For the past 18 months, the West Virginia University campus has been experiencing a growth spurt. New buildings have sprouted on the Evansdale and downtown campuses and even in Morgantown's wharf district. Throughout its history, WVU has added buildings to meet pressing educational, research, service, and recreational needs of the University community, and today's newest buildings reflect the needs of 21st century teachers, researchers, and students.
With the completion of the Life Sciences Building this past summer, the first phase of West Virginia University's 10-year, $250 million campus renewal program came to a close. The next phase focuses on renovating existing structures, such as the Creative Arts Center, Oglebay Hall, and Brooks Hall.
Private support helps to make WVU's facilities the best they can be. For example, donors have made possible the CAC Concert Theatre renovation, the creation of reading rooms in Wise Library, and an addition to the WVU president's home, now called the Blaney House.
The WVU Foundation's Building Greatness capital campaign has already raised more than $225 million to support scholarships, faculty enrichment, library enrichment, and research, in addition to facilities enhancement.
"No university can succeed without support from alumni and friends, and WVU has been blessed with some of the most caring and committed supporters anywhere," President David C. Hardesty Jr. said. "Our donors can take pride in recent accomplishments that are helping us evolve into one of the nation's great universities."
Great universities require great facilities,
and as this photo tour of new campus facilities demonstrates,
the University is growing in greatness.
Downtown Campus Library
Research sessions
at the downtown library no longer involve the card catalog, study
carrels in cramped, dark corners, or hikes up and down dingy
stairwells to find just the right journal article.
WVU's new 124,000-square foot Downtown Campus Library, which
opened in January 2002, includes:
- A ground-floor multimedia area, with 48 multimedia PCs, a 30-seat classroom, and a 60-seat classroom with a large screen and e-conferencing capability. An assisted technology room facilitates research for students with special needs.
- The University's periodicals collection, housed in one convenient location on the second floor. Students can scan articles and print materials from the Web.
- Two bright, spacious levels of shelved books.
- The reserve collection, where students can find materials that professors have set aside for them. An e-reserve system makes many reading assignments available 24 hours a day on-line.
- A stash of recent books the Mountaineer
Parents Club provides for leisure reading.
The new library is uncluttered because another building, the Libraries Book Depository, houses about 100,000 important but less frequently used volumes. Library users can receive these items within one business day.
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Student Recreation Center
Ancient Greek philosophers fostered the ideal of "a healthy
mind in a healthy body," and modern research confirms that
physical and mental wellness are linked. By building a $34 million
Student Recreation Center, WVU is promoting a healthy lifestyle
for students and providing a cool place for them to hang out
and meet friends.
Students are responding: The facility logged 500,000 visits in
just its first nine months of operation.
The 171,000-square-foot building has captured several design
awards and will appear in the 2002 American School and University
Educational Interiors Showcase, the premier competition honoring
educational interior design excellence. Moody/Nolan Inc. of Columbus,
Ohio, designed the facility.
The building is a unique venue for campus events—six departments
held their 2002 graduation ceremonies at the facility. The University's
summer athletic camps also make use of it, and center staff led
an adventure day camp featuring hiking, biking, canoeing, and
other activities for young people this past summer.
As its name indicates, however, the Student Recreation Center
is primarily for students, and students made its construction
possible. In a 1997 referendum, students voted to accept a $90
per semester fee increase to fund the facility.
And students keep it busy from dawn well into the night. With
fitness machines, weight-lifting equipment, a large aquatics
area, sports courts, a simulated rock climbing experience, a
running track, and much more, the Student Recreation Center has
something for everyone.
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Life Sciences Building
WVU's new Life Sciences Building is a place that fosters growth.
Home to the departments of biology and psychology—the largest
departments in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences—the
building incorporates everything from a state-of-the-art greenhouse
to an enhanced Quin Curtis Center, where WVU and local community
members receive outpatient counseling and services from psychology
faculty members and graduate students.
The
Department of Biology's former home was Brooks Hall, built in
1951. Its laboratory space had become inadequate for modern research,
and its greenhouse was improperly located to absorb sunlight.
Built in 1918 and listed on the National Register of Historic
Places, Oglebay Hall also lacked air conditioning.
"One day I looked out at my class, and all 40 students were
fanning themselves," Associate Professor Dr. Cheryl McNeil
said. "On warm days, we had to leave the windows open, and
it was very noisy with car stereos blaring out in the street.
In the new building, students will be able to concentrate much
better on what they're learning."
In the second phase of its facilities master plan, WVU will renovate
Oglebay and Brooks halls.
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One Waterfront Place and the Visitors Resource Center
Visitors to WVU now begin their exploration of campus in a technologically
sophisticated Visitors Resource Center located in Morgantown's
wharf district.
One Waterfront Place,
the WVU Foundation's $26 million office building, houses the
Visitors Resource Center, as well as the Foundation offices,
the Mountaineer Parents Club, Television Productions, the Department
of Human Resources, and the Office of Information Technology.
At the new Visitors Resource Center, knowledgeable staff answer
visitors' questions and lead campus tours. Interactive displays
showcase the things that make WVU great.
"WVU is the first institution in the nation to use three
technologies: the tilty table, the fluid reader, and the interactive
reading wall," said Vice President for Institutional Advancement
Carolyn Curry. "All were chosen for their ability to illustrate
the knowledge, strength, and spirit that abound at WVU."
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For example, reading
walls enable visitors to view an assortment of graphics, text,
and even video clips. At the tilty tables, guests guide a PRT
car image over satellite maps of the entire downtown and Evansdale
campuses. When the PRT car passes over a WVU building, the building's
name and photo appear.
"Our goal was to create an experience
unlike any college visitors' center in the nation—and to
make that first impression of WVU count," Curry added.
At the VRC's four computer pods, visitors can view WVU's Web
site, watch video streams about the University, and complete
an on-line application.
Blaney House
For the president of WVU, a house is more than a home. Blaney
House, the president's home on the WVU campus, is the site of
many special events and a destination for some of the University's
most distinguished guests. For this reason, it recently received
a privately funded addition that increases the home's usefulness
as a space for entertaining.
A
critical need for food preparation space, restrooms, and handicapped
accessibility were catalysts for the renovation. A group of donors
launched the initiative because they believed the existing structure,
built in 1949, needed improvements to comply with current codes
and demands.
"WVU was fortunate to have alumni and friends who understood
the need to improve and enlarge the president's home and who
were willing to provide the necessary funds," said WVU Foundation
President F. Duke Perry. "The president's home is much more
than a residence. It is, in a way, the living room of the University-a
place where we can host special events to benefit the University
and honor key people who can and do have a strong impact on WVU."
A House Committee comprising WVU friends and supporters oversaw
the decorating and furnishing of the addition. Key to that effort
were Vivien P. Woofter, director of Interior Design and Furnishings
at the U.S. Department of State; Pat Bibbee, of Pat Bibbee Designs,
Charleston; and Rebecca Frischkorn of Rebecca Frischkorn Landscape
Design, Charlottesville, Virginia.
Blaney House is named for longtime WVU supporters W. Gerald and
Carolyn Eberly Blaney, who were major contributors to the structure's
addition.
WVU Board of Governors Chairman Curtis H. 'Hank' Barnette praised
the donors' generosity.
"While Blaney House will continue to serve as the residence
of the president and the first lady, it will be a key center
of WVU business and social activities in support of the entire
university," Barnette said. "We are so very fortunate
for the leadership of the Blaneys and other friends of the University
who, through their generosity, have helped make Blaney House
a reality."