I find myself dismayed at the negative feelings that have already been expressed about the new Electronic Media and Performing Arts Center. While these feelings have been primarily directed at the site chosen for the new building, opinions such as these can not help but color the attitude that people will bring to this building when it is finally built. The community must look forward to this building with hope, excitement, and eagerness. It is the sincere hope of all those involved in the process of creating this center that this place will become a magnet for the campus population and the community at large—that, in the words of one committee member, this will be a place where you want and need to be everyday, that there will be enough activity going on, that you will "go check it out."
As far as food, the campus community will need to make sure that either Sodexho-Marriott provides a first-class eatery, or that they allow an outside vendor in to provide a first-class café. These are the reasons why it is important to continue to approach EMPAC with positive thoughts. As far as its actual location, yes, it is on the edge of campus, but there are several reasons for this, and most of them are valid. First, next time you’re driving down route 787, look at the hill. Just imagine another large structure beside the library, making a bold statement—that there is something up here worth going to. EMPAC is not just about the campus community, it’s also about involving the greater community at large and letting people know that RPI is not just a bunch of techies, but techies who also appreciate art and the humanities.
Further, there is really no interior campus location that makes sense for a building this size. The only location that would begin to be large enough is the site for the biotech center (behind the CII where the two parking lots are right now) and the biotech center needs to be located in this location for its own reasons. The current estimates for overall square footage and footprint size are such that EMPAC will be big enough to offer a campus entrance at the top of the hill near Folsom, the VCC, and the MRC, and also offer entrance(s) to 8th Street and College Avenue. If there is an entrance near Folsom, is it really so far away? A 10 to 15 minute walk is not that bad, even when it is cold—just bundle up, with the realization that there is something really worth going to see. After all, if you have to go research something, pick up a printout, or whatever, do you stay in your room(s), or do you put on your jackets, scarves, hats, and gloves and walk down to Folsom or the VCC?
The location chosen provides for a relatively near place for structured parking to be built, and they are planning on redesigning the parking at that end of campus. So, if you live far enough away, then you can always drive there from where you live in the evening, or on weekends, and if you’re on the academic campus during the weekdays, then it really isn’t that far away—look at the crowd that goes to the Library Café. Also, as the biotech building’s schedule is ahead of EMPAC’s schedule, campus planning and the architects for biotech are planning on doing campus planning studies—this information will be passed on to the yet-to-be-chosen, but very qualified and talented architects who will design EMPAC. Therefore, there will undoubtedly be a wealth of possibilities of how to access this building.
My final point, and what I think the campus community must keep in mind is this: That we (the campus community) cannot approach this center as something that is already too far away to spark our interest, but that it will be a center of such great interest that we are drawn there, that we can’t stay away! However, the only way this will happen is if we participate so it will be what we want it to be. The Institute can hire the best architects, spend millions of dollars to give us a great building, but if we do not engage it, take an interest, then it will die. If it becomes dismissed before it is even built, because it is a quick 15-minute walk, then from my point of view there is not as much interest in it as many of us hope and feel there really is in the community.
Robert Manna
ARCH ’03
