New Campus Projects -

[WhoaNellie!!!]

WAKA ran a segment last night about the new bond issue that the board of trustees has approved. The reporter talked with a couple of students with two competing viewpoints. One student said in somewhat of an incoherent manner that the university shouldn't be wasting money on building new fraternity houses. He said that money should be spent on housing for non-Greeks. Another student was very articulate and said that if the university wants to continue growing and attracting good students, that all of these new projects (fraternity houses, dining hall, and arena) are worthwhile.

Like it or not, at southern colleges and universities, the Greek system is what is oftentimes the lifeblood of any given campus. Many students determine on where to go to college based on a viable Greek system. If any university needed new fraternity houses it's Troy. Those current buildings are a joke and have been since the day they were built. A new fraternity row will help to elevate Troy to that next level so many of us have talked about on this board for the last few years. Obviously, the new arena will take us to that next level as well. Will our new fraternity row rival that of Ole Miss or Alabama? Nah.... but it will be extremely nice and will be a showpiece for the university for many years to come.

The fraternity houses should be ready by next fall, the dining hall sometime in 2011 and the new arena by the fall of 2011.

[BuzzkillTrojan08]

One student said in somewhat of an incoherent manner that the university shouldn't be wasting money on building new fraternity houses. He said that money should be spent on housing for non-Greeks.

Did he forget the money that was spent on the huge, 4-building student housing facility and renovations to older dorms?

I lived in one of those Fraternity houses for 3 years and its nothing short of poverty. Kids come in for Senior Preview Day, take one look at those houses and laugh. We've needed new ones for a LONG time. I think they've actually been in the works for more than a decade. Good to see they're finally going through with them.

[BMarkey]

The most important piece of the fraternity village puzzle is the fact that the village is not going to cost Troy anything! The fraternities are going to pay for the project with mortgage payments and rent!

I can't stand TV "reporters" who quote people about issues without first making sure the comments are based on facts.

[sotsclarinet08]

from the Tropolitan:

"The dining hall will be located on the left of Clements Hall and the right of HAL Hall."

"Plans are to demolish the red light at the intersection of Luther Drive and University Street and make it a circular intersection with a wonderful centerpiece feature." ---That's going to look great!

"This dining hall will be built as a wireless building for Internet access." ---Always a plus when we are on the go.

Here's the awesome part!

"The first level of the dining hall will include many different food courts, including Panino's Deli, Wild Mushroom, Basic Kneads Deli, Bella Trattoria, Flying Star Diner and Boar's Head Deli. Bella Trattoria will be Italian cooking and will have brick oven pizza. Flying Star diner will be your basic entrees and country cooking and Boar's Head Deli will be similiar to Panera's Bread." --- Sound's like it's gonna be a amazing place to eat!

"The second level of the dining hall will include a Moe's and Magellan's." --- I love Moe's!!!!

"It will also have an area where you can sit and watch TV on new big screened TVs that will be distributed throughout the area."

"There will be two rotunda sections in the dining hall and that is Moe's and Boar's Head Deli."

"Construction will begin in January 2010 and the dining hall is planned to be completed by July 2011, before the fall term."

Some great stuff happening at Troy!! I'm sure the trop will have this online soon, but they haven't changed their website from April so I thought I'd fill you guys/gals in now.

Go Trojans!

[JonesOxygen]

Awesome, welcome to Moe's!!!!

[sotsclarinet08]

Awesome, welcome to Moe's!!!!

lol I love Moe's!

[JPSousa1898]

Well... I must say this is not the fiasco I thought it would be. It actually sounds like a well planned and well thought out in regards to expansion of HAL and the other School of Music facilities. My original information had it directly behind Smith and Long in some weird fashion that would prevent any further connection or expansion of HAL, Long, and Smith. I am now officially on board for the 2nd Dining Hall and Student lounge... any word of if they are keeping Stuart operational or if it will be demolished in favor of another facility?

[sotsclarinet08]

Well... I must say this is not the fiasco I thought it would be. It actually sounds like a well planned and well thought out in regards to expansion of HAL and the other School of Music facilities. My original information had it directly behind Smith and Long in some weird fashion that would prevent any further connection or expansion of HAL, Long, and Smith. I am now officially on board for the 2nd Dining Hall and Student lounge... any word of if they are keeping Stuart operational or if it will be demolished in favor of another facility?

I'll elaborate more on the location of the new dining hall, as it was in the Trop:

"The dining hall will be located on the left of Clements Hall and the right of HAL Hall."

"There will be two fronts to this dining facility. One front will be facing Collegedale Street and the other front will face University Street and will be diagonally facing Alumni Hall."

I'm pretty sure it'll be where there is that little green patch with trees and flowers between Clements and HAL Hall. And the Trop didn't mention anything about what will happen to SAGA (Stewart) after the new dining hall is built so I don't know. It did say (even though this is obvious) the Trojan Center and SAGA will remain opened throughout the building phase of the new dining hall. Not sure why they included that statement, it's kinda obvious.

I have heard many many rumors about what SAGA will be after the new dining hall is opened. I heard Art might get it... I heard that it might be a parking lot and/or deck... Who knows, let's hope whatever ends up there will be useful.

[JPSousa1898]

Were there any renovations to Wright Hall, Wright Hall Gym, and McDowell Lee Natatorium as well as the music side of Smith (west?)

Any and all pictures would be appreciated ASAP for those of use who can't make it to campus too often.

Thanks!

[sotsclarinet08]

Absolutely no renovations were done to Wright Hall, Wright Gym, and the Nat.
Sorry =(

[sotsclarinet08]

Since I'm a nice guy and I've been doing this for a while, I thought I'd go out and take some pics of the new School of Music! So here they are, it looks so amazing! It definitely will help with recruiting now that it looks more professional etc... All the class rooms were locked, so I'll take some more of the class rooms next week when I have a spare moment. Here ya go:

First Floor (the new carpet is amazing)
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g224/nhs_bandgeek07/DSCN0255.jpg

2nd Floor
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g224/nhs_bandgeek07/DSCN0262.jpg

Practice Rooms (2nd floor)
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g224/nhs_bandgeek07/DSCN0263.jpg

2nd Floor Sitting Area (new water fountains, couch, table, and chairs)
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g224/nhs_bandgeek07/DSCN0266.jpg

[sotsclarinet08]

2nd Floor again
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g224/nhs_bandgeek07/DSCN0267.jpg

New stairwells to the downstairs entrance (all the entrances and stairwells have stone on the floors now, it looks great)
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g224/nhs_bandgeek07/DSCN0270.jpg

Another entrance and the new bathrooms
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g224/nhs_bandgeek07/DSCN0258.jpg

[FliryVorru]

Two words:

Holy crap!


I wish I could have taken Music Theory in THAT building. I'm very happy for you guys!

[JPSousa1898]

I must concur, Smith looks awesome! That's an awesome classroom building. I can't wait to see the classrooms. Seems like Wright might be the next academic building to get renovations since they're going to tear down McCartha. I wonder what they will build in McCartha's place. It's all going to be exciting once they finish Bibb Graves and demolish McCartha and build a new building there... GROW TROY GROW!!!!!

[sotsclarinet08]

JPSousa1898 helped me out with finding this link.

http://www.troy.edu/news/photogallery/2009/bibbgraves/index.html

I have my own photos of the Bibb Graves project but these are already up and are better quality. Anyways, the floor plans look great! We're gonna have a lot more room and some great lounges and computer labs! The rendering looks great of the back where the new wing will be!

[troy4ever]

I am so increadibly jealous that I didn't get to be a music major there! Ugh! But I'm so happy for the students of the music department and even more for the faculty of the music department. Proud to say that I'm an alumni of the School of Music.

[fiesty_red]

JPSousa1898 helped me out with finding this link.

http://www.troy.edu/news/photogallery/2009/bibbgraves/index.html

I have my own photos of the Bibb Graves project but these are already up and are better quality. Anyways, the floor plans look great! We're gonna have a lot more room and some great lounges and computer labs! The rendering looks great of the back where the new wing will be!

Well, I'm glad to see there will be no more classrooms in the attic and almost nothing in the basement. Talk about miserable places to be stuck for an hour or two for class - no natural light and the central heating & air was always questionable. I remember a going to my 2 hour long World History class in the basement of Bibb Graves where I had gotten soaked by rain before coming in and since there wasn't any decent air circulation I stayed soaking wet for 2 hours. Well, at least Dr. Welch was a great teacher, so I wasn't completely miserable stuck down there in the dungeon.

[Burn the Horse]

i'm gonna miss the old Bib Graves.

but the music department looks great!

[94IntegraDriver]

JPSousa1898 helped me out with finding this link.

http://www.troy.edu/news/photogallery/2009/bibbgraves/index.html



Those are awesome floor plans. What a great new building it will be inside, while retaining the original/historic look on the outside! The best of both worlds!

[TroyFootball05]

GROW TROY GROW!!!!!

Is it just me, or are we REALLY starting to explode big time. We have in the next few years:

Bibb Graves Renovation
New Frat Houses
New Dining Hall
New Choral Facility
Center For Chinese Studies (Behind Bibb Graves)

Troy is making a BIG push to become big time, on par with Alabama and Auburn. I would not be suprised to see 10,000 students on campus by 2011 (Fall 2008: 7,000 aprx.)

University growth like this will be essential if we are to compete with the likes of USA and UAB football in the future.

[JPSousa1898]

Well... you're partially right.

The other part is that we're trying to build quality academic programs relevant to the 21st Century's global society. People recognize this and Troy's dedication to building a quality academic program and are wanting to get on board. There's a lot of finer details that come with this like better facilities, more attractive classrooms and living spaces, as well as improved student activities and involvement.

Lately, I've been very impressed with the amount of materials I've seen at JSU's Houston Cole Library and made it very well known that I wish that we had those types of resources available to us at Troy when I was there.

I dream of the day when Troy students can walk into a world-class Library/Research/Resource Center filled with many of the resources students will need to succeed in the Global Society and not have to worry about limited shelf space or lack of resources due to space. I hope that day is not to far away. It DOES make a difference in the type of students and faculty we can recruit.