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http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/inde...er_default


Sad day. Though i guess what they're doing is still better than just continuing to let them rot, or just tearing them down altogether.

Like most political things, the solution is the worst compromise for all parties who have an interest.

I'm not there enough to have skin in the game, but I think it's too bad they didn't find a way to embrace the history with the present, like many prominent college campuses are able to do quite successfully.

The next buildings WMU builds should be in that old brick and column style.

I would be 100% for that. There is nothing prettier, especially in Academia.

This may not be a popular opinion, but it's hard for me to criticize Dunn when it was really his predecessors that let it sit there and rot, draining the university's maintenance dollars on a building that wasn't properly taken care of over the years. Truth be told, this may not be the best use of the building, but at least they're doing something, there's a plan for it, and they are taking action. This may salvage more in the long-term scope of things.

That goes all the way to the 70's, plaster fell on us when we were walking in there.

(07-14-2014 03:37 PM)DesertBronco Wrote:  That goes all the way to the 70's, plaster fell on us when we were walking in there.

DB is right. The place was a dump back then and the university just continued to use it and let it deteriorate.

Quote: I think it's too bad they didn't find a way to embrace the history with the present, like many prominent college campuses are able to do quite successfully.

I can sort of see why the university did not take this approach, even with the maintenance cost issue aside. The old buildings were not at the core, or even on, WMU's main campus anymore. Prospect hill is pretty isolated from the rest of the university. If the buildings were on the present main campus then it would have made more sense to restore and repurpose the buildings.

Yeah, nothing like having an extremely Finnish prof lecturing and having the radiator heat start clanging in the middle of his lecture, I could only hope he wasn't covering something important, great prof, loved him but it was tough without the distractions.

The East Campus was part of the history, but it's not important enough to the admin there I guess, it never was. Bernhardt actually tried to keep them around but met a lot of resistance from what I understood. This was a sticking point of the strike in 84 (THAT was embarrassing).

Was sitting in the Jimmy Johns parking lot eating my #5/ with hot peppers the other day, when I realized its all about the trees.

The old buildings sit so nice up on the hill, but you can't really see them because the plantings, which were small saplings when the campus was new, are now an overgrown forest. You can't really see the East Campus hilltop due to the overgrown trees.

But can you imagine the outcry if they were to cut all that back and start fresh?

Actually, the architects have shown a very nice site plan and elevation of the new work as viewed from the east, and it will look very nice. But I haven't seen a view of what it will look like from the northwest view. For one thing, you've got that ghetto street down there with all those ratty houses. If that hillside were in San Francisco, it would be restructured and filled up with $400,000 condos.

(07-15-2014 07:29 AM)Dirty Ernie Wrote:  Was sitting in the Jimmy Johns parking lot eating my #5/ with hot peppers the other day, when I realized its all about the trees.

The old buildings sit so nice up on the hill, but you can't really see them because the plantings, which were small saplings when the campus was new, are now an overgrown forest. You can't really see the East Campus hilltop due to the overgrown trees.

But can you imagine the outcry if they were to cut all that back and start fresh?

Actually, the architects have shown a very nice site plan and elevation of the new work as viewed from the east, and it will look very nice. But I haven't seen a view of what it will look like from the northwest view. For one thing, you've got that ghetto street down there with all those ratty houses. If that hillside were in San Francisco, it would be restructured and filled up with $400,000 condos.

You're right, it had great potential for condos/office/restaurant/alumni center combo development. A developer like Joe Gusmundo should have run with it. He's taken a piece of garbage land at Drake and Stadium and is building a combination office park, retail, and a Cosco. Granted he ripped out all of the trees, but he's putting in 700 new ones.

Prospect Hill should do the same. Leave a few of the mature oaks, put in a grassy open area, and throw up some smaller trees that won't block the view. If they just did it and didn't announce it the local doped out tree huggers would never even notice.

Had the historical society been as good at raising money as they were at raising a stink this could have been done right. I also think private capital would have come into play if they didn't have to deal with the politics of the historical society goons.

(07-15-2014 08:31 AM)Chipdip2 Wrote:  Had the historical society been as good at raising money as they were at raising a stink this could have been done right. I also think private capital would have come into play if they didn't have to deal with the politics of the historical society goons.

That's exactly the problem. They were viewed as a group of complainers rather than going out and coming up with a fundraising strategy to help the university. They wasted time on yard signs and bumper stickers when they could have been out knocking on doors. It's too bad.

(07-15-2014 07:29 AM)Dirty Ernie Wrote:  Was sitting in the Jimmy Johns parking lot eating my #5/ with hot peppers the other day, when I realized its all about the trees.

The old buildings sit so nice up on the hill, but you can't really see them because the plantings, which were small saplings when the campus was new, are now an overgrown forest. You can't really see the East Campus hilltop due to the overgrown trees.

But can you imagine the outcry if they were to cut all that back and start fresh?

Actually, the architects have shown a very nice site plan and elevation of the new work as viewed from the east, and it will look very nice. But I haven't seen a view of what it will look like from the northwest view. For one thing, you've got that ghetto street down there with all those ratty houses. If that hillside were in San Francisco, it would be restructured and filled up with $400,000 condos.

you're right DE. Drove down Davis St the other day just to see what it was like. An overgrown forest is an apt description and East Hall is hardly visible. As far as the ghetto appearance, Davis Field fits right in. Ugly fence and overgrown weeds all around it. Not sure if the U does not care about the appearance, or PJ wants the weeds to block the view from the street. For that matter does PJ even make use of the field? He could stick with Waldo and the Seeley Center.

(07-15-2014 10:10 AM)Hoekjeness Wrote:  

(07-15-2014 08:31 AM)Chipdip2 Wrote:  Had the historical society been as good at raising money as they were at raising a stink this could have been done right. I also think private capital would have come into play if they didn't have to deal with the politics of the historical society goons.

That's exactly the problem. They were viewed as a group of complainers rather than going out and coming up with a fundraising strategy to help the university. They wasted time on yard signs and bumper stickers when they could have been out knocking on doors. It's too bad.

WMUs industrial park and engineering building is totally full since Rubbermaid put their R&D facility there.

Western wants to do the same on the other side of the street in that huge open area at the corner of Drake and Parkview. They will leave the Asylum lake area alone. A lot of people walk their dogs there and it was once a big gathering place for gay men seeking backwoods sex I think the police cleaned that up......hopefully.

Anyhow, the local tree huggers want to stop it even though this land is devoid of trees. Some in this community fail to see what an asset a major university is. They would have issues if Waldo was filled with gold coins.

One of the big tree huggers by East Campus was a big advocate of lettin his lawn grow au-natural. In other words a giant weed patch. When the neighbors and city complained he solved it by putting up a ten foot hideous wooden wall around his yard. It's a fine line between keeping things the same and turning them into a useless dump. Some of local whiners and complainers don't get that.

A couple of related articles on the right jumped out at me when I was reading that.

The first was from the spring and showed the architectural rendering of what the building will look like. I'm assuming it's going to be used as a conference center and maybe have receptions / parties etc. I also remember in the plans being shown last year a large grass / garden area on the Oakland side (will that be the front or back?) that looks like it is to be used for outdoor reception / wedding type activities. http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/inde..._rede.html

The other article, related to CD's comments, talks about how WMU wanted to buy and demolish 10 houses on Bellevue Place but then decided not to. The comments show a lot of resistance to the idea on "historic" grounds but don't know the real reason. Those houses look like they are at the bottom of the East Campus hill on the north side. I hadn't heard that story before so I'm not sure what happened but it sounded like a good move ascetically especially if they are going to clear the trees on the hillside. http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/inde...ncele.html

Yeah that second article shows the area you see from Jimmy Johns. One comment mention the beautiful interior of those houses. Well, I considered renting one of them way back in 1971, and trust me, the interior was garbage.

I'm pretty liberal, but the stink that was made about renewing that area really prevented a great improvement. Boo. Likewise the talk of the "800 pound gorilla WMU oppressing the poor folks of the city". Nonsense.