I've seen the plans for the Visual Arts Gallery and, in design, it looks quite in the same vein as the Campus Rec Center. It appears as though they currently have it proposed for the site between the Alys Stephens Center and the former HealthSouth Hospital (the commuter lot).
Some of you may not like it, but personally I like the idea of getting rid of a lot of these surface lots spread all across campus. Keeping so many surface lots only reinforces the idea of a "commuter campus." If you eliminate many of these surface lots near the building and just build parking decks on the periphery of the campus (like UCF has done), it forces people to park for the day and just walk around campus... rather than driving from lot to lot and parking.
Are they building enough parking decks to account for all of these lost spaces though?
LJBlazerFan Wrote:Are they building enough parking decks to account for all of these lost spaces though?
I'm not sure, but I know that the deck over near Al's is going to be like 6 levels and have space for about 1,200+ cars. The deck which was already built at 13th and Univ has about 600+ spaces and has come in very handy. I've also thought it would be a good idea to build an additional parking deck across Univ. from the new one (across from Campbell Hall), but I havent heard of any potential plans like this.
Nice.
The only problem I worry about is having everything look the same. It's important we keep a certain "UAB style" but we don't need everything to look identical. Things should be changed up a bit to add more life to the look of the campus and variety.
The buildings need to take on a character of their own and that won't happen with a cookie cutter design.
Blazer85 Wrote:I've seen the plans for the Visual Arts Gallery and, in design, it looks quite in the same vein as the Campus Rec Center. It appears as though they currently have it proposed for the site between the Alys Stephens Center and the former HealthSouth Hospital (the commuter lot).
Some of you may not like it, but personally I like the idea of getting rid of a lot of these surface lots spread all across campus. Keeping so many surface lots only reinforces the idea of a "commuter campus." If you eliminate many of these surface lots near the building and just build parking decks on the periphery of the campus (like UCF has done), it forces people to park for the day and just walk around campus... rather than driving from lot to lot and parking.
Dr.Garrison's plan is to make the University more "traditional". She thinks that the Campus Green and the ability to walk around campus instead of having to drive will do that. I agree with both.
If you walk around campus you'll notice that just about all of the campus buildings look alike,the brown bricks, multiple floors, it wouldn't hurt to add a little variety. Maybe we can hope for that in the future.
StunnerJR Wrote:If you walk around campus you'll notice that just about all of the campus buildings look alike,the brown bricks, multiple floors, it wouldn't hurt to add a little variety. Maybe we can hope for that in the future.
The signature "UAB Brick" unifies the campus, IMHO.
I'd like to see the design of the buildings change a bit. Same basics but change things up like add a roof with some shape to a building. Give them something other than a flat facade, concrete trim, and red brick. Add columns to an academic building. Give windows a border. Add a smoke stack to a building if you want...just don't make everything look the same.
One thing we don't need is trying to get too trendy with design. Trendy doesn't transcend generations and if you think it does then look at the humanitarian bldg. I bet people thought it was an awesome design back in it's day.
<a href='http://www.uab.edu/images/web/president/2005_UAB_State_of_Univ_files/frame.htm' target='_blank'>http://www.uab.edu/images/web/president/20...files/frame.htm</a>To see the proposed Visual Arts Gallery, click on the link above and go to slide 16. There's also a good diagram of the campus green on slide 13. Check it out if you havent yet.