New South Campus Dorm Complex | The Boneyard

New South Campus Dorm Complex

Approval of a new South Campus Dorm Complex is on the BOT August 3rd agenda. I know the BOT Chairperson is committed to updating residential housing on campus.


https://boardoftrustees.uconn.edu/w...ampus-Residence-Hall-Final-08-03-2022-BOT.pdf
Wow, I find it amazing that we have the need for that much additional housing. I guess it is a good thing.

For what it’s worth, the design is butt ugly, in my humble opinion.

6C215F76-E49D-4ACA-BD49-3CC497FB5280.jpeg

One of my pet peeves is how individual architects will design buildings that don’t have a connection to the existing architecture. It seems like pretty much every master plan, ever, talks about creating a “sense of place”, meaning an identity. When you see the various architecture on campus, each building can be unique, but should have a connection to the overall feeling/ambience of the campus. This one does not.

In any event, I’m not a fan of that light yellowish color brick as it never seems to age well. If the architect had presented this to me, I have sent it back for a re-design, at least on the exterior. It looks like he blew off the dust on his designs for a county incarceration facility, added an atrium and said “good enough.”
 
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Wow, I find it amazing that we have the need for that much additional housing. I guess it is a good thing.

For what it’s worth, the design is butt ugly, in my humble opinion.

View attachment 77938
One of my pet peeves is how individual architects will design buildings that don’t have a connection to the existing architecture. It seems like pretty much every master plan, ever, talks about creating a “sense of place”, meaning an identity. When you see the various architecture on campus, each building can be unique, but should have a connection to the overall feeling/ambience of the campus. This one does not.

In any event, I’m not a fan of that light yellowish color brick as it never seems to age well. If the architect had presented this to me, I have sent it back for a re-design, at least on the exterior. It looks like he blew off the dust on his designs for a county incarceration facility, at an atrium and said “good enough.”
I believe that west campus, the jungle and frats are all destined for demolition. Another housing complex is scheduled to be constructed soon where graduate townhouses are located
 
For what it’s worth, this is what’s on the opposite side of the quad:
1659450864713.jpeg


How does that, go with this:
F4FD7BB5-D095-4EE8-BAD5-BBEC4D17DD45.jpeg


(The existing quad buildings are attractive and architecturally interesting, with peaked roofs and breaks in the façade. They work well with the rest of the dorms and buildings on campus. The new building? Not so much.)

[/end rant]
 
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In any event, I’m not a fan of that light yellowish color brick as it never seems to age well. If the architect had presented this to me, I have sent it back for a re-design, at least on the exterior. It looks like he blew off the dust on his designs for a county incarceration facility, added an atrium and said “good enough.”

This is the absolute truth. It looks like a 1950s hospital wing. Yellow brick screams institution (not in a good way). These yellow brick buildings look old and decrepit in a couple of years.
 
We were told on our campus visit that UConn had a record 40K applications this year and they accepted 3900-ish. There may be some covid effect there with kids that took a gap year, but still an impressive number. 10% on campus acceptance rate.
On a proud papa note, my son got accepted on campus. He got his dorm assignment yesterday and will be in Towers in Lafayette, which is right across from the Gelfenbein Commons Dining Hall. Move in day is 8/26.
 
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For what it’s worth, this is what’s on the opposite side of the quad:
View attachment 77939

How does that, go with this:
View attachment 77940

(The existing quad buildings are attractive and architecturally interesting, with peaked roofs and breaks in the façade. They work well with the rest of the dorms and buildings on campus. The new building? Not so much.)

[/end rant]

While I agree with your opinion and premise, i think these are designed to be more of a "refreshed alumni quad link" than a "new south campus add-on," despite the naming. Both alumni and this are ugly, but they're at least much more similar.
 
While I agree with your opinion and premise, i think these are designed to be more of a "refreshed alumni quad link" than a "new south campus add-on," despite the naming. Both alumni and this are ugly, but they're at least much more similar.
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing given the location. Still, it’s an opportunity to get it right. Having a consistent defined architecture style gives a unified sense of campus. UConn, in recent years, has a unified luck. A friend of mine toured campus recently and talked about “all the brick buildings“ saying “that’s the way a college should look.”

But, regardless of that, the design shown in the rendering is hideous.
 
We were told on our campus visit that UConn had a record 40K applications this year and they accepted 3900-ish. There may be some covid effect there with kids that took a gap year, but still an impressive number. 10% on campus acceptance rate.
On a proud papa note, my son got accepted on campus. He got his dorm assignment yesterday and will be in Towers in Lafayette, which is right across from the Gelfenbein Commons Dining Hall. Move in day is 8/26.
Congratulations to him! Does he know his intended major yet?
 
Wow, I find it amazing that we have the need for that much additional housing. I guess it is a good thing.

For what it’s worth, the design is butt ugly, in my humble opinion.

View attachment 77938
One of my pet peeves is how individual architects will design buildings that don’t have a connection to the existing architecture. It seems like pretty much every master plan, ever, talks about creating a “sense of place”, meaning an identity. When you see the various architecture on campus, each building can be unique, but should have a connection to the overall feeling/ambience of the campus. This one does not.

In any event, I’m not a fan of that light yellowish color brick as it never seems to age well. If the architect had presented this to me, I have sent it back for a re-design, at least on the exterior. It looks like he blew off the dust on his designs for a county incarceration facility, added an atrium and said “good enough.”

Well, funny you should say it looks like a county incarceration facility. This is the old county jail nearby where I live. It is old and being demolished.

1659471996396.png
 
Fortuitously Escambria County was smart enough to avoid that heinous yellow brick…

Well, that picture is of a very old building which probably has had any color removed and also taken after a natural gas explosion in the basement made most of it uninhabitable. The new jail at least has some architectural curves and color.

1659472596022.png
 
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Congratulations to him! Does he know his intended major yet?
Thanks. The current plan is English major with an eye on being an English teacher. Apparently Lafayette is a co-ed floor, so he's got that going for him.
 
We were told on our campus visit that UConn had a record 40K applications this year and they accepted 3900-ish. There may be some covid effect there with kids that took a gap year, but still an impressive number. 10% on campus acceptance rate.
On a proud papa note, my son got accepted on campus. He got his dorm assignment yesterday and will be in Towers in Lafayette, which is right across from the Gelfenbein Commons Dining Hall. Move in day is 8/26.
Lies, damn lies, and statistics.

I suspect 10% enrolled. But more than 10% were accepted, otherwise we are an extraordinarily selective school.
 
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Approval of a new South Campus Dorm Complex is on the BOT August 3rd agenda. I know the BOT Chairperson is committed to updating residential housing on campus.
I believe that west campus, the jungle and frats are all destined for demolition. Another housing complex is scheduled to be constructed soon where graduate townhouses are located
West, the jungle and frats dorms days are numbered with other dorms scheduled for modernization. Arms race to attract top students. Finally found out that there are 444 buildings on the Storrs campus.


 
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West, the jungle and frats dorms days are numbered with other dorms scheduled for modernization. Arms race to attract top students. Finally found out that there are 444 buildings on the Storrs campus.


Thanks for staying on top of non-athletic campus development and posting about it. I would miss 90% of this stuff if you didn’t post about it.
 
Hope the inside looks better than the outside. The price tag sure is high, too.
 
It's been close to 40 years since I've been inside a dorm. Is there more than just dorm rooms inside?
 
I think this one will have lounges, common rooms, lounges, game room, cafeteria, seminar rooms etc. as well as dorm rooms.
 
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My daughter is a freshman at Temple and her suite consists of 4 girls, 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, living room and a full kitchen replete with a full-sized refrigerator. They used to have large flat screen TVs but the kids trashed them and the school just said no mas to that amenity.
 
My daughter is a freshman at Temple and her suite consists of 4 girls, 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, living room and a full kitchen replete with a full-sized refrigerator. They used to have large flat screen TVs but the kids trashed them and the school just said no mas to that amenity.
Morgan Hall?
 
I think this one will have lounges, common rooms, lounges, game room, cafeteria, seminar rooms etc. as well as dorm rooms.
I believe this new one is going to have suites rather than traditional dorm rooms.
 
Well, funny you should say it looks like a county incarceration facility. This is the old county jail nearby where I live. It is old and being demolished.

View attachment 77949
My brother went to Columbia for grad school in their international affairs department. If you've ever been to the Columbia campus, basically every building is stunning... except for his. Every day he had to walk to this soviet cold war era monstrosity, but to his point, at least he didn't have to look out the window and see this, while everyone else on campus did.

d129fa8667d513cf7fcdcf79f0b99e60--columbia-.jpg
 
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