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Originally Posted by Boisebro
not bad; every new BSU development fits the current brick design, which will make the campus very nice when fully built out.
i'm curious, though... i've heard from multiple people that Boise State is concerned about running out of real estate for all of the projects they want to build. yet, whenever they construct something, it's one of these medium-density buildings with a huge footprint that takes up a ton of room.
are they not building more vertical due to cost? or is there a height restriction on campus? heck, even my alma mater of 3,000 undergrads has taller buildings than BSU does.
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From my understanding there's a height floor. Basically, no new buildings that are less than 4 floors. The new Alumni and Friends center is exempted from that policy because it's being built on university property by a non-profit (the foundation).
I doubt the university will run out of real estate in any realistic near future. Enrollments are stabilizing and the university is close to its bonding capacity. Beyond the Fine Arts building and a Materials and Physical Sciences building, there's probably a slowdown for university construction on the horizon. Anything new that gets built (like an on-campus baseball stadium, stadium expansion, on-campus hotel, etc.) will have to be via a PPP or self-funded with zero implication on the University's credit rating. However, the Honors College building is probably an indication that PPP is a viable new vehicle to finance these things. So, who knows. What enrollments do the next couple years of years will be a critical indication as to whether or not the university continues to build. But I will say that having a premium education product (the Honors College) that will be competitive with other regional universities will definitely serve to attract students... so I think, all around, a really great decision by the university.
Too much height in academic buildings can actually be problematic... you wind up with departments and programs that are stratified across floors, which can contribute to factionalism, particularly in departments where there is already some division. MIT's Green building holds the Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences department... the physical stratification and separation that that building imposes is definitely not helpful to the disciplinary divisions that are already present.