Thought I'd pass along some very early renderings for a potential WU engineering quad to be build along Skinker/FPP. There's a bio-medical engineering building there now (top left building in the bird's eye view). This would be built where the parking lot is now. An underground parking garage would replace the current lot. (renderings are brought to you by the department of nanotechnology)
It is an early rendering is what gets built will depend on $$. The metrolink station isn't shown and a few other details are missing, but you get the idea.
This is great! I can't wait to see the rest of the parking lots get built on. And I would love to see Wash U increase their tech presence. Wouldn't it be great to have something like MIT in our midst (even a scaled-down version)?
BTW, Grover, since when has money ever been an issue with Wash U.?
I attend the school, and I am extremely happy that this project as a comittment to the engineering school was undertaken. I have been excited about it for weeks. It has been the last of the schools to recieve a significant investment of new buildings.
O and money is always an issue, even when they do such a good job of making it look like it is not.
It's about bloody time we get some news of the new engineering quad. And yes, like clellchatman said, money is always an issue at Wash U, particularly the engineering school. Let's just say that, by and large, each school at Wash U maintains its own little fiefdom and is responsible for its own finances. The Whitaker building got built first because 1 out of 3 engineering students are in the Bio-Engineering department. Last I knew, most of the other departments only scrape by.
This drawing is old hat, now, but it shows the outlines of future engineering buildings as envisioned back in 2003?
I guess the scenic pictures of brookings are going to change. washu has almost completely run out of room and with nowhere else to go, other buildings are going to start coming down. the thing is, theyve almost rid the campus of all the unattractive boring buildings.
wheelscomp wrote:I guess the scenic pictures of brookings are going to change. washu has almost completely run out of room and with nowhere else to go, other buildings are going to start coming down. the thing is, theyve almost rid the campus of all the unattractive boring buildings.
Eliot Hall is next on the list, from what I have heard.
There is actually a significant amount of space left for development as they are putting surface parking lots under ground, also the campus is not intended to grow that much more. Acording to infrastructural plans the campus is only intended to grow by another million square feet. Much less than is already present. Half of this increase will come from the new engineering complex.
True, Eliot hall is set to come down in the coming years as half of its complex was torn down for the development of the Knight Center. It is sad though, people refer to these buildings as boring, but we are rapidly loosing our minimalist modern buildings. I wish we could keep more of these buildings.
Also the biomedical building got built first because of the grant from the Whitaker foundation. Also, while the other engineering departments had labs, the biomedical engineering department as young as it is had no labs. I as a biomedical engineering student enjoy the time I spend in the building greatly.
I wonder what 009 would say about the neo-gothic campus . . .
There is a reasonable amount of land left to build and a number of buildings that can be taken down and replaced with something more useful. The campus won't grow much in terms of the number of students - by design. The medical campus will continue to expand as research space is needed - but that's a different story and there's always the acres of barren Cortex land. Significant buildings could be placed alongside the engineering/arts complex, another at the NW corner of Hoyt/Forsyth, more on the South 50 for residential . . .
clellchatman wrote:True, Eliot hall is set to come down in the coming years as half of its complex was torn down for the development of the Knight Center. It is sad though, people refer to these buildings as boring, but we are rapidly loosing our minimalist modern buildings. I wish we could keep more of these buildings.
My problem with Eliot is not the minimalism, but I think minimalism done badly. And then not maintained properly. I'm a huge fan of Tadao Ando, whose designs are far superior to Eliot.
First, I was not speaking specifically. I just hope that more of these buildings will be saved. I am always glad when I watch A Clockwork Orange because one of the scenes has a building of very similar style with the same kind of freestanding staircase in the middle of a courtyard.
While some will dislike any building from any era, that is not a reason to remove the representation of someones design.
I personally see Eliot as an excellent design, or at least the original design. Since half has already been torn down, it has received no maintenance, and it has never received only bastardized retrofitting for things, it acts as a lightning rod creating a negative image of this era of architecture in people's minds.
^ I must say I severly disagree with your assessment of Eliot; in my opinion, it has absolutley no saving graces, at all. The only thing that I ever liked about Eliot was that it was 2 minutes from my dorm. I can't think of anything about Eliot that was built with people in mind, only the architect's wish to do something "creative" with large rectangular blocks: one only needs to look at the internal staircases which appear to be tacked on as an afterthought, a forgotten necessity, when the architect realized that people have to be able to move from floor to floor. I challenge you to find anybody who actually enjoys having a class in there.
On a side note, the University Archives as some interesting renderings of ultimate plans for the campus from 1899 and 1925, respectively. Follow the link for full resolution images.
I had no idea that they originally inteded to develop these former front lawns with buildings. I think the new renderings look excellent, from what I can tell. I'm glad they're doing it in the "traditional" gothic style. These buildings only look better and better as they age, and that's not to say i'm not a fan of modern buildings.
I just think that building is totally out of place. Its just odd to me that Washu would sponsor its construction in such a prominent place when theyve spent many many millions on buildings that match the gothic style of the rest of the campus. The architect was pretty famous though, cant remember his name off the top of my head. Asian?
The Central Scrutinizer wrote:My problem with Eliot is not the minimalism, but I think minimalism done badly. And then not maintained properly. I'm a huge fan of Tadao Ando, whose designs are far superior to Eliot.
That's my problem with Eliot, as I have nothing against minimalism per se. I attended class there for three weeks earlier this semester, and thankfully, the instructor secured another location on campus for our class to meet. Eliot has all the warmth of your average Soviet-era apartment building, and it's weathered the last few decades about as well as many of those structures.
Are you saying Fumiko Maki designed Eliot, because I thought it was someone else. I know Maki designed Steinberg Hall (the older center art school building) and also the new Art Museum and Studios.
