OCR Text |
Show Gravy bowl Campus planners: Masterminds shuffling a giant jigsaw puzzle BY GLEN LEONARD Campus planners are putting together a giant jigsaw puzzle, fitting fitt-ing the pieces into place as carefully care-fully as the most avid puzzle fan. Each piece must fit perfectly and a great deal of shuffling is going on to find the appropriate location for every component part. They've realigned the traffic pattern to give the central campus a unity unknown in the days when diesel fumes and cracked mufflers lined the asphalt thoroughfare thor-oughfare past the University Bookstore from dawn till dusk. They've also located several new buildings in this central sectionthe sec-tionthe library, fine arts, behavioral be-havioral sciences and social studies complexes. The shuffling will see some buildings discarded, too. Inter-cultural Inter-cultural Center and Geography-two Geography-two World War II relics will go. It would be a mistake, though, to redesignate the University Bookstore building as a computer center. There's been talk about that possiblity. Some say the bookstore has outgrown the building designed for it. The elimination of Fifteenth Fif-teenth East, say others, has made access difficult for patrons. It would be better, they argue, to build a bigger structure where parking is available and access easier. The bookstore has outgrown its shell. It could use more space. But what's to prevent expansion at the present site. Perhaps temporary tem-porary space could be found in the Geology Laboratory building which once housed the Natural History Museum. Or, with the Intercultural Center Cen-ter buildings due to be moved, that space would be available. Could the present bookstore building be duplicated east of the concrete mall? Let one store handle books, the other sell stationery sta-tionery products and provide miscellaneous mis-cellaneous services. The bookstore's present location loca-tion is ideal for students in all parts of the campus. It is centrally located, handy to the library, not far from major campus classroom buildings, and adequately supplied with twenty-minute parking spots. An access road, hidden behind the artificial hills the landscape architects have hauled in, services the bookstore's delivery entrance. The trucks can still get in to deliver de-liver the books and pick up the mail. The puzzle is falling into place and the University campus is looking look-ing right smart. With few exceptions, excep-tions, the planners have been able to integrate the old and the new into a cohesive campus plan. Books and bookstores belong at the heart of the campus. You can borrow them at the library, buy them at the nearby bookstore. book-store. Let's not change it. |