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Facility upgrades

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OriginalCanesCanesCanes said:
Yeah, that’s not gonna happen.
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Yeaaaaahhhh...some of these posters need to stop trying to turn Football into the 800 pound gorilla/bully that steals everyone else's facilities.

Coral Gables land is tight, I get it. The campus is going vertical. Parking garages. Taller buildings. It's Miami.

Some of these people trying to move perfectly good tracks and tennis facilities. I wish I could put them in a time machine so they could see and smell the Hecht back in the 1980s. That thing should have been bulldozed and rebuilt THEN.

There's really only one solution, and it's to replace what is currently there. BADLY needed. People who have been inside the building...KNOW...
 
TheOriginalCane said:
Yeaaaaahhhh...some of these posters need to stop trying to turn Football into the 800 pound gorilla/bully that steals everyone else's facilities.

Coral Gables land is tight, I get it. The campus is going vertical. Parking garages. Taller buildings. It's Miami.

Some of these people trying to move perfectly good tracks and tennis facilities. I wish I could put them in a time machine so they could see and smell the Hecht back in the 1980s. That thing should have been bulldozed and rebuilt THEN.

There's really only one solution, and it's to replace what is currently there. BADLY needed. People who have been inside the building...KNOW...
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Zoning wise, do you know how high we can go up?
 
OriginalCanesCanesCanes said:
Zoning wise, do you know how high we can go up?
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heaven GIF


All I wanted to add, I’ll go back in my corner 😂
 
OriginalCanesCanesCanes said:
Zoning wise, do you know how high we can go up?
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That is an interesting question, as I do not believe that either the new dorms or the soon-to-be new dorms will exceed 6 floors. Lakeside Village looks like 5 floors of residential on top of either an admin first floor or a "nothing" first floor (and if you recall, the land slopes downward from the Metro to Lake Osceola, which means that the ultimate "height" is probably mostly 5 stories). Centennial Village looks to be 5 floors max.

I would imagine that the fact that we have an architectural rendering of a 5-story Hecht would be an indication that the current UM master plan would allow that height without any zoning variances. But, yeah, I'm trying to think of any UM buildings (recently) that are taller, and I'm drawing a blank.

Towers (old)
Mahoney-Pearson (old)
Richter (old)
Ashe (old)

The rest of the building on campus are 5/6 stories or shorter, right?

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Category69 said:
Would be interesting to know if anyone does know that, also what is currently the highest building? Been awhile since I've been on campus now that I'm OOS.
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Off the top of my head, has to be one of the towers, unless I’m forgetting something? I’ve been back on campus, but usually it’s for a baseball or basketball game.
 
OriginalCanesCanesCanes said:
Off the top of my head, has to be one of the towers, unless I’m forgetting something? I’ve been back on campus, but usually it’s for a baseball or basketball game.
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Definitely Towers (12 stories). Mahoney-Pearson is 7 stories. I believe that the Richter is 7 stories.
 
TheOriginalCane said:
That is an interesting question, as I do not believe that either the new dorms or the soon-to-be new dorms will exceed 6 floors. Lakeside Village looks like 5 floors of residential on top of either an admin first floor or a "nothing" first floor (and if you recall, the land slopes downward from the Metro to Lake Osceola, which means that the ultimate "height" is probably mostly 5 stories). Centennial Village looks to be 5 floors max.

I would imagine that the fact that we have an architectural rendering of a 5-story Hecht would be an indication that the current UM master plan would allow that height without any zoning variances. But, yeah, I'm trying to think of any UM buildings (recently) that are taller, and I'm drawing a blank.

Towers (old)
Mahoney-Pearson (old)
Richter (old)
Ashe (old)

The rest of the building on campus are 5/6 stories or shorter, right?

View attachment 181200
View attachment 181202
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These students don’t know how lucky they have it today.
 
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TheOriginalCane said:
Definitely Towers (12 stories). Mahoney-Pearson is 7 stories. I believe that the Richter is 7 stories.
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For some reason I don’t think they can go that high nowadays. I don’t know exactly how I know that, actually I don’t know, but I thought I heard something about that they will never be buildings built as high as those towers, which I think eventually will all come down.
 
OriginalCanesCanesCanes said:
For some reason I don’t think they can go that high nowadays. I don’t know exactly how I know that, actually I don’t know, but I thought I heard something about that they will never be buildings built as high as those towers, which I think eventually will all come down.
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It's weird, I think I've picked up the same info over the years, maybe by osmosis. I believe the Towers were an anomaly, even in the 1970s, and I think Hurricane Andrew put the final nail in the "really tall building" coffin.

Remember that really tall building directly across US-1 from the University Metro Station? It used to have all the National Hurricane Center meteorological equipment up on the roof until Hurricane Andrew. Then that big metal ball was just rolling down US-1 during the storm. They moved that facility out to the FIU campus and a shorter building.

I think there are a couple of (recent) tall buildings in downtown Coral Gables, but in between building The Colonnade and "all the stuff that got permitted in the last few years", I think there was a good long stretch when Gables didn't allow anything really tall to be built near Miracle Mile.
 
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OriginalCanesCanesCanes said:
These students don’t know how lucky they have it today.
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:100:

Man, I could compile a list of dirty, filthy buildings on the UM campus in the mid-80s. My freshman year, I worked for the UM Housing Office, and we had a lift truck that we used to deliver and/or switch out furniture, refrigerators, stoves, etc. in the Apartments area (none of those 3-story buildings had elevators).

I was shocked at how squalid the "married student housing" was, both along ****inson Drive and across US-1. I was somewhat relieved when UM decided to get rid of that housing. I mean, it was tough for students who had young kids, but UM should have never allowed young kids to be raised in those sub-standard buildings. UM was like a slumlord in those days.

The basement of Mahoney-Pearson. The backsides of the Student Union (both by the Stanford Circle and the Miller Circle). The Ibis and the Eye and the Hurricane cafeterias. The art shacks. The OLD Lambda Chi house. The OLD Sig Ep house. The Army Armory building. The ramshackle Law School quadrangle, pre-renovation. The Ungar Building. THE ENGINEERING SCHOOL (particularly the nasty basement/ground floor). The Learning Center, complete with their anonymous NYSOM-friendly restrooms.

And, of course, the granddaddy of them all, the Hecht Athletic Center.
 
TheOriginalCane said:
Definitely Towers (12 stories). Mahoney-Pearson is 7 stories. I believe that the Richter is 7 stories.
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Thanks, I figured it was all still older buildings that were the tallest. Forget the Towers are pretty tall for the area.

There are several of the parking lots that could be converted to parking garages to maximize space, but then you have the issue of parking while it's being done and the per space cost of construction has got to be up there. That I guess would be an option if the city won't allow much taller buildings for whatever reason, but the cost would be pretty high along with building new facilties.
 
Category69 said:
Thanks, I figured it was all still older buildings that were the tallest. Forget the Towers are pretty tall for the area.

There are several of the parking lots that could be converted to parking garages to maximize space, but then you have the issue of parking while it's being done and the per space cost of construction has got to be up there. That I guess would be an option if the city won't allow much taller buildings for whatever reason, but the cost would be pretty high along with building new facilties.
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Yeah, just to illustrate HOW HARD it would be to put ANYTHING new/tall along the perimeter of campus (except along that stretch of San Amaro with fraternity houses and St. Augustine's)...

In the 1980s, UM was planning to put the FIRST parking garages over there along Pisano, between Doctor's Hospital and the Learning Center/Panhellenic Building. Would have been exclusively "commuter student" parking lots.

The Coral Gables residents blocked it.

We are talking about, max, TEN OR TWELVE RESIDENTIAL HOUSES on Campo Sano that would have looked out on a very nice parking garage between Pisano and Brunson.

35 years of terrible commuter parking later, nothing has been built. And the commuter students have to ride the Hurry-Cane shuttle from over by Mark Light, allllll the way over to the Memorial Building.
 
I would assume there should already be some sort of paper trail?
Gables is jus a little difficult with the permits so I would assume there should be something already filed or in the early stages.
With all the people that we have on here there’s got to be somebody that knows how to look this up.
 
pacusmc said:
I would assume there should already be some sort of paper trail?
Gables is jus a little difficult with the permits so I would assume there should be something already filed or in the early stages.
With all the people that we have on here there’s got to be somebody that knows how to look this up.
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The new UM Master Plan (that took years to get adopted by Gables) already gives us "pre-approval" for nearly everything we are talking about.

I mean, maybe, just maybe, if Dan all-of-a-sudden wanted to build an ice hockey rink, then MAYBE we might need to go back to the City, but otherwise we are good to go.
 
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TheOriginalCane said:
The new UM Master Plan (that took years to get adopted by Gables) already gives us "pre-approval" for nearly everything we are talking about.

I mean, maybe, just maybe, if Dan all-of-a-sudden wanted to build an ice hockey rink, then MAYBE we might need to go back to the City, but otherwise we are good to go.
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Thanks for all the info. I can't wait to see all the renderings/proposals. I'm sure Rad and Mario have probably modified or improved some of it too already even with the cities limitations. Is there any way to view that master plan now that you know of?
 
Category69 said:
Thanks for all the info. I can't wait to see all the renderings/proposals. I'm sure Rad and Mario have probably modified or improved some of it too already even with the cities limitations. Is there any way to view that master plan now that you know of?
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Not sure if the Master Plan is a public document, you might try checking with the City.

I remember a lot of the stuff from Foote's original "master plan" back in the 80s from the years I spent in Student Government. Very sad to look back on how hard we had to work to get UM administration to include things like "better nighttime lighting in the parking lots" and "blue-light security phones". Then you look at all the safety measures on campus today, and you just have to shake your head and be grateful that the nonsense has stopped.

Not to mention the pedestrian bridge over US1. Decades in the making.
 
Rellyrell said:
I was joking brotha. Lol.
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No problem. I just thought maybe you didn't know what the current track was like. I always joke that they call it "Cobb Stadium" even though it isn't much of a stadium, but it's SOMETHING at least.

You know way more about facilities than most of the posters on the board. I think some people believe the current track is only used for practices.
 
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