The University of Akron - Summit's Glory. This is the 3rd thread from my photos taken this past weekend in Akron. I was very excited to post these pics as UofA has undergone a truly amazing transformation over the past decade! This thread deals with the urban side of UA, the UA I can relate to. With the dramatic transformation that UA has undergone in the past decade, there are now 2 sides to campus, the urban side, and the "Green" side.
When I started school in the mid 90's, UA was a very compact urban campus. With 80% of the campus sandwiched between Buchtel ave and Carroll Street, I had to cross 2-3 active roads to get to class from my dorms. During my time there, I saw at least 2 people who had been hit by cars just minutes earlier. If you wanted to play basketball, you had your choice of about 10 hoops, outside, for the entire campus. In the winter, forget about it, as the JAR and Memorial hall were in use by the athletic teams. The campus weight room was smaller than the one at my small, rural high school. The focus of the campus was apparently to put as many parking lots as close to campus as possible, in the cheapest manner possible. The architecture on campus was a very utilitarian, very ugly, beige brick style that was apparently the cheapest thing to build back in the 60's when the state took over the Municipal University of Akron. Like UC and CSU, when I was at Akron, you had to develop some street smarts as you weren't in some small town whose existence was a result of the school.
Today, UA is aggressively expanding to not only improve the campus, but also the neighborhoods around UofA and the city as a whole. UA now spans from Main Street, Downtown Akron in the West to Route 8 in the East. North to Market Street and South to Exchange street. Indeed, UA is now criticized by many for taking over the city. Recently acquired Quaker Square, land for a new on campus stadium, Infocision Stadium, and land for additional dorms shed light on the growing pains that the University is going through as it continues to shed it's former image of "Hilltop High" and takes on a new role as one of the primary driving forces within the city of Akron. I hope you enjoy the pics.
UA Signs
1) Downtown on the Polskey Building
2) Quaker SqUAre
3) College of Buisness
4) EJ Thomas Performing Arts Hall
5) From the Center of Campus
6) Honors Dorms near College of Arts and Sciences
7) Corner of Exchange and Union
8 ) Stainless Steel Zippy at the McDonalds on Exchange.
Onto Campus! Keep in mind that it started raining about 1/2 way through my travel through campus, so I skipped quite a few buildings, but I still got pleanty of pics!
9) Polskey's
10) Polskey's From the Front
11) Polskey's and the Mayflower Hotel. Rumor has it that UA wants this property for more dorm space.
12) Schrank South
13) Foreground on...Schrank North, Auburn Engineering Center, Ayer Hall, Bulger Hall
14) Mary Gladwin College of Nursing, Aurburn Engineering Center, Knight Chemical Lab, Goodyear Polymer Center
15) College of Buisness
16) Grant Residence Hall
17) Exchange Street Dorms. Retail space at street level, residential above.
18) Turbine Research Facility
19) Quaker SqUAre
20) Looking down University Ave towards the Goodyear Polymer Center
21) Goodyear Polymer Center..up close
22) EJ Thomas Performing Arts Hall
23) Knight Chemical Laboratory
24) Auburn Science and Engineering Center
25) Auburn Science and Engineering Center.....the backside
26) This Tesla Coil on the student union powers campus.......just kidding
27) Schrank North
28) John R. Buchtel's view of Downtown
29) Pedestrian Bridge over Buchtel Ave.
30) College of Arts and Sciences
31) James A Rhodes Arena (JAR)
Hope you enjoyed the Urban side of UofA. Next up, the new, Green side of UofA.
