At the future North Residential Area, cranes swing the campus into “New Dirt” era.
At the breakfast bar, a student sips a glass of OJ and connects to a professor’s Web site on a wireless laptop, while at the sink, her roommate takes a turn at dish detail, scraping plates from last night’s dinner over the disposal. They chat with a third student, who stands with a bowl of cereal at the floor-to-ceiling window in the living area, looking down at the courtyard, where early risers with yoga mats are gathering. A fourth roommate showers in one of the two bathrooms. Though Amherst is having a hot September and the day is already warm, the central air keeps the apartment comfortably cool.
Next fall, something like this scene will take place throughout the new North Residential Area, for which construction broke ground last month. The first undergraduate student apartments on campus, the complex is part of the recent building boom at UMass Amherst that Chancellor John Lombardi, who makes no secret of his affection for groundbreakings and construction sites, fondly calls “New Dirt.” Though students and faculty have excelled for years by making the best of many facilities on which maintenance was necessarily deferred, the chancellor has decided it’s time for these frayed edges to become cutting edge.
“’New Dirt’ is our campus symbol for the creation of the new facilities for students and faculty that are required of a major national research university,” says Chancellor Lombardi. “By creating quality space, we ensure that our facilities can continue to support the outstanding quality of our students’ academic performance, giving our graduates a competitive edge.” Totaling $550 million in new construction, renovation, and safety and maintenance projects, the prodigious “New Dirt” initiative is breaking out in all directions, boosting the campus in ways unseen and dramatically visible. Here’s a round-up. Watch this space for in-depth stories coming soon on many New Dirt projects.
North Campus New Dirt
What this September were athletic fields between Sylvan Residential Area and Totman Building will next September be the North Residential Area, a neighborhood of four brick buildings set in Ls to form two quads. Each building, housing 215 apartments, will be five stories and have pitched roofs, dormers, and vertical bands of floor-to-ceiling windows. Green spaces, meandering paths, and openness to adjacent athletic fields mean prime outdoor recreation possibilities.
The design of the apartments reflects the input students offered in meetings with the architects that were organized by Housing Services. Each apartment will have four single bedrooms, two full bathrooms, a full kitchen, central air, cable TV, and Internet access throughout. The ground floor of each building will have laundry facilities and common areas outfitted with Web access, cable TV, meeting rooms, and kitchens. A high-end package of alarm systems, fire suppression materials, and other safety mechanisms will be installed throughout the residential area.
East Campus New Dirt
The east section of campus is about to see dramatic change: no fewer than three new academic facilities will break ground this spring and summer on North Pleasant Street, across from the Fine Arts Center and campus pond, and behind these buildings, Stockbridge Road will eventually be changed into a pedestrian walkway through a lovely historic section of campus.
A V-shaped
Studio Arts Building, home to studios, classrooms, and storage space—will be fit stylishly into the angular intersection of Infirmary Way and North Pleasant Street, and farther along North Pleasant, aNursing Building will go up, in a gutted-renovation project, inside the exterior walls of Skinner Building. A two-story addition will close the building’s U shape, creating an open-air courtyard inside. To facilitate the hands-on communication that’s essential to nursing, the entire building will be wireless, and technology for videoconferencing with remote locations will be built in. High-tech teaching suites will be equipped with robotic mannequins that simulate patient problems.
Next door, a new Integrated Sciences Building will have two wings, each with four stories. One wing will have three floors of laboratories for introductory chemistry, organic chemistry and biology, and physical and analytical chemistry, and the other will have three floors of classrooms and faculty offices as well as a computer center and auditorium. The fourth floor of the entire building will be devoted to faculty research laboratories.
In a third, small wing, a regional chiller plant will supply cool water for air-conditioning the Integrated Science Building and buildings near it with greater energy efficiency. A water-reclaiming system is also being considered to capture rainwater off the roof for use in bathrooms, air conditioning, or plant irrigation around the building.
Center Campus New Dirt
The W.E.B. Du Bois Library has just opened the doors to its new Learning Commons, integrating library and other campus services and resources in one place on the main floor. Here students can nurse a coffee in the cafe until their conscience gets the better of them, and then hit a study session, work on a group project, get help with researching or writing a paper, borrow a laptop, read email, register for courses, or talk with academic and career advisors. Phew! Need more coffee!
Outside, the library deck renovation is quickly nearing completion, taking the shape of an inviting plaza in front and courtyard in back, both with new seating and lights. Next spring, landscaping will bring the entire deck to life with almost fifty new trees and pretty shrubs.
Southwest Campus New Dirt
Running circles around other university tracks in the East, a top-of-the-line new track facility has just been built next to Rudd Soccer Field. The $2 million facility includes a nine-lane, 400-meter track with a finely layered polymer surface tuned to medium resiliency, for both speed and comfort, and a steeplechase water jump, long and triple jumps, high jump, pole vault, and track timing system. The throws area is located outside the track, for safety and better scheduling of events.
Across University Drive from the Southwest athletic facilities, renovations begin in December on the Berkshire Dining Commons, which will reopen next fall as—believe it—a contemporary dining experience akin to a downtown Northampton restaurant. Completely revamped, the Berkshire DC will offer ten display cooking areas, ranging from vegan to Pan-Asian to rotating restaurant-style cuisine, using the freshest ingredients possible.
University Drive itself—a jumping thoroughfare, as any sports fan or resident of Southwest Residential Area knows—is scheduled this spring to be completely repaved and fitted with pedestrian-friendly amenities.West
Who says utility plants aren’t glam? When the new jet-engine-technology-based Central Heating Plant begins operation in a couple years, it’ll be the cleanest, most efficient energy plant in the country. The site has been prepared, bid requests for construction went out, and ground breaks this spring. For future hookup to the plant, trenches around campus are being dug and laid with new steam pipes—a fitting symbol of UMass Amherst as it goes full steam ahead into the New Dirt era.
more: UMass Amherst Campus Project Information
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