Notre Dame to ACC

[RichH]

The UMass campus is an ode to poured concrete in the 1970s in a great college town and the Rutgers campus is more like plots of land linked by bus stops.

As a new New Brunswick resident, I have some perspective on this:  you're exactly right.  Rutgers made the mistake--the same one that many schools have--of building a "University/Office Park of the Future" across the river, even in the face of what surely would have been a favorable investment situation in New Brunswick proper had they chosen to expand in town.  And students have been consigned, ever since, to busses, busses, and busses.

Perhaps in response to this slew of bad choices, they also found a way to cram as many parking lots as possible into the downtown "College Avenue" campus, even the Old Queens section, presumably to make it easier to get back and forth.  To the credit of New Brunswick and its city government, the tide seems to have turned against more, or at least badly designed, parking lots, but methinks it's going to take some time to change the culture.  It's OK--bit better than average New Jersey, but just OK--here as it is, but part of me wonders how good it might be in 20 or 30 years.

My daughter is a HS senior, and Rutgers was the only campus that she visited that she really disliked (I did as well) -- a disjointed campus with a majority of ugly buildings.

Did she visit SUNY Albany?

No, but I've heard it's a concrete nightmare

Once you're on campus SUNY-A is not remarkably bad, it's just another 13th grade campus like you'd see at most schools.  But there is no connection between the town and the campus except for cars and buses, and that makes it depressing.

At least the parts I've seen are '60's modernist architecture at its peak or nadir, depending on your point of view. Some people love it; others hate it.

From my perspective, if you put bars on the windows and a fence around the campus, you could easily mistake it for a prison.

http://fuckyeahbrutalism.tumblr.com

[Swampy]

The UMass campus is an ode to poured concrete in the 1970s in a great college town and the Rutgers campus is more like plots of land linked by bus stops.

As a new New Brunswick resident, I have some perspective on this:  you're exactly right.  Rutgers made the mistake--the same one that many schools have--of building a "University/Office Park of the Future" across the river, even in the face of what surely would have been a favorable investment situation in New Brunswick proper had they chosen to expand in town.  And students have been consigned, ever since, to busses, busses, and busses.

Perhaps in response to this slew of bad choices, they also found a way to cram as many parking lots as possible into the downtown "College Avenue" campus, even the Old Queens section, presumably to make it easier to get back and forth.  To the credit of New Brunswick and its city government, the tide seems to have turned against more, or at least badly designed, parking lots, but methinks it's going to take some time to change the culture.  It's OK--bit better than average New Jersey, but just OK--here as it is, but part of me wonders how good it might be in 20 or 30 years.

My daughter is a HS senior, and Rutgers was the only campus that she visited that she really disliked (I did as well) -- a disjointed campus with a majority of ugly buildings.

Did she visit SUNY Albany?

No, but I've heard it's a concrete nightmare

Once you're on campus SUNY-A is not remarkably bad, it's just another 13th grade campus like you'd see at most schools.  But there is no connection between the town and the campus except for cars and buses, and that makes it depressing.

At least the parts I've seen are '60's modernist architecture at its peak or nadir, depending on your point of view. Some people love it; others hate it.

From my perspective, if you put bars on the windows and a fence around the campus, you could easily mistake it for a prison.

http://fuckyeahbrutalism.tumblr.com

The interior shot of the Negev synagogue is sort of nice. I guess it helps to have an architect who doesn't worry about anything.

[Josh '99]

The UMass campus is an ode to poured concrete in the 1970s in a great college town and the Rutgers campus is more like plots of land linked by bus stops.

As a new New Brunswick resident, I have some perspective on this:  you're exactly right.  Rutgers made the mistake--the same one that many schools have--of building a "University/Office Park of the Future" across the river, even in the face of what surely would have been a favorable investment situation in New Brunswick proper had they chosen to expand in town.  And students have been consigned, ever since, to busses, busses, and busses.

Perhaps in response to this slew of bad choices, they also found a way to cram as many parking lots as possible into the downtown "College Avenue" campus, even the Old Queens section, presumably to make it easier to get back and forth.  To the credit of New Brunswick and its city government, the tide seems to have turned against more, or at least badly designed, parking lots, but methinks it's going to take some time to change the culture.  It's OK--bit better than average New Jersey, but just OK--here as it is, but part of me wonders how good it might be in 20 or 30 years.

New Jersey is as much of a car culture as anywhere in the country, especially considering it's an area that actually has transit options.

[Josh '99]

When I was accepted into Cornell Engineering I got a pamphlet saying, among other things, that Cornell expects students to work four hours for every credit hour.

Holy crap, is that what I was supposed to do?  No wonder my grades were crap.  :-O

[Trotsky]

http://fuckyeahbrutalism.tumblr.com

It's easy to be a transformative visionary when you despise your client.

[Scersk '97]

http://fuckyeahbrutalism.tumblr.com

Just brutalism with glass, a few desultory curves, and an insulting tin ceiling.

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

http://fuckyeahbrutalism.tumblr.com

Just brutalism with glass, a few desultory curves, and an insulting tin ceiling.

Hey Cornell, your crucufix fell over!

[Rosey]

http://fuckyeahbrutalism.tumblr.com

Just brutalism with glass, a few desultory curves, and an insulting tin ceiling.

Just what I was thinking. Sadly, too many of Cornell's recent additions are similarly brutal. The Ives addition, for instance, is brutalism with a partial stone veneer.

[Trotsky]

Remember, it's only profound if it's unpleasant.

[Rosey]

Remember, it's only profound if it's unpleasant.

I think I've made this point before, but the real problem here is that the trustees generally don't have to cross campus every day, or (ever) use the buildings they advocate or approve. When minor stakeholders have the final say on something, it's a complete crapshoot whether the end result will optimally serve the major stakeholders. You might say, "Well, don't all universities have this problem?" Yup, which is why the vast majority of them have ugly-ass buildings. Cornell ceased to be an exception to this decades ago.

[Swampy]

Remember, it's only profound if it's unpleasant.

I think I've made this point before, but the real problem here is that the trustees generally don't have to cross campus every day, or (ever) use the buildings they advocate or approve. When minor stakeholders have the final say on something, it's a complete crapshoot whether the end result will optimally serve the major stakeholders. You might say, "Well, don't all universities have this problem?" Yup, which is why the vast majority of them have ugly-ass buildings. Cornell ceased to be an exception to this decades ago.

It's not just ugly-ass buildings individually. They also mix aesthetically incompatible buildings next to each other, which by themselves individually are OK.

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

Remember, it's only profound if it's unpleasant.

I think I've made this point before, but the real problem here is that the trustees generally don't have to cross campus every day, or (ever) use the buildings they advocate or approve. When minor stakeholders have the final say on something, it's a complete crapshoot whether the end result will optimally serve the major stakeholders. You might say, "Well, don't all universities have this problem?" Yup, which is why the vast majority of them have ugly-ass buildings. Cornell ceased to be an exception to this decades ago.

It's not just ugly-ass buildings individually. They also mix aesthetically incompatible buildings next to each other, which by themselves individually are OK.

Nah, they're pretty ugly on their own.  ::rolleyes::

[Trotsky]

It's been all down hill since