Indiana St approves plan that includes new stadium

[Jason Svoboda]

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. - Indiana State University trustees have adopted a new master plan that calls for renovating several academic buildings, upgrading student housing and building a new football stadium west of U.S. 41.

Under the plan, the Health and Human Services Building would be expanded to accommodate growth in nursing and health care courses and the former Terre Haute Federal Building would be renovated to house the Donald W. Scott College of Business.

Student housing would be improved by remodeling or replacing existing high-rise residence halls or by working with private developers.

The plan also calls for the eventual construction of a new football stadium west of U.S. 41.

President Dan Bradley says most of the projects approved Friday would be funded without state tax dollars.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-in-indianastate-futu,0,4783228.story

 

[Jason Svoboda]

Like the fact this made it to the Chicago Tribune.

 

[SycamoreStateofMind]

I posted this article under the Cross Country and Track forum - it would appear that the "stadium" that will happen first is a Outdoor track and field stadium. The reason being that the current track and field location will be demolished to create a new "grand" entrance" for Indiana State off 3rd St.

A football type stadium is in the plans later on down the road, but they are in the planning process of building a new athletic campus between 3rd st. and the Wabash River.

 

[TruBluSycamore]

WOWOWOW love to hear this!!!! And without tax dollars!?! Hats off to Mr. President and the Board if they can actually pull this off! I mean, I won't get to experience it all as a student but I'm all for making our campus as beautiful as possible for Sycamores of today and tomorrow!

 

[SycamoreTrack]

Everyone is soooooooo happy about the "new football stadium"!!!!!! The Indy Star and the Chicago Tribune pick it up but........forgot to mention what Pres. Bradley said about the "new football stadium......

From the Terre Haute Tribune Star article published: December 17, 2009
http://www.tribstar.com/local/local_story_351234957.html

Athletics


Under the plan, several athletic facilities, including track/field, soccer, softball and football, would eventually be moved west of Third Street across from campus. Within the next several years, Bradley expects to move track and field facilities to an area between the river and First Street.

The plan states, “The condition of the ISU athletic facilities is such the university has little choice but to begin planning for a number of new facilities and major renovations. Many of the existing competition facilities are ranked at or near the bottom of the Missouri Valley Conference.

“The under-utilized land west of U.S. 41 (Third Street) has been identified as the appropriate location for the development of new athletic competition and training facilities.”

The plan cites the availability of large tracts of land and the goal of supporting the city’s effort to revitalize the riverfront.

Bradley emphasizes the plan as presently written and drawn for athletic facilities is “a concept. You can do a lot of different things within that concept.”

Some of it could take 20 years, such as construction of a new football stadium.

The plan will likely call for the purchase of some retail establishments, but “that doesn’t mean necessarily there wouldn’t be any retail on Third Street across the street from us,” Bradley said.

Athletic facilities would be funded primarily through private giving, Bradley said.

“We have a lot of other things that will take an awful lot of effort,” he said. “The football stadium is nowhere near the top of my agenda list right now.”

It will be a long time before any football stadium will be built!!!!!

 

[SycamoreStateofMind]

WOWOWOW love to hear this!!!! And without tax dollars!?! Hats off to Mr. President and the Board if they can actually pull this off! I mean, I won't get to experience it all as a student but I'm all for making our campus as beautiful as possible for Sycamores of today and tomorrow!

Yeah I am with you on this for sure - it would have been great to compete in "new" or even respectable facilities while I was in college but that just wasn't the case - at least they are starting to get things off the ground! I have been saying since I was posting on here day 1 that the indoor and outdoor track needs to be addressed first thing.

 

[TruBluSycamore]

Actually to be honest I'm a little less intrested in the renovations in the athletic department compared to hearing that they are going to be doing things like fixing our big ugly problem known as the high rise residence halls. Those are hideous and I hope that we can get rid of the 4 towers and the COE and COB completely. Those are by far the two ugliest things about our whole campus in my opinion. If I had my way, we wouldn't have any buildings over 4 or 5 stories high. That, of course, raises problems about where to put people but I'm just saying what I'd do if I could.

 

[SycamoreStateofMind]

I think that's the norm these days - they don't usually build buildings much higher than 4 or 5 stories. Endless reasons why they don't do this - however residence halls are a little different story.

 

[Eleven]

Actually to be honest I'm a little less intrested in the renovations in the athletic department compared to hearing that they are going to be doing things like fixing our big ugly problem known as the high rise residence halls. Those are hideous and I hope that we can get rid of the 4 towers and the COE and COB completely. Those are by far the two ugliest things about our whole campus in my opinion. If I had my way, we wouldn't have any buildings over 4 or 5 stories high. That, of course, raises problems about where to put people but I'm just saying what I'd do if I could.

The "current" sycamore towers - the College of Business and former College of Education WILL be demolished. The plan calls for converting as many of the old "Dorm Style" rooms as possible, into dorm "suites"... where 4 roommates share 2 bedrooms and a central bathroom/kitchen between them and the entire suite is air-conditioned. It will take a while to get there... but that is the plan. Students expect those kind of accommodations... They are working on delivering them... ISU is already far better than Purdue has... and better than many other Indiana schools... though way below SIU's new dorms.

 

[Bob Evans]

The current high rise dorms are perfectly designed to get to know the others on your floor. Any other design that I have heard isolates people and makes that socializing more difficult. When I was in Rhoads, the unwritten rule of the culture was that if you were in your room, the door was open and if the door was open, anyone was free to walk in and visit. I think that atmosphere fostered becoming acquainted with everyone else early in the semester and socializing throughout the year. I would imagine that with the new designs, a person could get through the year without knowing most of the people on their floor if they were even the least bit shy. What a terrible loss that would be.

 

[Eleven]

The current high rise dorms are perfectly designed to get to know the others on your floor. Any other design that I have heard isolates people and makes that socializing more difficult. When I was in Rhoads, the unwritten rule of the culture was that if you were in your room, the door was open and if the door was open, anyone was free to walk in and visit. I think that atmosphere fostered becoming acquainted with everyone else early in the semester and socializing throughout the year. I would imagine that with the new designs, a person could get through the year without knowing most of the people on their floor if they were even the least bit shy. What a terrible loss that would be.

I don't think that will happen...
The new designs take 3 rooms and turn them into 2.... The middle being a "shared space" that contains a kitchenette and bath. Hallways are still the same and the congregating areas will still be there.

You should really take a trip through the new dorms. They are very nice.

Kids now do NOT want to have a "community bathroom", and they expect air conditioning... the changes will address both of those issues.

Room Layout

 

[Sackalot]

I am happy to see much of these changes being brought forth on paper...but what will actually take place is the question.

Things I think will happen in the next 5 years..
-New Track and Soccer facility by the river
-destruction of Sycamore Towers (COB and COE buildings over by the Bally) Let be honest Bally is the best landmark to give directions from.
-renovation of Pickerl Hall (starts in May) renovation of Erickson shortly thereafter
-Addition of Indoor Track and extention of HHP and Nursing building
-New entrances to campus that are mentioned in the master plan in terms of simple, inexpensive things like new signs, new pillars, whatever, but that don't cost as much as moving streets, etc.
-Complete renovation of Normal Hall to become Student Academic Success Center (they will get grants from all kinds of groups for this from historic societies to federal government)
-Moving Admissions office from where it is now to the Building just off the fountain (where Home Ec is now and Home Ec moving somewhere else) and the renovation of Dede Plaza just to make it more "welcoming". This won't cost that much, just moving some walkways, maybe changing some of the elevation and the pay parking lot to the south of HMSU. With the bookstore moving you don't really need that pay lot anymore anyway. Its tiny anyway.

Things that will happen in the next 10 years...
-renovation of Lincoln Quad to house Greek chapters and other student organization or the complete demolision of it and rebuilding of something similar that is more stable and updated.
-Start on the football stadium (maybe)
-redirecting of some street around campus from one way to two way streets
-new parking structure south of campus near where the new bookstore is supposed to go
-new bookstore (they haven't gotten Barnes and Nobles to sign on the dotted line as I was told sot his is going to take longer than was thought)
-renovation of HC and building of conference center
-overpass or underpass on 7th street at the railroad tracks
-renovation of the 4 towers (they won't be torn down, but will be changed in their look and they will be completely changed on the interior...COMPLETELY. Not just the rooms, but many, many changes will occur from what I have seen of "ideas".

Things that will never happen in my opinion
-inclusion of Round-abouts on US 41...that will never happen. It is a major thoroughfare. I live near Carmel and travel on Keystone all the time, the round-abouts that have been built and are being built are terrible and are a disaster semis have a terrible time, not to mention the MILLIONS it has cost, Carmel has ran out of money 2 or 3 times paying for this. It simply isn't feasible. This isn't ever going to happen...ever... in my opinion. US 41 is far too heavily traveled and it isn't practical at all. It is a neat idea and would look nice, but never gonna happen. (don't get me wrong, I love round-abouts, you have too if you travel through Carmel, IN, but only on secondary streets)
- Making Cherry Street into a two way street. I don't see that happening at all, plus it doesn't really serve much of a purpose, from where I stand. I am not an urban planner, but making that into a two way street doesn't serve much of a purpose. The north-south street does, but not Cherry.

Just my thoughts..

 

[Sackalot]

I don't think that will happen...
The new designs take 3 rooms and turn them into 2.... The middle being a "shared space" that contains a kitchenette and bath. Hallways are still the same and the congregating areas will still be there.

You should really take a trip through the new dorms. They are very nice.

Kids now do NOT want to have a "community bathroom", and they expect air conditioning... the changes will address both of those issues.

Room Layout

I have to agree with Bob on this one. I have substantial experience in this and I can assure you that there is far less comroderie and sociaization in residence halls with this new type of design rather than the older designs that were common in before the 80s or early 90s and obvisouly before that when the Res Halls at ISU were built. Dormatory vs. Apartment style is the issue. Students want apartment style so that is what they are going to get...but that doesn't mean it is the best option for their own wellbeing and growth as an adult. Just because the market reaction (students) want something that doesn't mean it is the best thing for them. I mean look at it this way, I am sure that if you asked students if they wanted a liquor store on campus that they could use their meal plan to buy alcohol at, they would overwhelmingly say "YES!!! ABSOLUTELY!!! WE WANT THAT!" But that doesn't mean it is a good idea. I get the not wanting a community bathroom, but anyone that ever lived in a residence hall with community bathrooms can attest to all the social interaction that they had when going to the bathroom or walking down to the bathroom or to the cross lounge to cook something...that is lost in the apartment style or suite style of housing. The one saving grace is the use of elevators which require students to actually interact with each other while waiting for the elevator.

It is impossible to provide historical perspective to a current student that hasn't seen what many of the older posters on this site might have been witness too when they lived in the Res Halls, but I can attest that the best memories that I have living on campus happened in either a cross lounge or on the way too or from a community bathroom. That is not to say that strange or questionable things happened in the bathroom (insert your nasty jokes or thoughts here) but I think you get my point.

 

[SycamoreStateofMind]

-Addition of Indoor Track and extention of HHP and Nursing building

Mu guess is that the new indoor track will be closely connected with the outdoor track. My bet is that they will put the new indoor track inside the old ICON building which they just purchased: http://www.sycamorerunner.com/showthread.php?t=5037

I am pretty sure that's what they have in mind at this point... And I think your time lines are right on point.

 

[IndyTreeFan]

Has anyone else actually gone through the Master Plan document? I perused it last Friday night (yeah, no life...) and it's really nicely done. If all that gets done, it will be as transformative as the original Master Plan that Dr. Landini did back in the early 80's. If you haven't looked at it, it's available at www.indstate.edu.

 

[Sackalot]

I have read all of them...and this is hugely transformative...if it happens. It will take alot, alot, alot of fundraising and corporate partnerships, but it is possible for the overwhleming majority of this to happen.

Morgan, I meant those as seperate things...what you said is what I meant...as I get my wisdom about all things track from you!!

 

[Eleven]

It is a very good read.
I like the fact that it has hard numbers in it as well... Goals should have quantitative numbers associated with them. There are many initiatives that he has outlined that are long overdue.

 

[SycamoreStateofMind]

Morgan, I meant those as seperate things...what you said is what I meant...as I get my wisdom about all things track from you!!

ahah I was just making sure that you were properly informed. Because they had renderings to build a new indoor track on to the current Hyper Building (old rec center). Not to say that they won't decide to go that route. However, that is a huge exterior structure (ICON Building) and President Bradley mentions it specifically in the Master Plan. My guess is they will gut the inside of that building in the near future. I mean at this point your just looking at demolition costs... I can bet you that people are meeting and talking about when, where and how they are going to build an indoor and outdoor track. The where has pretty well been determined.

 

[Sackalot]

agreed...

 

[Sackalot]

Just because I am bored and I have to work on Dec. 23rd...I found the estimated cost of changing all 6 intersections on Keystone Avenue in Carmel, IN from traffic lights to roundabouts...this is from the Indy Star.
"The $164 million estimate also is much higher because the construction work would have taken place over many more years, with the last intersection done in 2018, said Keystone project manager Jeremy Kashman. The estimate included inflation projections.“$164 (million), that’s the whole kit and caboodle,” Connor said."

Now if you break that down its $27.3 million per roundabout (there is going to be 6) and Keystone is only 2 lanes going each way. US 41 is 3 lanes going each way. So I would have to think it is going to be more expensive to convert US 41...but lets say that it costs the same. The plan calls for 2 roundabouts...that would mean that the conversion per the plan would cost atleast $54.7 million dollars. And Carmel has run out of money, Carmel one of the most wealthy and biggest tax revenue areas in the state. It simply isn't going to happen in Terre Haute.