University of Alabama updates
 

I decided that there is enough U of A traffic to warrant a separate thread for all the P and C. Though, I'm sure there will be much more now that it has it's own "forum".

McCorvey Drive

The closing of McCorvey drive was in fact for some re tarring and re striping that makes the road make a bit more sense.

Bryant Denny Stadium

The expansion appears to be on schedule. The new audio system seems to have a few bugs, ie: not being able to handle some bass sounds. I'm sure that will be fixed though.

New flag poles were placed near the ramps on the NE and NW sides of the stadium.

Concrete foundation for the South "Zone" is finished.

And, the new field design looks pretty bad ass. I personally love it. Though, it's a bit weird to march on...

Foster Auditorium

The section of the Burke parking lot that was blocked off is now being torn up for who knows what. Not sure what they're doing it for, maybe to extend the building southward, or maybe just for some better landscaping.

Ridgecrest South

The dorm is finished, but there appears to be some kinda activity going on, on the western side of the building, across the street. Not sure what it's gonna be, but there have been whispers of a "nature walk" type deal that follows the creek that is fed by Marrs Spring.

Yeah, I don't like the new endzones... but i'm in the minority on that one. I thought the old way was a bit less generic. I did like the way they cut the grass at the '08 A-Day.

The new speaker system sounded much better than last year as well. I did hear a few times where they tried to play some particularly loud bit of music and it would crackle a fair bit, though. Still, biiiiig improvement on that. Not a fan of how the stadium folks kept playing music while the band was playing, though. It just seemed a bit disrespectful and it wasn't like the stadium folks' music selection was that good.... and can we PLEASE get the stadium folks to stop playing Dixieland Delight? That song is explicitly about a whole other state.

When I was in Burke (fr. year '98) they were talking about tearing up that parking lot. I'm surprised it's taken them this long to do so. They'll have to be careful w/ Foster (or at least the front facade) b/c of its historic nature, but it's really good that they're doing something with it.

I vaguely recall something in the article announcing Ridgecrest a few months back that said something about Marrs Spring. That's an interesting historic feature of the campus that is almost completely unnoticed by the student body. Very cool backstories to it. Some kinda' creepy. :)

Curious if you've heard anything about the new condo/hotel thing they were putting up across WW next to the stadium?

As for the music while we've been playing stand tunes... that's all the marketing people... they just go out and play whatever the very well please. Needless to say, the student section was uber pissed at us when we didn't play Basketcase at the beginning of the 4th quarter. I remember us having to deal with all that crap my Freshman year (2007), the students weren't happy.

See, we have a GTA standing next to whichever drum major is directing at the time, and the GTA talks to the marketing/media people about which songs to play and such. Fortunately, the Crimson White made note in Monday's paper that it was the marketing/media people who forced us, the band, to not play Basketcase at the very beginning of the 4th.

IMO, it should ONLY be the band playing during the games, considering that's what we're there for.

As far as the front facade of Foster, I'm sure they don't plan to do anything to it. There's not reason, it appears to be pretty structurally safe. I'm hoping they'll do something to kind of commemorate what happened.

I agree, I loved how they cut the grass for the 08 Aday, that was pretty freakin awesome. I think they decided not to continue with it because it might've been too difficult to cut week after week.

Oh, and I'm not sure what's going on with that development across Wallace Wade from the stadium. As far as I know, it's still goin on, just a lot more slowly cause the economy.

I'll try and take drive around that area sometime soon to see if I can see anything.

When will Denny Stadium expansion be complete?

The 2010 Football season

The Board of Trustees, yesterday, approved the designs for the Foster expansion. The demolition on the rear of the building where it hits the Burke Parking lot is where they will expand by 11,000 square feet. It is expected to mirror the front of Foster that faces Farrah Hall.

At the moment, it appears that they're preparing for the removal of all the asbestos. There are lots of plastic bubble structures around the building.

Today, the trustees are expected to vote on approval of the renderings of the building.

The paper said Shelby 3's design was approved and it could open in 2011 or maybe 2012.

I also recall seeing something a while back about plans to change around some of the dining options on campus, including adding a Chick-Fil-A in the old chemistry building by the quad.

I don't even go to the games, but I agree that song is putrid.

Yea, there is also supposed to be a Pizza Hut in Lloyd along with Chick Fil A, I'm praying that, that will take some pressure off of the Ferg. Fresh Food is getting too crowded to even bother with...

No one likes that song... I'm in the band, I and I don't even know what possesses them to play it.

Great, I look forward to seeing the expanded stadium in person.

Here's a link to the video for Alabama's new campaign. This 'replaces' the old "Crimson is..." campaign. It's a pretty cool video, IMO.

Touching Lives

I go to LSU and that is probably the best promotional video I have ever seen for a University. I'm jealous because LSU has yet to produce a decent promotional campaign.

So, some statistics that were in the Crimson White today:

Total Enrollment: 28,807 (up 47% since 2002 when it was 20,333)
Freshman Enrolled: 5,207
National Achievement Scholars: 25 (in current Frosh class)
National Merit Scholars: 102 (in current Frosh class, ranks 11th among public universities)
Freshmen with 4.0 GPA HS GPA: 1,173
Non-white population: 18.5%

BTW, here are some pictures of the Dynasty Park renderings. I took these with my phone from the Crimson White newspaper.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2534/...5d39a21c_o.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2463/...798618c9_o.jpg

I saw the equipment bus getting ready to head to Lexington earlier. It has a cool new design on the side.

Here's what I think the University should do with the creek fed by Marr's Spring:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ngineering.JPG
Wikipedia

Part of the engineering campus at the University of Illinois.

I hope that university officials pay attention to this thread ;)

Any pics of stadium construction? I try to catch glimpses during TV coverage. Did they remove the top few rows of seats on that end during the construction like they did with the other end zone?

There's now a webcam that is watching the Bryant Denny expansion 24/7. You can go anytime and check out the progress.

Webcam site

I don't believe they've removed any seats yet. I may be wrong about that, but we sit in the south end zone and, except for the scoreboard, SEC flags and fencing, I didn't see much different. Most of the construction is going on outside. And they've closed those gates.

I may be wrong...since I sit IN the section I don't look at it that much!

I'm still interested to know when they're going to start the process of assigning land for the new sorority houses. From what little I've heard, after promising the parking lot behind Kappa Delta/Chi Omega/Pi Beta Phi/Alpha Kappa Alpha for four new sorority houses, the university has now reduced that number to 3, and is stalling on continuing with the process.

I think the capacity in the greek section has been reduce, but not by much at all. By raising up that section a few feet and making the slope down more shallow, I'm sure they've lost 10 or so seats, but that's splitting hairs :)

They're doing most of the foundational work during the season so that they won't disrupt any gameday operations. They'll wait till after the season to do the work that will probably take up some space in the greek section.

Panorama of the new SEC (Science and Engineering Complex) Quad

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2584/...bbb5ba78_b.jpg

Nice pano.

Is that a Shelby building?

Paid for by Shelby, and connects to Shelby Hall, yes.

The similarities are interesting in comparing it with the Shelby Center on Auburn's campus. I haven't seen the one at UA in person so I'm only judging by your pano though.

Paid for by the people of the United States of America.

They are strikingly similar.

Pretty much yes.

UA will introduce its plans for memorializing the Stand at the Schoolhouse Door at Foster Auditorium next week.

Also, the CW reported today that an Apple Store will open up in the Ferguson Center next month.

Reading the article, I could not understand whether this will be a separate store inside the Ferg or simple an enclave of the Supe Store. I'm guessing this isn't a full store since there are only going to be two part-time salesperson and 1 full-time service person. Still, the location pretty much limits the customer base to university students and staff. Maybe this a test drive by Apple to see if they could open a full-size store here down the road.

It sounds like it's gonna be a separate store. Though, it does sound like a glorified kiosk.

That's a real cool pano of the building...I've done a few myself. I love panorama photos. Btw, will architecture courses be held in this new building? just wondering since I am trying to pursue this field.

Possibly, it the "Science and Engineering Complex" so I'm assuming that some architecture would take place.

Unless things have changed in the last few years, Bama doesn't have an architecture program, but does have civil engineering.

There's no architecture program at UA. In state, you should look to Auburn.

I also reread the CW article about the Apple Store. You'll notice it says the store will be an Apple Authorized Campus Store. If you search the internet, you'll find out that Apple Authorized Campus Stores are not the same thing as Apple Retail Stores. From reading about Apple Authorized Campus Stores at other schools, it appears this indeed will be nothing more than an expanded kiosk (inside the Supe Store itself).

I started this convo I think in the Tuscaloosa thread, I figured it would be more appropriate to continue it in this thread.

Anyways, I was suggesting that considering the growing population of the University, something is going to have to be done for transit once the school simply becomes too big for the campus roads and sidewalks to handle.

In the future, I think it would be a good idea to look into what they have at West Virginia University in Morgantown: Morgantown Personal Rapid Transit

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3548/...8ffe270688.jpg
Andrew T...

It's rumored that the university is going to construct a new baseball stadium out by the river. Anyone know or heard anything about this?

The Morgantown PRT System is very cool but I think the effectiveness is related to the completely unique situation of separated campuses and physical orientation of the city. You're definitely right though that Tuscaloosa should be looking into an alternative transportation system.

You know...those are some really poorly designed stations, considering how limited build-able space is in Morgantown, they sure did devise some real estate hungry stations.

Seems unlikely since extensive renovations were done to the current stadium not too long ago. Also, where would this stadium be placed?

Agreed. There appears to be a good distance between the denser central campus and the more sprawled-out outer campus. For now, the Crimson Ride bus system works well for the size and density of the UA campus.

You know, I was wondering the same thing about the massive stations... Only thing that I could come up with is that maybe the city and university wanted to get away from the massive asphalt highways and show what they could do with the same amount of space, while improving transit at the same time.

I don't necessarily agree that the Crimson Ride is adequate. Maybe the year it was implemented it was efficient, but now it takes longer than walking.

A personal example of mine:

I have Urban and Regional Transit Systems in Farrah from 9:30 to 10:45. Fifteen minutes after that class gets out, I have my history section in ten Hoor. If I leave Farrah at 10:45 for ten Hoor, I'll be five to ten minutes late. Why is this? The sidewalks are fine, and they provide direct routes, BUT, University Blvd is so congested that you have to wait for two or three minutes to cross the street. There has never been a Thursday where I've been on time to my History section.

Another. This past spring semester, I had a Tennis class at 9:00 at the Rec. Getting there was fine, cause obviously, I could leave anytime before 8:40 and make it on time. However, I got out of tennis at 9:50, and 10 minutes later, I had to be at BB Comer at 10:00 for Italian. Obviously, I was never going to make it to Italian on time, even though I rode my bike every day. My professor was fine with me being five to ten minutes late twice a week, but I wasn't. Italian is my minor, so I didn't want to miss the beginning of that class twice a week. I eventually gave up on riding my bike, realizing i was never going to make it to class on time anyways, and took the bus, which took roughly the same amount of time (15-20 minutes). So, seeing that I was fighting a losing battle with Father Time, I dropped tennis...

I remember at Bama Bound being told,"Oh yes! you can walk ALL the way from one end of campus to the other within 10 minutes! And taking a bus would take even less time!" And that used to be true... My freshman year, I could make it in ten minutes. But, two years and 4,000 students later, it's impossible.

The buses help reduce vehicle traffic. BUT, they don't do much for pedestrians unless you just simply don't want to walk.

I think it would be a great idea if they made two bus lines that ran north to south and east to west. What would be different is that they would construct special bus lanes, like a two lane road, just divided. These routes would avoid the most pedestrian congested and vehicle congested parts of campus, so as to reduce travel time.

Yes, I do realize that is pretty much impossible :(

Yeah, that's one of many issues caused of this overexpansion of the UA enrollment. Maybe you'll discuss CR in your Urban Transit Systems course. Personally, I think the circuit routes used by CR are big time-wasters. They need more things like the Coleman-Quad express - lines that go directly from the periphery of campus to the core. Also, the hub is in a terrible location - it needs to be in the true center of campus - the area behind Gorgas.

But the big, BIG problem, is there is no true management of pedestrian traffic. Pedestrians just come and go as they please, which creates CFs in front of places like ten Hoor, Gordon Palmer, and the Ferguson Center. UA needs to invest in grade-separated pedestrian traffic crossings at key points on campus or, at least, place full-time traffic guards there.

Board of Trustees Approves Construction Projects - Presents Initial Foster rendering

Main Article

http://www.cw.ua.edu/polopoly_fs/1.2...1260447573.gif
Crimson White newspaper

The board of trustees, Thursday, approved the initial rendering of the new Foster Auditorium plaza. The plaza, however, will not be on the northern side of the building, but instead on the southern side, facing Burke Hall. The southern side will be renovated to mirror the architecture of the northern side.

The official rendering and design will be approved in February.

Other construction projects included:

Demolition of the East Engineering Building behind Houser Hall will begin soon to make way for the next phase of the SEC (Science and Engineering Complex).

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2441/...486993c56c.jpg
Above is the sight of the "East Engineering Building" that will be demolished.

Also, the trustees budgeted $1 Million for an architect to design a larger dining hall to house the current Subway and Bidgood Bistro.

The south side? That's deficient - that actual "schoolhouse" door was on the north side!

BTW, :haha: at Google Maps placing Stillman College in the middle of UA.

Yea, I think they're doing it so that they can preserve where it actually took place, and MAYBE allow the building to retain it's historic landmark status.

Yea, it's funny. And it looks all official with the mortar board and everything, lol. "Yes, this is Stillman and we're stickin to it!"

I don't understand what you mean. What exactly is there to preserve on the south side of Foster beside a concrete courtyard and a parking lot? What would this plan do to the south face of Foster that would endanger its historic landmark status?

There isn't anything on the South side to preserve. I'm speaking of the northside. They're trying to preserve where it took place (on the northside).

Usually when a National Historic Landmark is renovated, especially as extensively as Foster will, this is what happens: Removal of National Historic Landmark status

Then I don't understand why they are adding this southern plaza at all. The historic site in the on northern side of the building - that's where any commemorative plaza should be.

Given the choice between keeping a building in a shabby unusable state for the sake of retaining some arbitrary government designation and renovating it for modern use at the cost of losing the historic designation, I'd take the latter.

I think that's a poor example and precedent anyway. The Bears should be rewarded for preserving the Soldier Field site instead of tearing it down and moving the stadium to the suburbs as so many teams have done.

Oh, I agree. But, of course, I'm not making the decisions. You have to remember, the Board of Trustees doesn't REALLY care about what the students think.

It would be nice if the federal government board that does these landmark status's and the University could actually work together to come up with some kinda plan that would prevent it from losing it's NHL status.

Of course, we don't know for sure if it ever will lose its status. I guess we just have to wait and see.