Following up on this post, illustrating the physical changes underway at UBC, here are some images taken yesterday.
The bulk of the new Student Union Building and Alumni Centre have transformed this section of the campus, with more still to come:
.
The public realm changes, documented here, have vastly improved the experience of walking on campus, notably westward on University Boulevard towards Main Mall and Martha Piper Plaza:
.
Main Mall itself, prepared for spring, now reads as a pedestrian-friendly environment rather than, as previously, a grass strip between two service roads:
.
Given how much better the campus looks and feels, it’s a wonder it took so long. Was this perhaps the consequence of UBC being a commuter campus, where almost everyone, including students, drove to huge surrounding parking lots or, if senior administrators and academics, to small asphalt sanctuaries close to their offices?
Once U-Pass shifted the majority of students to transit and the parking lots started to be redeveloped, the car-dependent campus seemed an anomaly and the public spaces were ready to be re-priorized – once the decision was made to spend some significant dollars ($46 million from impact charges on new development).
It was worth it.
.
The new buildings under construction also have a more urban feel to them, more closely relating to the streets, with better designed public spaces, more colour and transparency – notably the new Audain Art Centre.
In addition to the usual money issues, a big stumbling block for UBC was tremendous student pushback against any change. I went to several of the open houses, and that experience, along with others, made me question the utility of the quest for public input, at least as that is structured now. First, there was resistance to any change in general and then there was resistance to any change that meant less greenspace. It was constantly repeated that we live in a concrete jungle and that we should preserve as much grass and green as possible. But lawn in areas that have high pedestrian traffic does not work. It just turns to mud. The professionals know that those areas require a hard surface, but much of the public just hasn’t thought that through. Not that that is their fault, it’s why we have professionals. But then why tie change to the reactions of people who don’t understand? The talk I hear from the grad students now is about a more involved public engagement where people become more immersed in the process, more invested, and then more knowledgeable. The problem is most people don’t have time for that.
Not that this should be taken as a paean to the technocratic top down decision-making of yore, but a recognition that the public engagement model that we have now does not work very well.
Another issue with this particular redevelopment is that the first plan for the SUB and the plaza was not a good one. It had a complicated timber supported roof that was expensive, looked cool in models, but wasn’t as practical as the architects thought it was. Because of the design, it would have blocked out a lot of light, and it also just used up too much of the budget.
I’m also not sold on the cascading pond on University Boulevard between the bookstore and the chem labs. Don’t think that it is appropriate for this area either.
I don’t think that the commuter campus is an issue. There is a substantial on campus community, and plenty of the commuters care about the campus as well. When I became a commuter, I still cared.
I would also expect that the University would be more focussed on education and research rather than pretty buildings.
Many of the [now] older buildings on campus (i.e. 1960s and 70s) are largely utilitarian in form.
Too much, too late. Pretty soon, very few of these buildings will be necessary. “The role of a bricks-and-mortar setting as the major option for legitimate knowledge transfer is a thing of the past.”
See my column on this in BIV: http://www.biv.com/article/20140325/BIV0319/303259932/0/SEARCH/New-UBC-president%C3%A2%C2%80%C2%99s-biggest-challenge:-no-cost-higher-education