Bill Gates Hall > goodbye Hoy Field?

[Ben Rocky '04]

They want it near Engineering and Ag, that doesn't leave too many options....

http://www.cornellsun.com/media/paper866/news/2006/01/26/News/Gates.Foundation.Gives.25.Million.For.Building-1505285.shtml?norewrite&sourcedomain=www.cornellsun.com

[Jacob '06]

Wasn't it going to go underneath?

[Liz '05]

Underneath what?  And why do we need more buildings?  Can't we make some of them more space-efficient? (ahem, Duffield, the devil-horned, atria-filled building)

I vote for grass.

[jtwcornell91]

[quote Jacob '06]Wasn't it going to go underneath?[/quote]

Don't we have problems when we try to build underground (Campus Store, Kroch Library)?

[Jacob '06]

[quote jtwcornell91][quote Jacob '06]Wasn't it going to go underneath?[/quote]

Don't we have problems when we try to build underground (Campus Store, Kroch Library)?[/quote]


Not saying i'm an advocate, just saying that the rumor I heard was that the building would go under the baseball field.

[Trotsky]

By 2011, the entire campus will look like the surface of Trantor.

Whenever they build one structure they need to burn another one down.

[Liz '05]

Nice reference (Asimov's Foundation Trilogy, for those who didn't catch it.)

[Roy 82]

At least that T-shirt they gave Bill Gates during his 2004 visit paid off in the end. I was worried that we were kissing up to the guy for no reason.

[billhoward]

Friends who have friends in Day Hall believe it's only a matter of time - a year, a decade, less than our lifetime - before Hoy Field bites the dust.

Cornell can build successfully going down when it's not too cheap to do the job right. The Campus Store was simply an honest or dumb mistake. Nobody thought to test for solid rock under the grass and - lo! - it was solid rock. (Is testing the soil something architects and civil engineers were supposed to do back around 1970 when this happened? Was this a known technology, driving a rod down into the ground and seeing how far it went? So many things to remember to do, and if you get one thing wrong, everybody's upset with you.)

So rather than pay extra to blast down and provide an unbroken sight line from Day Hall to Willard Straight Hall, Cornell let it sit five, ten, fifteen, something like that, feet above ground level. Maybe the figured the soil would settle over time.

[Chris \'03]

[quote billhoward]Friends who have friends in Day Hall believe it's only a matter of time - a year, a decade, less than our lifetime - before Hoy Field bites the dust.
[/quote]

Of course if it were a building, the fact that it's 84 years old and has hosted a legend like Lou Gehrig would be reason to keep it. But it's a field and open space is quanit and an enemy of modern Cornell. We need more research space. Grass be gone! Build over the parking lots by the Vet school. Put all the buldings used for research and not teaching out there. Don't make athletes bus to find a field. It will be a shame when cornell athletes have to make like columbia athletes and bus to practice everyday because the university thought they needed another giant research facility.

[billhoward]

Nice thing about Princeton (which is half or a third Cornell's size) is how it integrates the athletic fields within walking distance of dorms and classrooms.

Surprised Cornell hasn't tried to expand more across the gorge into collegetown. It would screw up the CTown atmosphere somewhat but there aren't many architecturally signifiant rental apartments that would be lost.

[David Harding]

[quote billhoward]...
Surprised Cornell hasn't tried to expand more across the gorge into collegetown. It would screw up the CTown atmosphere somewhat but there aren't many architecturally signifiant rental apartments that would be lost.[/quote]I'm not surprised.  The University doesn't own land in Collegetown beyond Sheldon Court, the performing arts center, and Cascadilla Hall, and it doesn't have the right of eminent domain to facilitate the acquisition of more land.

On the underground option -
1) The Campus Store just didn't have the budget to blast out enough rock.  It wasn't news to anyone that the rock there.  In contrast to the Campus Store, I think the Kroch Library addition was very successful.  It is totally unobtrusive; most of its space doesn't need windows, in fact is better without; and the architect brought sun light into the central, habitable space very nicely.

2) But the Sun article talks about "a signature building."  It seems to me highly unlikely that it will be underground.

I really hate to lose more open space.:`(   The campus feels more an more urban every time I turn around.  Having the intramural fields (Upper Alumni) right around the corner from classes and relatively central to north, west, and south housing seemed to  me a great benefit.  There is still a little open land there, isn't there?  

I wonder whether Barton Hall is considered expendable.  It's certainly central.  Rumors surface every now and then about its possible demise.  In what shape are the ILR buildings along the west side of Garden Avenue?  They don't strike me as architecturally significant.  Maybe they could be replaced with a single, tall modern structure, making room for the Gates Center.  Then there's all that land around the Andrew Dickeosn White House wasted ::nut:: on gardens.

[billhoward]

I've wondered about Barton's expandability, too. You don't need that much space for ROTC drills, but it's important to have one big indoor gathering place for 7500-10,000 people a couple times a year. If the Rolling Stones Steel Wheelchairs Tour ever comes to Ithaca, that's where it would be.

Building Schoellkopf II as a 20,000-seater with a retractable dome would work.

Is the AD White House inviolate? Libe Slope? (Once, long ago, there wasn't even the museum there.)

Cornell doesn't have eminent domain in C-Town but it does have time on its side. Over two decades virtually every house and building on a block turns over, and if Cornell was patient, could amass enough land along the gorge for a building. Plus maybe a pedestrian bridge over the gorge?

Amazing how the second most rural of the Ivy Schools, after Dartmouth, is so land-locked.

[Al DeFlorio]

[quote billhoward]Cornell doesn't have eminent domain in C-Town but it does have time on its side. Over two decades virtually every house and building on a block turns over, and if Cornell was patient, could amass enough land along the gorge for a building.[/quote]
This was Harvard's strategy in Brighton.

[Liz '05]

[quote billhoward]I've wondered about Barton's expandability, too. You don't need that much space for ROTC drills, but it's important to have one big indoor gathering place for 7500-10,000 people a couple times a year. If the Rolling Stones Steel Wheelchairs Tour ever comes to Ithaca, that's where it would be.
[/quote]

1) Most concerts are in Barton (with the occasional one in Bailey when it's not under construction).  It wouldn't take the Steel Wheelchairs tour to open it up.

2) It's a (recently resurfaced) indoor track, with nifty mini-zambonis.  Where else are you going to put that?  It's used daily by not only the track teams but also by hundreds of Cornell employees that throw on their sneakers and spend their lunch breaks walking and gossiping.  Toss in the mini basketball courts inside the track, and you've also got a whole bunch of regular pick up games in addition to most of intramurals' winter sports and random dance group practices.

3) It's a great place to host major events like finals for every big class Cornell has, presidential inaugurations, indoor commencement exercises, freshman book project panels, Heps, non-dual wrestling meets, local track meets, giant Jewish dinners (Shabbat?), and, my personal favorite, NROTC's CU Invitational Drill Competition/Military Excellence Competition/Hoops Tournement.  Okay, so there are approx. 3 people on this board that have heard of it, but we have teams from about 35 schools (roughly 1000 people?) that come to Cornell each November and compete in drill and physical fitness events.  Go Navy

4) Cornell has long since paid off whatever Barton cost to build, it's pretty solidly built, so it doesn't require much repair, and there are like, 5 employees.  Plus, the government owns and does much of the upkeep for two of the three interior buildings and (presumably) both towers, or at least the rooms therein.

All this is not to say that Barton won't eventually be torn down and replaced by a research building, just that it would be stupid to do so.