Topic: Cincinnati: Uptown - Varsity Village

[buildingcincinnati]

Varsity Village on time, but exceeds budget
By Ann Lawson

University of Cincinnati students can expect to wait one more year before the new athletic complex project reaches completion.  In total, the project is expected to cost $116 million. In the university master plan, drawn up before construction took place, however, only $109 million was allotted for construction of the village. As Ray Renner, director of construction management explains, unexpected financial changes have occurred since work began, namely the high increase in the cost of steel.

Renner said that though the price is higher, fund-raising has risen to meet the demand. The cost of the project, according to Renner, "isn't coming out of students' tuition."  Several types of funding from Cincinnati area philanthropists are financing the village.  Richard E. Lindner, Cincinnati Reds owner Carl H. Lindner's brother, gave a $10.2 million dollar gift to the university. Ben and Dee Gettler gave $1 million, hence the namesake of the soccer field.

Read full article here:
http://www.newsrecord.org/news/2005/03/31/News/Varsity.Village.On.Time.But.Exceeds.Budget-907288.shtml

[The_Cincinnati_Kid]

I can't believe some of the students bitch about missing all the new stuff.  I started at UC in 1988 when the master plan first got going.  The stadium was condemned and had to be renovated, there was no McMicken Lawn, and no green space to speak of.  The campus is light years now from where it was in the late 80's.  I give kudos to UC for forming a plan and sticking with it to the end.

[buildingcincinnati]

UC news had this lengthy article about the official opening of the complex.  The article includes several photos.  You can see those by clicking on the story link at the end of this post:

Campus Sports a New Trophy: UC’s New Varsity Village
The opening of the University of Cincinnati’s Richard E. Lindner Varsity Village will cap the 2005-2006 school year with the celebration of another milestone in UC’s Master Plan. Project architects describe the new core of Varsity Village – the Richard E. Lindner Athletics Center – as a muscular building of solidity and girth.
Date: 4/27/2006
By: Mary Reilly
Phone: (513) 556-1824
Photos By: Andrew Higley

It was while sitting in the press box of the old baseball field on campus that architect Bernard Tschumi got the idea to position the University of Cincinnati’s new Richard E. Lindner Athletics Center as a ‘squeeze play’ into the compressed space between the university’s Fifth Third Arena and Nippert Stadium.

Recalled Tschumi, “In our first meeting, the UC athletics department said to me, ‘You can site the building anywhere you want to. You can reshuffle everything as long as you put everything back with space for all our needs… . Then, one day, I was sitting in the baseball press box, and I looked over and saw the squeeze space between the stadium and Fifth Third Arena. No one had looked at that space yet. It was a lost piece of ground.”

Tschumi was instantly attracted to this unused alley of space because he wanted the new athletics center to have a strong connection to campus life. “Athletics and academics are part of the same university family,” he explained. “This space was a natural linchpin, a pivot. That’s why I wanted it even while it demanded we design a building of unusual shape.”

Seen from above, the new Lindner Athletics Center is shaped like a boomerang – one which will propel the university into a new era of integration between athletics and academics. That’s because the center will – for the first time in UC history – centralize all athletics facilities around a single core, bringing organization and cohesion to the university’s intercollegiate administration, training, coaching, competition and academic services.
 
Read full article here:
http://www.uc.edu/news/NR.asp?id=3874

[The_Cincinnati_Kid]

Cool, this may even be neat enough to get me back on the same campus with Nancy Zimpfer, whom I will slap if I see her!

[buildingcincinnati]

Go there on the 13th, then go to the Main Street celebration on the 20th.  That way you can slap her twice.

[The_Cincinnati_Kid]

Vision becomes a Village
BY BILL KOCH | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Shortly after Bob Goin was hired as the athletic director at the University of Cincinnati in 1997, he recognized the need for improved facilities if the Bearcats were going to compete at a high level in a major conference.  "It didn't take a rocket scientist," said Goin, who retains the title of athletic director emeritus after retiring Dec. 1. "If I came in blind almost, I would have been able to see that we had facilities that were not becoming a Division I program."

They do now.  After three years of a massive construction project, the Richard E. Lindner Varsity Village, which cost $109 million in fixed construction costs, is nearing completion. Grand opening festivities are scheduled for Friday and Saturday, but already Varsity Village has transformed the look of the campus.

Read full article here:
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060510/SPT0101/605100401

[atlas]

this is always good news.  OK, so looks like athletics...check.  academics....hopefully soon i can put a check next to that as well. (DAAP...check)

[Cincy1]

I am not sure if anyone else went to the open-house, but the buildings are impressive.  The Lindner Center is awesome, with a Hall of Fame of sorts on the entire (fourth) floor.  I had never seen the national championship trophies before.  The offices, conference rooms, teem meeting rooms, sports medicine rooms, etc. are first class.  I also went over to the new student rec center, which is part of the Keating Aquatics center and this is very slick looking space.  I was not sure from the exteriors, but with these, the new baseball stadium, tennis courts, soccer and track field this will definitely be a great recruiting tool.  The windows on the Lindner Center are a little oddly shaped, but you get great panoramic views of the facilities and campus.  The football stadium looked great with the new buildings surrounding it, and the permanent open-end seats are nice - there is now a restaurant on this end and walkways allow you to walk the entire stadium at the concourse level.

I think the campus looks great, and would recommend anyone who has not been to UC recently to check it out.  As a bonus, I went through the Football Offices, and Mark Dantonio was there.  He was extremely friendly, and very pleasant to my 4 year old daughter.  I almost mentioned that I actually went to Ohio State (but growing up in Clifton I am a big UC fan as well), but was not sure how to insert that into the conversation.  Anyway, I was very impressed with him and think the football program is in good hands.  The only screw-up on my part is that I did not bring a camera.

[moonloop]

^Yeah, I was there too and duly impressed. I will be post some pics shortly.

[The_Cincinnati_Kid]

I completely spaced and forgot that it was today!  I am pissed, but I am sure I will make it through soon.

[buildingcincinnati]

New athletic facility open for athletes
By: Nick Santos
Issue date: 5/15/06 Section: Sports
 
After years of being strewn about campus in different buildings, the offices of the University of Cincinnati Athletic Department and all of UC's varsity sports will be united in one massive facility.  UC celebrated the grand opening of the Richard E. Lindner Athletics Center, a new building that houses most of the new or upgraded facilities for athletes, Friday and Saturday. The project is the centerpiece of the Richard E. Lindner Varsity Village.

"It really took my breath away," UC football coach Mark Dantonio told The Cincinnati Post during a walk through of the new facilities. "I believe it's the top facility in the state of Ohio. It allows us to be viewed as a [Bowl Championship Series] school."

Read full article here:
http://www.newsrecord.org/media/storage/paper693/news/2006/05/15/Sports/New-Athletic.Facility.Open.For.Athletes-1996537.shtml?norewrite200605151937&sourcedomain=www.newsrecord.org

[UncleRando]

UC's history on display
New museum gives Bearcats' shining moments a home
BY BILL KOCH | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER

The most striking feature of the University of Cincinnati's George and Helen Smith Museum is the case containing the two basketball national championship trophies from 1961 and 1962, along with team photos from those glorious seasons.

Those two trophies are located to the left as soon as you enter the new Richard E. Lindner Athletics Center, just past the bust of former UC basketball coach George Smith and his quote, "The honor and joy of winning is when it's done within the rules."

Smith, who died in 1996, coached Basketball Hall of Fame members Jack Twyman and Oscar Robertson at UC and led the Bearcats to their first two Final Fours, in 1959 and 1960. He was the athletic director when his successor as basketball coach, Ed Jucker, led the Bearcats to their only team national titles.

Read full article here:
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060510/SPT0101/605100401