Campus expansion

A proposed new master plan, presented to University Park neighbors Monday, will allow the University of Portland to develop 35 acres it purchased in 2008 on a Superfund site -- and eventually buy 45 more .....

Read more at: http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2012/06/university_of_portland_will_ex.html

Happened to catch this little snippet from an Oregonian article:

Cleanup is also underway just across the river at the University of Portland's Triangle Park, destined for practice fields, a new baseball stadium and an environmental science laboratory. The site should be clean by Thanksgiving.

I think the Thanksgiving date is news... progress!

I looked over the Triangle Park area last Saturday, and yes, from my untrained eye, it would appear Thanksgiving is a realistic target for completion of the cleanup.

More from the Oregonian article:

The University of Portland's Triangle Park project is relatively straightforward. It includes capping and removing hot spots, pulling concrete and other debris from the riverfront, contouring a more gradual shoreline slope and planting some 15,000 native plants, shrubs, and trees.

The private school bought the 35-acre property from Triangle Park LLC in 2008 for $6 million as a way to expand its 115-acre campus on the bluff overlooking the river. As part of the deal, the university put $3 million into a cleanup trust fund and Triangle Park LLC contributed $1.2 million.

Over the decades, activities on the now-vacant property included lumber milling, concrete packing, ship-building, ironworks and a power plant. Toxics at the site include polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, a probable carcinogen and long-lasting industrial insulator largely banned in the 1970s.

Plans for the "River Campus" include new academic buildings, a new Joe Etzel Field baseball stadium, a practice sports field and a rowing team dock. The timetable, university spokesman Joe Kuffner said, depends on the success of fund-raising.

Note the planned addition of the "rowing team dock." That would be a HUGE boost to the program!

Here are a few nice new videos for action currently occuring on The Bluff and the River Campus:

River Campus tour/update:





Library Renovation Hard Hat Tour:

There is also a nice article in today's Catholic Sentinel about the campus expansion and cleanup project. It prominently features Stonehouse pere.

Sorry, no link, as it's not in-line yet.

Here is the link to the Sentinel article:

LINK

PilotNut wrote:Here is the link to the Sentinel article:

LINK

I assume it was just posted late....

Digging up this old topic.

I was able to see on the Instagram story for UP on the State of UP address that they had conceptual designs for the Dundon-Berchtold Hall. Also, they appeared to have more clear plans for the River Campus, but all I could see in the picture was the track. Anyone have news updates on any of those projects?

Campus will look weird to me when they tear down Howard Hall. It was one of the few buildings that made me feel like I was connected to all Pilots regardless of their class year or age. Everyone has a Howard story.

New addition: I am seeing some decent information in this Strategic Plan 2020 (a play on Olympic Agenda 2020? I jest.): more parking, move the tennis center and physical plant to the River Campus, and boat house. Does this mean we will finally get that parking garage in the bluff they had been discussing? The LP-Tennis Center and Physical Plant moves are not really new news to me.

No, no new parking structure is planned in the immediate future.  It seems donors are willing to step up for a variety of projects on campus, but not a parking structure.  ("The SouthCarolinaPilot Pay-as-you-Go Parking Facility?")

Parking is probably one of the most talked about subjects on campus these days because of the lack of it, but UP will actually lose some parking this summer as 40 spots will be removed from the main parking lot to put in a city mandated "green space" to better control water runoff, and when the new Dundon-Berchtold Hall is built, some parking along the road will be lost.

Here's a tongue-in-cheek article from this week Beacon which is really quite accurate: http://www.upbeacon.com/article/2017/02/your-guide-to-parking-on-campus

As far as the river campus athletic facilities go, much of it is still conceptual as funding is acquired, but yes there will be a track, a number of soccer/all-purpose fields, the tennis center, a dock and a boat house. The railway track will still split the river campus, but there will be a pedestrian walkway over the tracks leading to the boathouse area, and at the other end there will be a controlled crossing for cars.

In the near future, the plan is to add parking spaces in the river campus area (not a parking structure) and increase the frequency of the shuttle to the main campus.

Regarding Howard Hall stories....yes, I agree, everyone has a good Howard Hall story, I just heard one from the AD yesterday, but it's still way past time for that building to go!  The Army ROTC is really enjoying having their offices in the lower portion of the building as it's like an old citadel down there, but they are going to have to move into the trailers below Mehling Hall this summer as Howard Hall starts coming down and the Events Office moves into the current Alumni House when the alumni offices move onto Willamette Blvd into Bishop Waldschmidt's former home.

There, I think that brings you up-to-date!

DoubleDipper wrote:"The SouthCarolinaPilot Pay-as-you-Go Parking Facility?"

If that is what it takes to get my name on a building there then sign me up. It will be a tremendous parking facility. Better than any parking facility you have ever seen before. Big league.

Thanks for the rundown. Brings me up to speed. I guess I should have been more patient anyway since UP released this short little blurb on it.

Looks like the Notre Dame bookstore

SouthCarolinaPilot wrote:If that is what it takes to get my name on a building there then sign me up. It will be a tremendous parking facility. Better than any parking facility you have ever seen before. Big league.

Believe me! I don't doubt you and the smartest people and the most respected generals in the world around you will build a 'uge and wondrous structure, but remember to keep some of the "bad dudes" in the USA to do the actual work!

RIP Howard Hall. Today is its last day. Still think they need to build a pool.

SouthCarolinaPilot wrote:RIP Howard Hall. Today is its last day. Still think they need to build a pool.

Maybe they'll put in a swim dock in the river down by the boat house and the Pilot Nation yacht parking area.

I may have to take a drive thru campus tomorrow.

SouthCarolinaPilot wrote:RIP Howard Hall. Today is its last day. Still think they need to build a pool.

Oh man, I didn't realize it was now... I really would have liked to walk through there one more time. That gym space is so awesome... I can only imagine what it was like with the balconies full, besides being a tremendous fire hazard!

There are probably still pieces of my floor hockey team's flesh and blood on that floor... there were some epic intramural games held there.

I may be wrong, but I don't believe demolition starts tomorrow... I think they are just doing some sort of "last swim" ceremony, since this is probably the last day the pool will be open. This is dead week with finals following, so maybe they couldn't schedule life guards during that time.

I would imagine that demolition will start after graduation.

From the official press release a few months back:  

The University plans to begin demolition of Howard Hall, a former recreation center, in the late spring, with construction of the new building on that site starting in late summer.

"Late spring" means May or June, right?  

Additionally, the University is being required by the city to do a major renovation of the parking lot. I believe that will also begin this summer, though it will probably be done in phases so as to not lose all the available parking. The end result will be aesthetically pleasing (trees, walkways, bioswales, etc.) but will result in the loss of a lot of parking spots.

My bad. I go off of what the University social media tells me

SouthCarolinaPilot wrote:My bad. I go off of what the University social media tells me

Oh my, never trust that. It's gone quite a ways downhill since September 2015!  

Haha, I was asked today to share some history and stories about Howard Hall as it gets closer to demolition....but I honestly don't remember much except that we thought it was ancient even half a century ago.

If anyone has some stories they'd like to share with Beacon reporter, Rachel Rippetoe, contact her at rippetoe18@up.edu.

There's still a lot that has to happen before the demolition starts with regard to the musical chairs of moving the Alumni Office to a new location so that the Events Office can move to where the Alumni Office currently resides so the Army ROTC can vacate Howard Hall to move to where the Events Office is currently located.  

(Brian Doyle would be proud of my sentence that included no commas.)

I do remember a basketball game where one of the frats had a pre-function. One brother ended up swinging from the upper balcony support over the railing, above the fans in the lower level. It wasn't clear how steady his grip was. When security went into the balcony to bring order, the brother escaped into the crowd below (probably a temporary escape). Not one of the Hall's finest moments.

up7587 wrote:I do remember a basketball game where one of the frats had a pre-function.  One brother ended up swinging from the upper balcony support over the railing, above the fans in the lower level.  It wasn't clear how steady his grip was.  When security went into the balcony to bring order, the brother escaped into the crowd below (probably a temporary escape).  Not one of the Hall's finest moments.

While I obviously wasn't there, I have to disagree . .  . It sounds like it was one of the Hall's finest moments!

blacksheep wrote:

up7587 wrote:I do remember a basketball game where one of the frats had a pre-function.  One brother ended up swinging from the upper balcony support over the railing, above the fans in the lower level.  It wasn't clear how steady his grip was.  When security went into the balcony to bring order, the brother escaped into the crowd below (probably a temporary escape).  Not one of the Hall's finest moments.

While I obviously wasn't there, I have to disagree . .  . It sounds like it was one of the Hall's finest moments!

+1  Probably an Upsilon Brother....

Obviously the Pilots played in Howard Hall in the "early" years, but in the '60's when I was in school, UP played in the brand new Memorial Coliseum (the "Glass Palace.")  

When did they start playing in Howard again, and for how long?  Did they continue to play there until the Chiles Center was built?

DD: can you tell me about the times when UP played in the Coliseum? How was attendance? Why did they play there initially? Why did they leave (Chiles being built, I am guessing)?

Despite the lacking facilities, I had a ton of fun with the water polo club in Howard. Yeah, the pool sucked for practice and scrimmaging, but we made the most of it. We had a great group of people who committed to coming out regularly to just have fun (what it's all about). I'm not sure if the club is still around, but I had a ton of fun with those people.