Denison is building an amazing new visual and performing arts center right on East Broadway in Granville. Sounds like a great idea to have a full quad devoted to the various arts (dance, film, theatre, and studio arts), and to have the performing space so walkable right into the village of Granville. The design looks stunning as well.
But what is daily life like for students majoring in those departments? The distance between the Fine Arts Quad with its Performing Arts Center and the dorms, student center, and dining hall is considerable - all the way down a big hill almost like a separate campus, and even much father from there to the athletic center (down a different hill). How many times a day would those students have to go up and down that hill to the rest of the campus? Is the experience isolating? Will there be a dining options, study spaces, and a student residence down there in the fine arts quad? Has anyone else wondered these things and found some answers. Is there a shuttle around campus?
Parent of current Denison student who spends time in both Fine Arts quad and the “other” side of the hill – the athletic facilities. Kids seem fine heading up and down both sides of the hill for class, activities etc, and they walk down (and back up) the hill during the day to run to CVS, the bank, or just treat themselves to Whit’s. So, I wouldn’t expect that the new building which is located just past the current music and theater buildings is going to change that pattern much. Kids are aware that they don’t want to schedule, for ex., work at the Mitchell Center (on athletics side) at 1:30 if they get out of a class in Bryant or theater building at 1:20. That would be do-able, but very rushed.
Denison has been soliciting input from students for campus planning so, as a parent, I feel pretty comfortable that the administration has been planning for integrating the new Eisner Center into campus life. Also, there are dorms currently on the Fine Arts quad – Stone and King.
Just adding a few more thoughts – the physical lay out of campus is that, the academic quad and two main residential quads – “west” where many first years live and “east” where many upper class students live – are on the top/flat part of the hill. Both dining halls, Curtis West and Huffman, are on flat/top of the hill, Curtis is by the academic buildings/west quad dorms and Huffman on east quad, closest to “Chapel Walk” and the path to academic buildings. The athletics center and playing fields are down one side of the hill and the arts buildings are down the other side of the hill. We know lots of Varsity athletes who are/were fine or performing arts majors/minors, so were moving all around campus throughout the day. A typical pattern might be something like, breakfast in dining hall closest to your dorm, class on Academic quad, class on Arts quad, lunch in Curtis, since it is closer to Academic buildings, study in the library (Academic quad), go work out in Mitchell Center, eat dinner in either Curtis or Huffman, study in library, or other academic buildings, work in studio space in Arts quad etc. The kids may be going up and down to arts/athletics 1-2 times a day.
To clarify for folks reading this – the Arts Quad already exists and includes Burke, Doane, Bryant, and Burton which house theater, dance, fine arts and music, plus the dorms Stone and King. What is new is the Eisner Center which will house new classroom, department, practice and performance space and will connect to Burke.