Sunday, April 10, 2005

 

University of Cincinnati Development

It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon, much better than you can normally expect in early April in Cincinnati. So I ventured up to Clifton, my former home, my alma mater. It wasn't until 2 years ago (3 years after graduating Electrical Engineering) that I finally left the clifton area. I made a trip to the campus I used to know. What I found was astounding. I've read the articles about the 'Main St.' Development, about the Linder (son) donation for University Village, the CHCURC Calhoun St changes, and even the new Greek Village going up on the West side of campus. However, there are no words that can describe what I found. It is truly a place that only five years removed I don't recognize. And I'd say it's all for the better.

At first it's hard to come to grips with the modern facade on the beautiful brick Tangeman Univeristy Center,

And difficult to see the bookstore torn down, which was brand new when I started at UC in 1994.

But sometimes progress requires some changes that are hard to take. I've included some pictures, (more here) and hope they are interesting, especially to those of you who are fellow bearcats that might not be able to make it back often. But if you are in the cincy area, I recommend you taking your own stroll around campus. I think you'll love what you see. It makes me want to go back and get a graduate degree in Urban Planning.

Comments:
Ironic... I was also on campus on Saturday too and was pleasantly surprised at the look and feel of campus. The campus I knew and enjoyed is no longer there, but the new campus is a great place to enjoy. There certainly seems to be more green space and areas to hang out and stay on campus (which was one of the goals of Main Street). I was not a fan of the look (especially to TUC) when the plans first came out, but I do have to say the place looks great and I wouldn’t mind being a student again (well, without the homework and exams part!).
 
Just as a point of clarification, the pictures you label as Main St aren't actually that. That area, between Swift Hall and the new Steger Student Life Center (the long winding skinny building), is the Mews. Main Street, which will be much wider and more open, isn't really discernable yet because the contruction site for the new Rec Center (designed by most recent Pritzker Prize recipient Thom Mayne) is in the way. Main Street will spill out into Sigma Sigma Commons right where the bookstore used to me. The Mews spits out behind the Engineering Research Center.

Technically, Main Street is supposed to run pretty much the diagonal length of the campus, from the low, fountain thing between McMicken and the little library with the old and future dome whose name I can't remember right now, all the way past the Rec Center toward the new Jefferson dorms (where the tennis courts were) or off through Sigma Sigma toward the EPA building with it's new wedge projecting into the sky.
 
I agree with you on the changes to UC. I was there a week ago and really like what was going on. Now if we can just get past the second round of the NCAA march madness.
 
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