More Modernization of the Tulane Campus

Colleges and Universities A-Z Tulane University
1

<p>This was just posted by President Cowen today. Some of this we already knew, specifically the new dining hall, but this gives us a lot more detail. It also tells us what will happen to the old Bruff site. I suppose this doesn't affect this incoming class too much in the sense they won't be able to use the new dining facilities except for maybe their last year or two. But it is great news for the future of Tulane.</p>

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April 11, 2014</p>

<p>Good Morning: </p>

<p>I have some exciting news that holds the promise of transforming Tulane's uptown campus and undergraduate student living and learning for generations to come. </p>

<p>At its March meeting, the Board of Tulane voted to move forward with a bold plan to re-imagine the physical design and function of the middle section of campus between Freret and Willow streets. This is part of a long-range plan that started with the establishment of McAlister Place as a pedestrian mall in 2010 and resulted in the construction of two new residence halls - Weatherhead Hall and the soon-to-open Barbara Greenbaum House at Newcomb Lawn. Another phase will begin next year when the university breaks ground on a new four-story, $46 million campus facility that will provide our students with a premier dining experience while also creating a new and expanded home for the Newcomb College Institute. </p>

<p>The dining component of the new facility will more than double the seating capacity we currently have in Bruff Commons, which is overcrowded and outdated. In addition to giving our students an outstanding and distinctive dining experience each and every day, the new facility will also provide space for hosting special dinners and events for student organizations and residential colleges.</p>

<p>The new facility, which will be built on the site of the current Newcomb College Institute (NCI), will also provide an expanded, state-of-the-art home for the NCI. It will allow the Institute to bring together all of its offices, programs and activities, which are currently scattered throughout three campus buildings, under one roof. This new high-profile home will provide optimal space for more innovative programs, leadership opportunities and educational activities for women. During this phase of the project we will also complete the Newcomb-McAlister Unified Green Project by uniting the Newcomb and LBC quads into a central campus green space.</p>

<p>The next evolution of the transformation should begin in 2017, when Bruff Commons and the Caroline Richardson Building - whose current functions will be housed in the new facility - will be redeveloped into two new residence halls, allowing 80 percent of our undergraduates to live on campus.</p>

<p>Obviously, all of this will take a great deal of planning, work, patience and understanding, but it is key to creating a more unified undergraduate collegiate experience in the heart of campus where our students can learn, live, eat, play and discover. You will learn more about this initiative as the planning progresses and each phase is initiated. In the meantime, enjoy the weekend.

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2

<p>Wow, very interesting. I need to pull out a campus map to better visualize this! </p>

3

<p>@dolphnlvr6‌ - I always wondered how they were going to keep feeding the kids while building the new dining center. I assumed they were going to take down Phelps once they had the Greenbaum House ready for occupancy and build the dining hall there. This is a much better plan.</p>

<p>A long time ago, meaning when I was there, the CR Building had an ice cream parlor on the first floor. So I guess it is somewhat appropriate that the new dining hall will be there.</p>

4

<p>Hmmm… sounds wonderful but as a mom with a son at another university going through a lot of “modernization”, the construction is a pain and not pretty. Hopefully they are working hard to break ground next month to do what they can over the summer. </p>

5

<p>You are certainly right about that, @Living61. Fortunately the CR Building is tucked away in a place on campus that shouldn’t be terribly disruptive, especially once they are done with the pile driving (assuming they have to do that). That is what gets the most complaints because it is loud. When they tear down Bruff in 2017 and start building in that space it will be more disruptive for sure. But as you imply, this goes on at all campuses. It has to.</p>

6

<p>I see construction as a positive, a moving forward. It is one of the questions that I asked whenever we visited campuses. Is there noise and dirt, certainly, but that is the price of progress. I am looking forward to watching this all unfold on the Tulane campus over the next few years!</p>

7

<p>We just spent 2 years and 60 million building a new science building on our campus and its right next door to my office! It was loud at times but that’s the price of progress. A little disruptive but but everyone loved watching the progress of the building and now that it’s done it was well worth it! </p>

8

<p>I saw some drawings a year or so ago of the interior plans for the new dining hall. If they are sticking with those, it is going to be great. At that time they also planned to have housing in the floors above the dining hall. I assume that is still the case. Add the new dorm that will go where Bruff currently is and, of course, the new dorm that is opening this fall and Tulane is dramatically increasing on-campus housing. Bad news for the people that rent houses near Tulane, but great news for those people that would have preferred to stay on campus all 4 years.</p>

9

<p>I agree with @DebsmomNY… this is definitely a positive. I am sure this will help to attract future students, as the lack of modernization was an issue for my husband and daughter.</p>

<p>Also, I will say that when I was a freshman at Emory (when they were building our new student center/dining hall), I lived in Alabama Hall. If you lived on the front side of the dorm, you woke up every morning to the noise of the construction on the student center (Dobbs University Center). And you lived on the back side (where I lived) you woke up every morning to the noise of the garbage trucks at the old dining hall (right behind my dorm). So construction is definitely something to consider.</p>

<p>I hope all of you with incoming freshman will be around to enjoy the long-term benefits of all this construction. Way to go, Scott Cowen… seriously, good job!</p>

10

<p>Although I think adding new dorms is a good idea, I have a particular fear that this is part of a long-term plan that will see students required to live on campus for three years, rather than two.</p>

<p>As a former RA, I strongly believe that students should branch out at some point and take the plunge into off-campus housing. Living off-campus over the Summers helped me learn valuable life skills that I wouldn’t have had otherwise.</p>

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<p>@FickleTickle - Personally I doubt that. Tulane has always had to turn away 3rd and 4th year students that wanted to stay on campus. They are reacting to demand and so I think are not afraid of having empty rooms. I agree that living off campus can be a valuable experience for many, but I feel even better about the students having the choice when possible. So along with you, I hope they don’t actually require living on campus after 2 years. But unless you have some evidence this is being considered beyond rumor, I will continue to doubt it.</p>

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<p>After reading the article in the Times-Picayune <a href=“http://www.nola.com/education/index.ssf/2014/04/tulane_plans_new_building_for.html”>http://www.nola.com/education/index.ssf/2014/04/tulane_plans_new_building_for.html&lt;/a&gt; I realized I misread the end of the Tulane Talk from Scott. They are not putting the new dining hall where the CR building is, but instead next to the LBC. There won’t be dorm rooms in that building, but instead new dorms where CR currently stands and where Bruff is. Sorry about that. So the last half of this decade is going to be a big construction time for Tulane, but the results should be fantastic.</p>

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<p>Fallenchemist, what does that mean? [They are not putting the new dining hall where the CR building is, but instead next to the LBC. There won’t be dorm rooms in that building, but instead new dorms where CR currently stands and where Bruff is. Sorry about that. So the last half of this decade is going to be a big construction time for Tulane, but the results should be fantastic] Are you saying main parts of the campus are going to be under construction for the next several years?</p>

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<p>@Living61 - This is a bit hard to describe if you don’t know the campus well, but I will try. for the most part, Tulane’s campus is divided into 3 sections. The Academic Quad Section is where most classes take place and is the part between St. Charles (the streetcar, Gibson Hall) and Freret (Percival Stern Hall). The middle section (between Freret and Willow and bordered by Broadway on the one edge) I guess you could call the Housing Section, as it contains most of the dorms, the LBC (student center) and Bruff (dining). It also has some classrooms, especially Newcomb Hall on the Broadway edge, and the main library. The last section between Willow and Claiborne is the Athletic Section. All the construction will be in the Housing section.</p>

<p>The first phase will be to replace the house that was the residence of the Dean back when there was a separate Newcomb College. This is between the LBC and the main library, and this is where the new dining facility will be. This shouldn’t be very disruptive. It isn’t near any dorm or the most highly used classrooms, nor is it a high foot traffic section that isn’t easily avoided. So it shouldn’t affect the vast majority of classroom situations or any of the dorms as far as sleeping, studying, etc.</p>

<p>The second phase will start in 2017 sometime. Could be Fall 2017, I’m not sure. This phase has the two new dorms, and It sounds like they will do both these at the same time. The one dorm, where the Caroline Richardson Building is now, will be the least disruptive. That particular spot on campus is probably the least trafficked right now. Noise wise, if they have to pile drive in the first stage of construction (after tear-down of course) it will affect the residents in Warren and Weatherhead the most. Otherwise it is surrounded by the art gallery and the power plant.</p>

<p>The other dorm will go where Bruff currently stands. This will be the most disruptive, I would think, because you have several dorms close by. You have Butler Hall and Mayer Residences across the street, and Phelps, Irby, Wall and Paterson dorms surrounding it on the same side of the street. I would think they will try and do the teardown and pile driving in the summer, since these are the noisiest parts of the process. I am making assumptions based on what happened when they built Weatherhead during my D’s freshman year as to what will be involved, such as pile driving. I am not a contractor. That one affected Butler and Mayer Residence the most because it was right behind them, otherwise it was a similar situation to what the replacement of CR will be like, not a heavy foot traffic area at all. But the pile driving, unfortunately, was during the semester.</p>

<p>So for incoming freshmen, they could have 3 years with only the new dining facility being under construction. I really don’t see that as being very disruptive to day-to-day life on campus. None of the construction will affect classes, as far as I can tell. I think I have the schedule straight, assuming the reporting is accurate. I am also assuming that CR and Bruff will be torn down and completely new construction will take place, but it isn’t like I have seen the plans. Personally I cannot imagine how they could convert what is already there into dorms, that makes no sense to me. But again I am not an expert. I was just relaying info that might otherwise be missed by interested parties. I can comment on where these constructions will take place since I know the campus well, and I can intelligently(?) speculate on how disruptive it is likely to be based on the assumptions I mention.</p>

<p>Bottom line, I wouldn’t let any of this affect a decision to attend Tulane. Most schools have something under construction at some point during a 4 year span, I would think. But especially for incoming students in Fall 2014, it shouldn’t be too big a deal. It won’t be any worse than when they built Weatherhead, and my D survived that just fine, and she got the worst of it since it was right outside her dorm window.</p>

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<p>I understand that the new cafeteria will be where the Newcomb College Dean’s Residence now stands. Three floors of cafeteria and the top floor for the NCI and its Center for Research on Women and archives. The local historic preservation council denied the university’s request to demolish the building which exists in the Tulane University Historic District. Tulane is now bringing a request to over-ride that denial to the City Council of New Orleans. I believe that President Cowen gave assurances to alumnae that the House would remain as the home for NCI when the BOT voted to close the college. </p>

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<p>Could well be. I would only say that the word “former” should have been used in front of Newcomb College Dean’s Residence, since there hasn’t been a Newcomb College Dean since well before Newcomb was merged into Tulane. or however they phrase discontinuing Newcomb College as a formal entity.</p>

<p>@Dedeen‌ - I can’t find any articles about this situation with the historical society. Do you have a source? Interestingly, in trying to find that I stumbled across this article from 1987. You have to especially love the last line.</p>

<p><a href=“BATTLE RAGES TO PRESERVE COLLEGE IN NEW ORLEANS - The New York Times”>http://www.nytimes.com/1987/05/17/us/battle-rages-to-preserve-college-in-new-orleans.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>I would personally be thrilled if students were required to live on campus longer than two years. It is far more expensive to live off campus than on. My oldest was required to live on campus all four years at another university and she had no problem transitioning to apartment life after college. In fact, I think living on campus longer allows students more time to mature as well as to dedicate themselves to their education rather than dealing with landlords, bills, grocery shopping, etc. There is plenty of time for that later. </p>

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<p>@fallenchemist‌ Do you happen to know when the construction of the new dining hall is expected to be completed?</p>

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<p>I am not sure, actually. Let me check into that and I will get back to you all. Might be next week before I can check on that.</p>

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<p>Two years. Fall 2016.</p>

<p>So the kids applying now will have it for beginning of soph year. Current HS juniors will have it when they arrive.</p>