owlfan1 said

I was on campus last year and one thing that I noticed is that is doesn't look like a university campus as much as a business park. The buildings completely lack character. Everything looks so sanitized and pristine and not in a good way.

GO OWLS!!!

i agree…the new dorms alomst look hospital like…

owlcountry said

This is our library on the Davie campus:
http://www.stateuniversity.com/assets/logo/image/820/large/lib.jpg

Look how nice that looks compared to our Boca campus library.

Explain that. I sure can't.

That does look sharp.

I think the Davie library could be built to look like that because it is probably one quarter the size of the Boca library. It may not have broken the budget at that size. Just a thought.

GO OWLS!!!

The FAU campus is different than typical Southern campuses, but it is still impressive. Some of the business, nursing (science?) buildings, etc. are awesome. The dorm buildings do appear to be minimalist in, say, imagination and beauty. Lush landscaping will make a big improvement.

Those Troy dorms become the new defacto campus apartments because the old (1960s-70s) apartments, Dill Hall, were just torn down to make room for a new College of Education building. I lived there in several different rooms (What a time! Especially that Hurricane David party), which were cramped and, well, cramped! (But they beat the prison-style concrete rectangle dorm rooms.) Four people shared two bedrooms and one small kitchen/living area. Cable TV, Internet (Al, Gore hadn't invented it yet) … nah!

Troy (a town of around 15,000 people) has exploded with nicer yet affordable college style apartments just off campus in recent years. So, now the university can focus on nicer suite-style dorms. That won't happen in Boca, so FAU is going to have to add affordable places on campus.

Here's a lot more on the new buildings I pictured on the first page of this thread:

http://troy.troy.edu/housing/new_halls/index.html

Troy (a town of around 15,000 people) has exploded with nicer yet affordable college style apartments just off campus in recent years. So, now the university can focus on nicer suite-style dorms. That won't happen in Boca, so FAU is going to have to add affordable places on campus.

That is true. FAU will have to provide more housing than a typical unversity would because of the cost of real estate in Boca. FAU might have to buy some land, if there is any, to build off campus housing.

illinoisowl said

Troy (a town of around 15,000 people) has exploded with nicer yet affordable college style apartments just off campus in recent years. So, now the university can focus on nicer suite-style dorms. That won't happen in Boca, so FAU is going to have to add affordable places on campus.

That is true. FAU will have to provide more housing than a typical unversity would because of the cost of real estate in Boca. FAU might have to buy some land, if there is any, to build off campus housing.

I think even with the rapid growth FAU does still cater to lots of local kids. Hopefully that means that on-campus housing won't need to grow exponentially. If it does grow rapidly, why not build a couple of 10 story dorms that can hold 1000+ students each?? High rise dorms would fit right in at FAU and they would probably be cheaper in the long run than the cost of land.

GO OWLS!!!

owlfan1 said

FAU will have to provide more housing than a typical unversity would because of the cost of real estate in Boca.

Exactly. The upside, as you said, is that FAU is essentially FORCED to build more on-campus because of the high cost of Boca (I still think FAU should absorb Bicycle Club, Casa Del Rio, etc). Therefore, I don't think it's unreasonable twenty years out to see 10,000 people living on-campus. I just wish I was attending then instead of now. But perhaps some of you feel the same when you walk onto campus and compare it to the '70's, etc. I also feel consoled because, as you can see from my meeting with Dexter LaMont, I'm trying to incite a lot of change here and as selfish as it may be, I feel good about the fact that ten years from now one of my ideas may be a tradition honored by over a hundred people. Or people are enjoying an amenity I fought for (like an on-campuse leisure pool). And I'm not the only one, of course. We are fortunate to have a President/VP of SG who are adamant about making this a traditional university experience and have met with several higher-up people in regards to how to make that happen. That, coupled with the Innovation Village, should definitely change things around here.

owlfan1 said

FAU might have to buy some land, if there is any, to build off campus housing.

I thought of this too.
I might have said before…. don't want to search for it now… but I think we should work out deals with developers to absorb land off-campus for student use ASAP. I want to see apartment-style housing in the north, a strip of bars/restaurants on the east, and a nightclub and housing in the south.

owlfan1 said

I think even with the rapid growth FAU does still cater to lots of local kids. Hopefully that means that on-campus housing won't need to grow exponentially.

Hopefully won't? I wish it would. The majority of people who attend on-campus events, take up officerships in clubs, and fill the Burrow are residential students. They may do these things to kill time but it actually improves the college experience for everyone. So more people on campus is a better idea. However, given the current on-campus apartments… there's no reason to move on campus (or live on-campus in your upper years). You can get an apartment with someone you know, with a patio and a pool, keep a pet, drink, etc for cheaper off-campus. And that is FAU's main problem for recruiting people to live on-campus.

owlfan1 said

 If it does grow rapidly, why not build a couple of 10 story dorms that can hold 1000+ students each?? High rise dorms would fit right in at FAU and they would probably be cheaper in the long run than the cost of land.

10-story is a little high because of the airport. I had previously heard that we cannot build higher than seven stories due to the airport being next door. In an interesting twist, the hospital plan calls for a 9-story building on one section of the hospital… so I suppose land to the east (by the Village Apartments) might have a little more lax standards in terms of height restrictions.

BMarkey said

The FAU campus is different than typical Southern campuses, but it is still impressive. Some of the business, nursing (science?) buildings, etc. are awesome.

I absolutely agree.

The main lobby of the Business building is incredible. Has everyone seen it? Here's a kinda blurry picture but it gives you the main idea:



The nursing building is also very nice but I'll tell you something: I've tried to walk through there a couple of times (at different times) and the doors are either all locked or there is no one in there. That building is a ghost town. I never see nurses go in or out of it. I really don't understand what's going on over there.

But yes, they are pretty and if that's the direction that we're going in, it's definitely nice (inside, anyway… outside could still use some pizazz)

Since I was digging through my pictures, here's a sketch I found on a Faculty presentation RE: Innovation Village from the early dome project that shows the apartments…



I definitely hope the finished project looks better than that because, once again, they look prison/shoebox-like. Time will tell.

owlcountry said

Hopefully won't? I wish it would. The majority of people who attend on-campus events, take up officerships in clubs, and fill the Burrow are residential students. They may do these things to kill time but it actually improves the college experience for everyone. So more people on campus is a better idea. However, given the current on-campus apartments… there's no reason to move on campus (or live on-campus in your upper years). You can get an apartment with someone you know, with a patio and a pool, keep a pet, drink, etc for cheaper off-campus. And that is FAU's main problem for recruiting people to live on-campus.

I totally agree. I said "hopefully they won't have to increase housing exponentially" for the sake of the cost to do so. If they can do it on the present land great, I am all for it. Build it high and build it big. Buying land is a whole different issue.

University growth is a double edged sword when land is in short supply and high demand. I love the idea of having 10,000 kids on campus, just not if the university has to buy an extra 50 acres at the cost of millions of dollars.

GO OWLS!!!

owlcountry said

I definitely hope the finished project looks better than that because, once again, they look prison/shoebox-like. Time will tell.

OMG AWESOME!


I heard over the week end that there is a chance that Glades Park Towers may not be ready by move-in day.

This is all interesting. It has to look better than it did in the 70's. BUT, if it is not developing into something attractive and aesthetic, do the members of the board or the architect walk around the campus to look at it? Or do they not care that the campus is developing to look like an office complex? Is the admin happy with the way it is developing?

The university had an opportunity to do a land swap the the BRCH. FAU didn't want the land. That surprised me. It isn't far at all from the campus.