Ryan Fieldhouse and Walter Athletics Center Set to Open this Summer
This is basically an indoor training facility and Athletic Department Office all bundled within one. It'll allow for indoor training for football, soccer, lacrosse, etc while also housing the offices for most varsity sports as well as the intramural offices as well. And, the pictures are something else...
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this looks like something they'd consider for the federation HQ from the star trek re-boot.
Arms Race anagrams to Car Smear
Since when Northwestern get beachfront property
...never heard of Lake Michigan, huh? Some people say it's a great lake, but I think it's just OK.
I just snorted at my desk. Have a leg.
Personally, I definitely know there are some lakes that are Superior.
Lol, I realize it's the lake but it looks awfully beachy for Illinois
#beachflow
That's just Erie.
I wonder what's going to happen when all the big dogs start getting involved.
Looks like a great place for a links golf course...
That is a beautiful piece of property and building.
Seems like there will be some environmental hoops to jump through building that close to the lake...flood insurance could be rough, from what I understand they are getting V-zones on the great lakes
The numbers always work.
We had 2 tidal waves like a week ago
*tsunamis. tidal waves are frowned upon because science.
Giggity?
Giggity
Too close to the lake? Just fill in the lake to move the shore. It wouldn't be the first time.
This is what you get when you hire architects to design a building. Looks beautiful. Looking forward to see how the completed works look.
It's what happens when you hire architects and don't let the Board of Visitors and other non-designer heavily dictate the design.
*cough* Performing Arts Building *cough*
They hired an awesome international firm that designed an awesome building. After VT reviewed it they wanted so many changes that the firm almost walked away from the project. I really dislike the current building that is standing now.
What building are you referring to? Are you talking about...
...the Liberal Arts Building (formerly known as the Performing Arts Building), which was the first building to be built in Hokie Stone?
...or the Moss Arts Center, which is of more recent construction?
The first, in my mind, gets a pass, as it was the first Hokie Stone building on campus. The second looks pretty neat, IM(ns)HO. However, I'm curious as to what it was originally designed to look like, prior to the changes. You seem to have some inside knowledge on this. Got an artist rendering?
That's funny. my impression is that "performing arts building" meant the one across from Gillie's on College Ave
As a musician, I'm more curious about the acoustics.
Precisely.
I don't know much about the problems with the Performing Arts Building (would like to hear about it) but I do know the clusterfuck they used to "select" the location for the Indoor Practice Facility. If it as anything close to that then I definitely would have walked away as the architect.
While I love the final product it's location has absolutely screwed the football and really all
Sports for future expansion of Merryman and team needs in those areas like nutrition and sports medicine.
One of the stupidest decision making processes I have seen. They got zero input from professionals and used a bullshit matrix to validate a decision they already made. I respect the actual company that got the design/build contract, they did a great job, but I think it's plainly obvious when you look at NW images above what can be achieved when things are done correctly. And I am sure the architects & engineers for that project also met their fair share of bullshit, just no where near VT levels.
On the bright side, it's the closest I'm going to get to seeing the AEG Turbine Factory, unless I get a chance to go back to Berlin.
yeah...

Could you summarize some of this for those of us not as much in the know?
From my recollection, the preferred spot for the IPF would have impacted a fair amount of the Stadium Woods, and that's why it ended up where it did.
Is there more to it than that?
can read all about it here:
http://www.thekeyplay.com/content/2014/january/10/new-indoor-practice-fa...
I apologize in advance for all my negative posts in this thread. Doing this as a professional makes it all the more painful to see it done so poorly at the school I love.
You don't have to apologize, that practice facility was a short sighted shoehorned mistake from the start. Don't get me wrong, its nice to have an indoor facility like that, but man, we could have and should have done so much more.
It almost pains me that this was rushed in right at the end of the Weaver administration. If Whit was in charge when this was being done, it would have absolutely been done right. Instead, we got a bit of a lazy design in a spot it should never have been in, screwing up a large part of the reason we build the big balcony on the new locker room (the beautiful view of Lane that is now blocked by a prefab wall) creating an outdoor practice situation that is about half the size it needs to be. If we were doing it now, you know it would have been placed in another area (perhaps up on Chicken Hill or the SEZ lots) with the possibility of bundling at least the football administrative offices within it (lets face it, Merryman and Jamerson are in desperate need of replacing... the renovation was nice, but they are still fairly dated), which would allow us to gut Jamerson and use that entire footprint for a possible Cassell renovation in a few years time.
Correct. And I do want to stress again that I am in no way meaning the company that actually completed the design/build contract did a bad job. From what I can see they knocked it out of the park.
The site selection was and remains the problem.
Would be interesting to put the external cassell coliseum arch beams in glass like here:



@whitbabcock
I hadn't thought of that, but man, you're right, that kind of design would play very well within Cassell. You could blow out the walls making it effectively an open air drum with a roof surrounded by a glass and prefab shell. You could do a lot with this kind of design as inspiration.
Looks too good and makes too much sense, so naturally it won't happen. They'll probably put some sweet stripes on Cassell, though.
Can you punt in it?
I will admit it looks very nice.
This looks so much nicer than it would at another B1G school, say PSU.
That's pretty badass. Good for them.
Apparently that type of property will get you "v-zones on the great lakes" pretty quickly. I'd imagine 17 year old kids are all in for that (I definitely was)
Does anyone else feel like we need to kick their asses for doing this?
NO they are Northwestern, they will never win in football, so let them have this rad facility.
No.
As I see it, playing Northwestern would offer very little upside. I do respect Fitzgerald as he seems like a very good coach who has stayed loyal to his alma mater and does more with less, but beating them wouldn't move the needle and losing to them wouldn't look good.
To be fair, HokieMacGruber26 never said anything about playing NW.
I mean don't get me wrong. Yeah it's cool AF & all. But because it's cool AF, it makes me want us (our team) to go up there and kick there asses (because I'm weirdly competitive like that).
To me it's like a consolation prize. They live in the Northwest, the weather blows in the winter there, and they play in BIG, where they will never be able to compete with Michigan/Ohio State and the other blue blood schools.
They will be mediocre with or without this thing. Let them have the toy.
We have a nice toy, but still have a chance to do bigger and better things.
Yeah but...I still wanna kick their asses.
HokieMac be like:
via GIPHY
I like the view from the inside better than the appearance from the outside.
Anybody got a final cost for the beamer barn?
The view from the inside won't look so great when it's encased in ice in January.
... and we wonder why education is so expensive these days.
Just can't put a finger on it...
Cutting of Federal and state funding.
That doesn't explain why the overall costs have gone up faster than inflation, but this is a depiction of the trend... Yes, contributions (adjusted for inflation) are less, but tuition has gone up much more.
I was actually just joking, as I'm sure this was built from "private donations", but schools definitely subsidize these facilities, or at least donate the property, pay maintenance, upkeep, and heating, and lighting bills. The arms race is very real, and does have some real costs to students and taxpayers, even at a private university.
Source: https://www.clevelandfed.org/newsroom-and-events/publications/economic-c...