<p>I wholeheartedly support.</p>
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<p>I can see that it’s needed, and it will be great to make better use of the awesome views currently enjoyed by a parking lot, but we loved the old-fashioned charm of 1801 when we visited.</p>
<p>…we had a visitor center?</p>
<p>Oyama, it’s the office of undergraduate admissions. You’d have no reason to go. :)</p>
<p>The campus is really going to transform over the next three years with the addition of a new visitor center, a new Bienen/Comm building, and a new Kellogg building. These are/will be some of the largest buildings on campus. It’s really exciting.</p>
<p>I hear they’re also tearing down Patten Gymnasium and some of the buildings back on Lincoln St.</p>
<p>The overall NU Master Plan is on the internet; I don’t know how much Schapiro is strictly hewing to it, but I think it’s a great idea, especially leveraging the lakefront more and providing more north/south paths in the midst of campus, paralleling Sheridan but more inward. </p>
<p>I agree that the new visitor center is way overdue and it belongs in an area which will showcase the glory of the lakefront campus, not down on Hinman as an afterthought. I have always thought the parking lot taking up prime lakefront view property was a silly idea from the start; what, the cars can enjoy the view? </p>
<p>My S’s fraternity is one of those on peanut row (the row of frats on Lincoln Street that momof3sons is referring to). I’m sure they’ll all moan about it, but the peanut row frats DO need to be torn down, as do some of the older dorms like Bobb and Foster-Walker, and someone’s got to do something about the old Sigma Nu house. I hope students and alumni don’t get overly sentimental about Ye Old Good Days in Bobb and let it happen as it needs to happen. Sorry, Bobb-McCulloch was a pit in my day 30 years ago and it’s still a pit. NU deserves better.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/observer/framework.pdf[/url]”>http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/observer/framework.pdf</a></p>
<p>Here’s the master plan. I love the idea of reshaping the retention pond and having buildings be closer to the line. The lakefront is really underutilized; you have to make a special trip to get out there. I’d love to see some “light” recreation out there, like an ice cream stand or coffee kiosk or a large chessboard or checker set or even a swingset or other games to encourage interaction.</p>
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<p>You would know better than I, Pizzagirl, but I think D has said there’s lots of interaction (parties, performances, meetings, etc.) on the beach on a regular basis when weather permits. Not so?</p>
<p>I was referring to the lakefront and not the beach; yes, people gather there on an impromptu basis, but I meant more that the outside architecture could be “shaped” in a way to encourage spontaneous interaction - either by having little kiosks for refreshments or by having aspects of the environment you could interact with. This is a silly example, but in Geneva there is a park which has those large chess pieces - people walk by and start playing chess with one another, it becomes more of a public space. That kind of idea.</p>
<p>I like it! I think shuffleboard could also be big in college… though maybe it would be more like curling much of the year. ;-D</p>
<p>I do hope they retain the amazing lake views that you get as you walk around campus.</p>
<p>I think the new visitor center is a great idea, and the lakefront a real plus for NU. </p>
<p>The boarded up building(s) on Lincoln near the lake are an eyesore. Putting aside its reputation, I didn’t think Bobb was all that bad. Pretty institutional, but my son had a good size double. Replacing it with a sparkling new dorm would of course be great. Between the closing of the Keg and tearing down Bobb, he won’t recognize campus when he returns for reunions. :)</p>
<p>We oldsters don’t recognize it - well, south campus hasn’t changed much, but north campus really has, with the Ford building south of tech, and the Slivka and Ayers dorms taking up what used to be the space where guys would play football and everyone would hang out on a nice day.</p>
<p>What we really don’t recognize is downtown Evanston, which has really bloomed into being a vibrant place for young people. “In my day” (mid eighties) the stores were much more geared towards the geriatric and there were few quick options other than Burger King. Evanston is a real asset these days to the university; well done.</p>
<p>During new student move-in, I was <em>very</em> impressed by the parent reception on North Beach. The vast majority of new students / parents wouldn’t even know that North Beach existed, and the reception was in a tent, on the beach, in 75 degree weather, with the waves lapping at the shore and the Chicago skyline in the distance. Really well done, and that’s another property to leverage. </p>
<p>I think that unlike a lot of schools, NU was sort of built piecemeal and while the sorority quads and Deering Meadow are nice architectural anchors, there are other areas that just feel poorly zoned, as the plan I linked to indicates. In particular, I dislike how the Allen Center breaks up an area that (IMO) should be dedicated to undergrads, who are the heart of the school.</p>
<p>For those talking about the peanut-row houses, the fraternities there have already started being moved out. AEPi is moving into [584</a> Linclon](<a href=“http://www.northwestern.edu/living/options/undergraduate/residence-halls.html#bldg=11&tab=1]584”>http://www.northwestern.edu/living/options/undergraduate/residence-halls.html#bldg=11&tab=1) , and I know ZBT is in negotiations with the University. They’re really revolutionizing the campus, but hopefully they’re leaving some breathing room. Northcampus already felt a little too crowded.</p>
<p>arbiter, is 584 Lincoln the old Sigma Nu house? If so, that’ll look great once some attention is paid to it. Where is ZBT looking to move to? Besides AEPi, ZBT and Theta Chi, is there anyone else in Peanut Row?</p>
<p>The new Visitor’s Center is such a great idea. If I hadn’t visited the campus before taking a tour, I probably would have left once I entered the ugadm office. It was so small and kind of dingy and there were so many people in such a small area.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl- no, from what I hear Sigma Nu is re-colonizing, so that will likely be their house. 584 is the one I linked to in my post.</p>
<p>And those are the only three in Peanut row. I’ve heard rumblings that Career Services might move out of their current location and that their offices (the old Acacia house) will be re-converted to fraternity housing. Supposedly Lindgren, CCS, and Foster House, and Green House are all also on the table for fraternity Conversion.</p>
<p>584 is the former Phi Kappa Alpha house, though it’s been an upperclassmen dorm since 2001.</p>
<p>584 looks like a huge upgrade for AEPi!</p>
<p>That’s great. It’s nice to see aesthetics come to the forefront. Good idea to move the peanut row frats into the fraternity quads. It would look so much nicer and more unified. </p>
<p>So would peanut row be demolished and something else built there - I heard talk that they were looking to build some apartment-style living for upperclassmen? That might not be a bad location; if the city of Evanston permitted, you could maybe put something a bit more high-rise on peanut row, backing up to Lincoln Street, without disrupting any lakefront views.</p>
<p>The parking is the other thing that needs to be contended with. On both north and south campus, the cars have better lakefront views than the buildings. Why such prime real estate is taken up by parking lots is beyond me. I wish it could all be moved underground.</p>