Good news for both the SEC proposal and the Plaza last night at the Corvallis Historic Resources Commission hearing. Both projects passed unanimously, even though it took four hours of hearing to get to the final decision. Next up, the MU East Wing, as well as the Asian Pacific Cultural Center will go before the HRC on January 8th.
The OSU students and one community member who testified did in incredible job and were very well prepared. Thank you to one and all who played a role in getting this final stage of approval through. Thanks also to the standing room only crowd who came out to support the students in their testimony and hear the action of the Commission first hand. Early work inside the MU begins Spring Break followed by a groundbreaking ceremony in May for the SEC and parking lot removal and excavation the Monday after graduation in June.
OPSIS SEC Presentation: 2012-1217 OSU SEC HRC-Final-edits
OPSIS Canopy Presentation: 2012-1217 OSU Canopy HRC-Final-edits
Student Support Presentation: HRC support
Michael Henthorne, Director
While the architectural firm understandably made an attempt to match the SEC with the MU buildings, the latest design looks like something you would have seen in a suburban corporate office park 15 years ago. The pre-fabricated concrete located on the fourth floor, and between the second and third floors, is a significant contibutor of the unattractiveness. In addition, the relative lack of modulation (the building looks very boxy) with minimal window diversity results in an structure that has very little aesthetic interest.
While placating historical interests is reasonble, not enough emphasis was placed on creating a stunning, architectually beautiful edifice. Too bad. OSU deserves to have a student center that isn’t so, well, dull. We could have done a lot better, especially this is such a prominent location on campus.
Josh Kahan
M.Ag. 1990
josh.kahan@live.com
Sent from my iPad