Wiederhold

Early design ideas called for a building that looked like a brain.  Kind of like how the Engineering building looks like an engine.  Or White Castle looks like a castle. 

Was that @UncleRando on Sigma Sigma?

47 minutes ago, Chas Wiederhold said:

From the article: The Neuroscience Building could be expanded up to 8 stories higher?? That's wild. One of Perkins + Will's best projects.

Isn't it brand new, too?

On 3/19/2019 at 9:40 AM, taestell said:

I'm not saying that areas like MainStreet, Sigma Sigma Commons, McMicken Commons, McMicken Circle, etc. aren't good/popular. They clearly are.

 

What I am saying is that the average UC student who is spending their life on and around campus is spending more of their time in the parts of the campus that are not that pretty. Many students enter campus by walking down Corbett Drive or Dennis Street which are butt ugly. UC needs a proper entrance from the south and/or the southwest corner. They should do something about Clifton Court/College Drive as well.

 

Maybe my opinion is partially based on the fact that I worked as an intern and then an employee in the university's PR/communications office for a few years, and I saw how much that department (and other university-level departments) had their agendas set by the Admissions department, rather than by the colleges or by the current student body. The number one priority is making sure potential students see all of the shiny new parts of campus and decide to apply on the spot. As you get further away from parts of campus that potential students will see, and into areas that only enrolled students will go, there is much less concern given to how it looks and functions.

 

 

Interesting. Makes sense, though.

Three large projects have been approved to move forward, which will have a big impact on the area around Clifton Ave and Probasco.

 

https://www.uc.edu/news/articles/2019/04/n20828709.html

1. Clifton Court Hall - A new 180,000 square-foot classroom building will be planned where two modular structures currently stand at the intersection of Clifton Avenue and Clifton Court Drive, just north of the College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP).

2. Probasco Auditorium and classrooms - An adaptive reuse project by UC Planning, Design + Construction will transform the interior of the vacant Second Church of Christ Scientist at the corner of Clifton Avenue and Probasco Street into an auditorium space seating more than 330. It will also house classroom space, and it’s anticipated that the $8.5 million project will be ready for use in Fall 2021.

3. DAAP Studio Annex - Graduate students in fine arts and art education in the College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning will soon have studio and working space adjacent to campus in the form of the DAAP Studio Annex, a one-story structured frame clad in steel located on one acre at 425 Riddle Road (across Clifton Avenue from DAAP’s college location).

There are no designs of the Clifton Court Hall yet. "Probasco Auditorium" will be beautiful, especially if they're able to restore the large stained glass windows as the rendering suggest. I'm not a huge fan of the metal box design of the DAAP Studio Annex, but I'm most interested/curious to see how it will face the streets. The rendering doesn't make it clear how it will be situated relative to MLK/Riddle/Clifton/Probasco. I sure wish UC would use this as an opportunity to pressure DOTE to make the MLK/Clifton intersection less pedestrian hostile. 

 

1 hour ago, jwulsin said:

Three large projects have been approved to move forward, which will have a big impact on the area around Clifton Ave and Probasco.

 

https://www.uc.edu/news/articles/2019/04/n20828709.html

1. Clifton Court Hall - A new 180,000 square-foot classroom building will be planned where two modular structures currently stand at the intersection of Clifton Avenue and Clifton Court Drive, just north of the College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP).

2. Probasco Auditorium and classrooms - An adaptive reuse project by UC Planning, Design + Construction will transform the interior of the vacant Second Church of Christ Scientist at the corner of Clifton Avenue and Probasco Street into an auditorium space seating more than 330. It will also house classroom space, and it’s anticipated that the $8.5 million project will be ready for use in Fall 2021.

3. DAAP Studio Annex - Graduate students in fine arts and art education in the College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning will soon have studio and working space adjacent to campus in the form of the DAAP Studio Annex, a one-story structured frame clad in steel located on one acre at 425 Riddle Road (across Clifton Avenue from DAAP’s college location).

There are no designs of the Clifton Court Hall yet. "Probasco Auditorium" will be beautiful, especially if they're able to restore the large stained glass windows as the rendering suggest. I'm not a huge fan of the metal box design of the DAAP Studio Annex, but I'm most interested/curious to see how it will face the streets. The rendering doesn't make it clear how it will be situated relative to MLK/Riddle/Clifton/Probasco. I sure wish UC would use this as an opportunity to pressure DOTE to make the MLK/Clifton intersection less pedestrian hostile. 

 

 

If I recall correctly, the Clifton Court Hall building is partially going to house all of the displaced faculty/staff out of Crosley tower before it's torn down.

"Just north of DAAP" ?? Do they mean south?

2 hours ago, 513to424 said:

"Just north of DAAP" ?? Do they mean south?

Cardinal directions are just social constructs. LOL

2 hours ago, 513to424 said:

"Just north of DAAP" ?? Do they mean south?

Poles flipped, all compasses point "North" to Destin Fl. now.

 

Will the Daap Annex have right angles? 

12 minutes ago, jmecklenborg said:

Will the Daap Annex have right angles? 

This is the 20teens man, it will have ONLY right angles! (Excluding 2 spots where we roll with 30degrees)

Build an art school out of a scrapped ship made out of scrapped shipping containers.  

$2.5 million for the DAAP Annex? Is it just me or is that a really low budget for a building of this apparent size? Unless it's going to be a fancy Amazon warehouse esque building with curtains for walls. 

Yep i believe in the RFP they called it a steel pole barn or words to that effect.