I forgot College of Architure, just South of UVA

How much would it cost for FAU to realize they are being fools and start working the Blue Wave into our branding?  Thats what I would do with my money.

I cant seem to reiterate how big of a mistake it is that we do not creatively market that more.  Name the defense that, make it our 2nd nickname, I dont care how we do it but it needs to be a name associated with the school. 

The guys in SGA the past 2 years tried to raise funds for a few large waves that'd be outside, near the roof, of several dorms. Just like how UCF and USF have the Pegasus and the bull horned "U" on many of their buildings.

I have an entire notebook that I'm filling up with ideas, both for on and off-campus, so I'll just share the on-campus stuff now and if you're interested I can tell you about the off-campus stuff in another post. In no particular order:

SPORTS
- For All Sports - a plane for recruiting trips. Also, erect several (digital?) billboards on campus to advertise upcoming games.
- For Basketball…

• [li]10K seat arena (remember, it's used for concerts too) with a Hard Rock Hollywood-style wrap/ribbon screen on the outside that announced all upcoming games and events.[/li]
  [li] The food court-style concessions area would be centered around a large, cylindrical saltwater tank.[/li]
  [li]Set aside money to pay a coach $500k/year for ten years[/li]
  [li]Instead of flat screens protruding from the wall, the concourses to the seats would have interactive wall screens showing clips/scores from the game.
  

- For Football...

• [li]Miami Dolphins-style football bubble for indoor practice.[/li]
  [li]Build a wall separating practice fields from the airport.[/li]
  [li] New Pro Combat uniforms.[/li]
  [li]Rename the stadium as "Paradise Stadium" after "Football in Paradise." [/li]
  [li]Get a new jumbo screen and move the existing one to the south end.[/li]
  [li]Add more concession areas in the stadium itself and have Chick-fil-a sandwiches sold by attendants walking the stands during the game.[/li]
  [li]Construct a "Traditions Theater" attached to the stadium, where people could watch a short "history of FAU football" documentary before the game[/li]
  [li]A greatly expanded Team Store on the south side including a Tailgating Center where you could buy more hotdogs, SOLO cups, charcoal, ice, whatever so you didn't have to physically leave campus.[/li]
  [li]Build a monument outside the stadium where engraved names can be added of all the players drafted by the NFL[/li]
  [li]Set aside money to pay a coach $1M/year for ten years[/li]

- For Baseball… what HootinHollerin' said, and include a large video scoreboard in the center outfield. Rename it Kevin Cooney Stadium.
- For Softball... Renovate and upgrade the stadium, now to be known as Joan Joyce Stadium.
- For Volleyball… Sand volleyball court with stadium seating for 500 people.
- For Track... stadium seating for 500 people around the existing track.
- For Tennis… if anything, consider constructing an on-campus facility. If you want to go all out, and it's Boca and they love tennis in Boca so you might, then consider doing a smaller version of what Delray did on Atlantic Avenue.
- For Swimming… for the love of god build them a respectable indoor facility!
- For Golf… build a Driving Range on campus. This will be a hit with regular students as well.


INNOVATION VILLAGE

• [li]Starbucks (triple the size of the one by the Breezeway Cafe), Panera Bread, Little Caesars Pizza, and a froyo place[/li]
  [li]Schnellenburgers - a football-themed burger place/sports bar/gastropub[/li]
  [li]GameStop[/li]
  [li](Relocated) FAU Traffic and Parking Office[/li]
  [li]24-hour computer lab with study rooms[/li]
  [li]Target Copy (24 hour copy and printing center)[/li]
  [li]MetroPCS / cell phone store[/li]
  [li]Salvation Army thrift store - students are always buying and getting rid of crap, makes sense to have a thrift store on campus[/li]
  [li]Old Navy? - some sort of store with cheap clothing[/li]
  [li]NO OUTTAKES!!![/li]

Greek Village
Key West-style.


ACADEMIC BUILDINGS

• [li]Student Health Center including Optical Services, Pharmacy, Women's Health and Emergency Walk-in Clinic[/li]
  [li]New Student Union - renovate the old Administration building and add onto it[/li]
  [li]Young Owls Daycare Center - a place for students, especially single parents, to drop off their kids so they can attend classes[/li]
  [li]Architecture Building - now that they shut down the Ft. Lauderdale campus, they're going to need one of these![/li]
  [li]Anthropology and Geology Building with dinosaur skeleton replica in the atrium, an indoor Rock Gym and "Paleontology of the Everglades" exhibit; could also potentially be home to the department of History[/li]
  [li]Marine Sciences Institute (MSI@FAU) with museum[/li]
  [li]College of Pharmacy and College of Dentistry[/li]
  [li]FAU Film School with professional equipment, green screen rooms, prop department and cinematic make-up studios (offer a degree in this)[/li]
  [li]Institute for Interactive Entertainment (teaching video game design, interactive interfaces, app design, etc)[/li]
  [li]Owl Media Center with professional level setups for the UP, OWLTV and OwlRadio[/li]
  [li]New Visual Arts Complex including a Student Innovations Gallery (a "museum" of student work including architectural models, Hoot-Wisdom Recordings CD listening kiosks, paintings, sculptures, photographs and a small theater showing off FAU acting performances) [/li]

GENERAL

• [li]Construct a "1961" hedge bush in the plaza area between the gym and the Alumni Center. The beauty of "1961" is that, viewed either from north or south, it would still say "1961" (the year FAU was founded, in case anybody is slow). Here's what it looks like at USC.
  

  ERROR: A link was posted here (img) but it appears to be a broken link.

  [/li]
  [li]There's an ugly area over by the Arts and Letters building where the staircase is, that little square with dead grass and whatnot; redo that as a small pocket park
  [/li]
  [li]There's a walkway from the start of Diversity Way towards the library, parallel to the west side of the old Engineering Building that could use a covered walkway, maybe a pergola with plants growing around it
  [/li]
  [li]Completely re-do the Alumni Plaza area by the library, replacing the ugly tree/bush centerpiece with a large-scale fountain and build seating around it, then re-plant the path to have shade trees from the Breezeway to the Admin building
  [/li]
  [li]And I'll wrap it up here by suggesting we re-do the top of the Breezeway (which nobody uses) to be more like the NYC Hi-Line Park - something I already suggested to Tom Donaudy and he said the Breezeway Renovation that's planned "will have elements like that"
  [/li]

Lot's and lots of things I would want to do. I don't even know where to start.

1. Indoor practice facility for the football team like UCF's fieldhouse.
2. Renovate the baseball stadium, adding seats, a functioning press box and bathrooms while keeping one of the berms in tact.
3. Donate 2 million strictly for a men's track and field program.
4. Provide funding so that all football, baseball and basketball games will be streamed live online.
5. Open up a full service Chick-Fil-a on campus.
6. This one would take a lot of funding, but build an off campus Greek Village like they have at South Carolina. This would eliminate the school from controlling the fraternity and sorority housing situation, and national organizations could just buy the houses and be in charge of  filling and maintaining the up keep them. This of course would never happen because of the city.

Then of course there is the other route I could take, which would be becoming a rouge booster for the program. I'm talking like Nevin Shapiro here. My goal would be to get the most talented prospects in the nation on our campus at all costs. Whether that would be delivering a brand new Escalade to some kid at Pahokee High School or hosting a bunch of recruits in my penthouse suite at the Boca Raton Resort and Club, I would do it. Of course the program would then be facing the wrath of the NCAA that's about to come down  on Miami, but it would be fun.

The only problem I have with an indoor football practice bubble is when it comes to game days we wouldn't have an advantage of practicing in the heat and humidity or practicing in the rain.

O2D, would love to hear what your plans are for off campus!

The one thing you bring up is beach volleyball. Never put much thought into it but you're totally right. We are what, less than 10 miles from Spanish River beach? Thanks to Misty May and Kerry Walsh, beach volleyball is very popular.

Let's upgrade our beach volleyball area maybe even add 2 or 3 more courts and make it an intramural sport or a club since I'm assuming there's no NCAA sport for beach volleyball. No reason why we can't have our own future Olympians in this sport

The indoor practice facility would be great for when the weather is too severe for them to practice outside.

USMCOWL said

The indoor practice facility would be great for when the weather is too severe for them to practice outside.

Yes, the team has lost way too much valuable practice time over the past few years, even just for sorta disatant lightning!

It seems like we can mostly agree on the sports facilities, including the Ox renovation, a Greek village and… Chick-fil-a, hahaha. I also like that everybody agrees we need to keep at least one grass berm at the baseball stadium. Wanted to comment on some of the ideas presented:

RE: HootinHollerin's
"Replace Algonquin with a new dorm, with a parking garage for residential students on either the bottom or one of the sides (only 4 floors of living space)"
- SGA is trying to preserve this, actually, as a historic landmark… the last of the original dorms. I approve of this effort, although I think eventually it will get torn down anyway.
"6. Replace the Burrow with a parking garage."
- The plan is to build a parking garage behind it on the west side. Once we build a new Burrow, the old one can (and will) still be used as a practice facility and a general rec center for students. It will also remain the home court of women's volleyball (are we still indoors? I think we were becoming a sand volleyball team, hence why I mentioned that facility in my idea list)
"12. Build a hotel just South of the R&D park, on FAU Blvd"
- I emailed the Dean of the Hospitality and Tourism department and asked if this was in the plans and he said the Boca Raton area consistently has more hotel capacity than demand warrants. However the BOT did inquire about it too, so it's on their mind at least.
"13. Build a College of Veterinary Medicine/Zoology"
- Most vet schools that I've seen have a lot of land for horse stables and cattle husbandry and such so if we did this in Boca Raton, it would have to be off-campus probably somewhere west of 441.
"The guys in SGA the past 2 years tried to raise funds for a few large waves that'd be outside, near the roof, of several dorms."
- A previous SGA president, Tony Teixera (sp?), wanted to put a giant Owl head on one of the dorms (GPT?) so you could see it as you came down Glades from 95. Not sure if you could really see that from there, and obviously that didn't come to pass, but apparently that sort of branding idea has been out there for awhile.

RE: GeorgiaOwl
"More parking garages"
- As you may know, the Master Plan has spots earmarked for parking garages west of the Burrow and south of the Living Rooms Theater (this is besides the two current garages and the upcoming IV garages). Over time the campus is going to shrink, the parking lots will become either buildings or garages… most likely the former. That's why it's especially important to construct more on-campus and near-campus housing so students can come in by bus, shuttle or bike.

RE: Jab979
"I would donate money on the condition that professors get a raise. They are vastly underpaid"
- Good call. Agreed. Bonuses and pay for them to get free lunches and usage of the gym.
- Also, rather than more scholarships, I'd like to set aside money for health insurance and conference travel for graduate students. A large and productive graduate student population does a LOT for a university and we're just starting to capitalize on that now.
"How a division I university doesn't have bathrooms in a sports facility is beyond me. "
- Forgot to mention that in my post about the upgraded stadium. I want us to have the nicest restroom facilities in the conference. My mother works at a country club where each toilet floor is fake marble tile, with heavy oak doors for privacy in the stall, nice wood seats, and the sink towels are legitimate handtowels, not paper towels. THAT is what our team deserves after suffering for so long.
"The only problem I have with an indoor football practice bubble is when it comes to game days we wouldn't have an advantage of practicing in the heat and humidity or practicing in the rain."
- Considering Wyoming - WYOMING! -  beat us in the heat as we struggled in the humidity AND we still slip and slide in the rain like everyone else (remember the first MSU game), I think we're getting 0% advantage out of practicing in the elements. As noted, a lack of indoor practice facility has only cost us valuable practice time. That's all it's ever done.

RE: NIGHT OWL
"I would donate 3 pretty cool buses for all teams with FAU logos and graphics."
- Nice! You're the only one who mentioned that. These are traveling billboards for the school.

Jab979 said

O2D, would love to hear what your plans are for off campus!

Sure.

SOMEWHERE TO EAT
- The existing concerns are: after 5 pm, where do I eat? What do I eat when I'm tired of the stuff on campus? Where can I eat without a car?
- Three potential areas for development are:

• [li]Along Glades, as part of University Commons and just east of it[/li]
  [li]University Boulevard (aka 20th Street) to Dixie[/li]
  [li]The University Village commercial space proposed for Spanish River Blvd just north/north-east of campus. These are all in reasonable walking/biking distance.[/li]

- First and foremost I'd build a Mellow Mushroom and a Lime Mexican Grill in the University Commons (Lime > Moe's +Chipotle). Maybe a Bru's Room? They don't franchise though :/ Anyway, Mellow and Lime would both would have outdoor seating to encourage people to "hang out."
- Building out east from UC along the canal, I can see two things happening and ask students what they'd prefer:

• [li] A strip of drive-through restaurants ala east Linton Blvd (where they have the KFC, Arby's, Wendy's, etc stacked right next to each other); personally I'm not in favor of this plan, and I doubt the city would be thrilled about it either, but if that's what they'd want, I'd give it to them.[/li]
  [li]I prefer a strip mall with numerous restaurants and outdoor seating with red and blue umbrellas. We'd repave the intersection of Glades and West University Blvd there with red and blue brick to encourage students to walk over from the freshman dorm area. Restaurants would include: SandwichU, Urban Flats, SaladWorks, WingZone, Maui Wowi Hawaiian Coffees and Smoothies, and one of those takeout Chinese places with names like We Will, We Will Wok You.[/li]
  [li]Of course, we could also consider a blend of drive-through places and the strip mall places, with the West University Boulevard/NW 10th Avenue splitting it up into two plazas. The main point is that these places are where you walk over with a friend and hang out during lunch between classes, then can drive through there at night once campus stuff closes down.[/li]

- For University Boulevard (20th Street):

• [li]I want to switch out the Dunkin Donuts for a Cosi. It's not that DD is bad, it's that Cosi is so much better. Here, it's the ideal "picking up something on the way to school from University Park" place.[/li]
  [li]Steak'n'Shake where the Swifty's/Jerry's is at the corner of 2nd and 20th. Across from that where the Airport limo service thing is, that will be a Sonic. Or vice versa. One way or the other, both should be over there.[/li]
  [li]The rest of the restaurants here would likely be bar food, walk-up pizza-by-the-slice, cheesesteaks to go, stuff like that.[/li]
  [li]FROOTS Smoothies. Place is delicious.[/li]
  
  [li]A coffehouse/study spot called Loft with an upstairs like this:
  [/li]
  [li]A bakery/ice cream parlor called Super Mega Delicious that includes "build your own candybar" (basically bars with depressions in them that could be filled with different things), novelties like deep fried rice crispie treats (greatest thing ever), muffins tops and cookies, and we'd specialize in crazy milkshakes like these.[/li]
  [li]Otaku, a sushi place with specialty shop selling manga/action figures/all that stuff nerds go crazy for.[/li]
  [li]Avocado, a hipster/liberal vegetarian/vegan place with wood interiors, neon green lighting, indoor plants, maybe even playing those "sounds of the rainforest" zen CDs. This idea mostly came about after that bullsh!t SS article saying we weren't a real college town because we "didn't even have a vegetarian restaurant." That and people in Boca are health-conscious anyway, and I have a vegan friend, etc.
  
  [/li]
  [li]I want to take that dilapidated house across from Awakenings (by the Busy Bee place) and turn it into a beer garden/bar'n'grill called, simply, Campus. Or Campus Bar and Grill. The design concept is basically Dada's (of Delray) meets "The Swamp Restaurant" (of Gainesvlle) but in Boca and with an "FAU house party" theme. We'd have red and blue christmas lights on the trees, hang an FAU flag, have beer pong tables set up in the back yard. Hang out here before/after a football game or pre-game on your way to University Blvd.[/li]
  [li]Somewhere over here is Beta Theta Pita, a restaurant that looks like a "frat house" on the outside but serves mini-burgers, cheesesteaks, pitas (obviously), stuff like that. Maybe this would be at the house for Campus instead. Who knows.

- For University Village, I dunno. At the moment it's my "not 'college student' places per se but places college students might also go" catch-all. All I have over there is a Stevi B's Pizza Buffet (it's nicer than Cici's but basically the same thing) right now.

SOMETHING TO DO / DRINK
- For University Blvd:

• [li]Wet Willie's Daiquiri Bar (same thing as Fat Tuesday's)[/li]
  [li]Howl at the Moon Piano Bar[/li]
  [li]University Billiards with red and blue pool tables[/li]
  [li]Country Dancing saloon (personally I don't care for it but I know other people dig it)[/li]
  [li]Trance/house/dubstep club[/li]
  [li]One of those table gaming shops that has a bunch of tables and sponsors Magic the Gathering tournaments, D&D, etc[/li]
  [li]Barcade
  [/li]
  [li]Blacklight Golf ("Night Owls Blacklight Golf?")
  [/li]

- Elsewhere near campus:

• [li]Ice Rink as proposed, to be located by Spanish River library[/li]
  [li]Botanical Garden dome by Spanish River Library[/li]
  [li]SkyVenture skydiving simulator by Boomers, to replace their unused batting cages[/li]
  [li]Splitsville bowling alley[/li]
  [li]Zip-lining at Pondhawk Reserve[/li]
  [li]Indoor Rock Gym (much larger than the one at the Geology building)[/li]
  [li]JetLev water jet-pack[/li]
  [li]Boathouse with rentals: paddleboard, kayak, zorb (giant hamster ball)[/li]
  [li]Bike rental with limo bikes, bananabikes,  and other novelty bikes, etc.[/li]
  [li]Rollerskating rink where the track is designed more like a go-kart track than a typical oval, so there are different "rooms" and different lighting effects[/li]
  [li]Frisbee golf course[/li]
  [li]Humminbird/Toucan aviary where you can feed the birds (at Gumbo Limbo)[/li]
  [li]Art Park, a park of fun, potentially interactive outdoor sculptures
  [/li]
  [li]WaveOz, maybe at Coconut Cove Waterpark
  [/li]

Sorry to take up so much space. If I knew how to shrink these images, I would. Couldn't find the HTML for the IMG tags to do it. But that's basically every idea I've had in the last three years. The most important ones to me are SandwichU, Mellow Mushroom, Campus, Barcade and frisbee golf.