EAST CAMPUS MEETINGS THURSDAY, FRIDAY, AND MONDAY (Update – New Pictures)
May 2nd, 2007 | by David Daddio | Published in East Campus, Events | 9 Comments
The East Campus Developer (Foulger-Pratt) will be on hand for questions and comments in the following places:
Student Forum:
—> Thursday, May 3, 3:00 p.m.—5:00 p.m., Visitor’s Center Auditorium, Turner Hall
Faculty/Staff Forum:
—> Friday, May 4, Noon—1:00 p.m., Room 0117, Tydings Hall
General Public Forum:
—> Monday, May 7, 7:00 p.m.—9:00 p.m., Ritchie Coliseum (on Route 1)
As we’ve been reporting for months, the University’s redevelopment of their East Campus site represents a profound change to the campus and College Park community. We highly encourage all who are interested to attend the first (BUT NOT THE LAST) public meetings regarding this $500 million redevelopment. The project will be built within the next 5 years on the corner of Route 1 and Paint Branch Parkway. Please forward this information to anyone you think may be interested.
Preliminarily, the East Campus Project is expected to:
- increase the size of campus (in terms of building square footage) by 15-20%
- add 2,000 residential units to downtown
- add 400,000 sq. ft. of retail space (For comparison, the McKeldin Library’s seven floors and basement add up to about 200,000 sq. ft. total)
- add a “Class A” office building (10 stories)
- add a high end Hotel (10 stories)
The project will be about double the size of the Downtown Silver Spring redevelopment.
(Photos courtesy of Foulger-Pratt Companies/Argo Investment Company)
May 2nd, 2007 at 10:11 pm (#)
These are all badly timed for me, alas. Oh, well.
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May 3rd, 2007 at 12:22 pm (#)
Someone PLEASE mention live music. What’s a college town without some cool jazz or up and coming musical talent? Silver Spring may get their Birchmere, let’s have at least ONE venue where we can get nightly music talent. Maybe two venues. A jazz club and a pop/rock venue. I don’t know what student would turn down such a place.
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May 3rd, 2007 at 3:48 pm (#)
Is the forum for informational purposes or are the developers seeking input?
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May 3rd, 2007 at 7:51 pm (#)
Both sort of. The real interactive input process is yet to begin.
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May 4th, 2007 at 12:27 pm (#)
argh; Tydings hall is still wedged by a fire alarm. I wonder if they’ll reschedule the staff forum.
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May 4th, 2007 at 2:52 pm (#)
The event happened, although delayed by about 30 minutes. We will have a post about it before Monday. The presentation is very detailed.
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May 4th, 2007 at 11:35 pm (#)
I attended todays event – this is a class outfit. After explaining the project they turned and asked the participants questions. They want to know what we like and dont like and what feels good about it as well as what concerns us.
You need to go if you have not already.
The project is going to be very cutting edge. These guys really get it. They understand the importance of village greens and vistas/view connections to the campus (ie Chapel) and how this will create a true sense of place. A place where people want to be.
I hope the project gives educational / eperiential learning opportunities to students in Arch, Engineering, and Business. What better way to leverage great thinking and talent, control costs, and enhance the educational experience of our students
GREAT POST (Up above) ABOUT A LIVE MUSIC VENUE – that did not come up today but Rob / David / Eric – you may want to make sure it gets mentioned on Friday.
This is really good stuff. For a guy whos been dreaming of this for 20 yrs, Im so excited I dont think I can sleep.
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May 5th, 2007 at 2:10 am (#)
I didn’t understand the concern some people had over the hotel (and other building) height. And I’m still confused about how all the cars are going to get to all those parking spaces that show up in the map but are never in any conceptual drawings.
I’m glad they didn’t cut the meeting too short.
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May 7th, 2007 at 9:50 am (#)
I for one wonder how a 10-story (ish) hotel would be received by the community since I have heard nothing but complaints about the height of The University View Tower.
Personally I have mixed feelings. Too tall and too modern may not look right across the street from the open green engineering fields, the red brick main gate, etc. Plus if you are sitting up at the top of the hill in front of the chapel looking east, right now you see tree tops. Would it be detrimental to look out and see 5-6 story-ish buildings?
Think about how the vista changed coming south down Rte 1 in front of the Chapel and seeing those new south campus commons bldgs looming over the top of Annapolis Hall.
Im all for this project I just hope we find the right balance and dont make it so dense and overwhelming that things feel over-crowded and congested.
Full steam ahead – next stop: The Knox Boxes
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