IST Building

EAST SIDE, WEST SIDE: The Changing Landscape of Campus by Sue Poremba
AE Newsletter - Spring/Summer 2003
Aerial view of the construction of the Information, Science, and Technology Building that now spans Atherton Street and links east and west campus. View is looking toward the South East (toward College Avenue-with the Engineering Units and Hammond Building in the upper left). Even the most recent alumni will need a map to get around campus these days. The west side of campus is almost as far as Nittany Beverage. The east side of campus sits well beyond Beaver Stadium and the Ag Arena. The Eberly College of Science is shifting east towards (and over) Shortlidge Road. Parking Lot 80 will soon be home to the new Creamery Building. Even our neighbors in the Engineering Units, Architecture and Landscape Architecture, have a new building under construction between Palmer Museum of Art and North Halls. However, the most talked about building on campus is the new Information Sciences and Technology (IST) Building. The future home of the School of Information Sciences and Technology and the Department of Computer Science and Engineering has completely changed the landscape of west campus. No longer can drivers turn on to Pollock Road through the Atherton Street gates. (The new entrance to campus between College Avenue and Park Avenue is at Curtin Road extension that winds between Rec Hall and the Nittany Lion Inn, past the Lion Shrine.) A major project itself, the lion-head stone gates were moved to the intersection of Pollock and Burrowes, creating a new gateway into what could be called Old Campus, while Pollock Road between Burrowes and North Atherton became a construction zone. Across the highway, another construction area was set up because the 199,000 square-foot building sits on both sides of Route 322 with a multi-story walkway connecting the two parts of the structure (finally, a safe way to cross busy North Atherton Street). The building’s inside is as impressive as its outside. State-of-the-art technology is built into every room, including a “Cybertorium,” which is 150-seat room outfitted with computer stations, and a Cyber Café in the overpass. Like many other construction projects on campus over the years, the IST Building has an AE connection. There are at least four AE alumni working on the IST Building project, including Shawn Bell, B.A.E./M.A.E. ’02. While still an AE student, Shawn interned with Turner Construction, the company overseeing the construction of the IST Building. When it came time for his graduation, Turner offered Shawn both a full-time job and a choice: he could take a position in the Pittsburgh office, which is near his home town and where he did his internship, or he could stay in State College to join the crew at the IST Building. Even though, like many graduating students, Shawn was anxious to move on after five years in State College, he decided that working on the IST project was an opportunity that he couldn’t turn down. “I thought working on the construction site would be the better career move for me,” Shawn explained. The decision appears to have been the right one. He is an assistant superintendent, managing and scheduling the interior subcontractors, and he expects a promotion in the near future, something he doesn’t believe would have happened as quickly had he not taken this particular job. “Everything changes daily when you work on a site,” Shawn said. “I enjoy that. It’s a challenge.” He also likes that he is working on what many are already calling Penn State’s signature building. When asked his opinion on the University’s building boom, he smiled, saying it was great for the construction industry, but “it certainly makes it more difficult to get around campus.” The IST Building is scheduled to be finished in November 2003. Meanwhile, over on the east side of campus, visitors driving into town on East College Avenue will notice a change every bit as dramatic as the IST Building on the west side of campus. Gone are the World War II era duplexes that served as graduate student housing and acted as an eyesore rather than a welcome mat to the University. In their place is the first dorm complex to be built on campus since the 1960s. Eastview Terrace will have a somewhat familiar look; the seven buildings will be arranged on a four-acre quad that is similar to West Halls. Scheduled for completion in July 2004, it will house 800 upperclassmen in suites that share a common lounge and kitchen area. Like the IST Building, Eastview Terrace is set to be the landmark building on its side of campus, the bold new welcome to campus. And, like the IST Building project, the Eastview Terrace project employs AEs, including Mark McCann ’86. As a project engineer for Turner Construction Company, Mark is responsible for all aspects of the project except for the coordination of trade work. He works with the owner, architect, and contractors on approvals, changes in the work, budget, information requests, and problem resolutions for the project. The end result of Mark’s (and Turner’s) work will provide a beautiful east-side entrance to campus, with terraced courtyards, bike and pedestrian walkways, and a stairway from College Avenue to the quad. “I believe that the community will welcome the changes,” said Mark, speaking of the campus building boom. “Eastview Terrace in particular will become a campus landmark.” No matter where you go on campus, each new building, each with its unique architecture, will be a new landmark. The landscape of campus has changed forever, and from east side to west side, AEs have had a significant part in it. For more information regarding all campus buildings under construction on the University Park campus, visit the PSU Office of the Physical Plant website at: http://www.opp.psu.edu/const/index.htm

EAST SIDE, WEST SIDE:
The Changing Landscape of Campus
by Sue Poremba

AE Newsletter - Spring/Summer 2003

Aerial view of the construction of the Information, Science, and Technology Building
that now spans Atherton Street and links east and west campus. View is looking
toward the South East (toward College Avenue-with the Engineering Units
and Hammond Building in the upper left).

Even the most recent alumni will need a map to get around campus these days. The west side of campus is almost as far as Nittany Beverage. The east side of campus sits well beyond Beaver Stadium and the Ag Arena. The Eberly College of Science is shifting east towards (and over) Shortlidge Road. Parking Lot 80 will soon be home to the new Creamery Building. Even our neighbors in the Engineering Units, Architecture and Landscape Architecture, have a new building under construction between Palmer Museum of Art and North Halls.

However, the most talked about building on campus is the new Information Sciences and Technology (IST) Building. The future home of the School of Information Sciences and Technology and the Department of Computer Science and Engineering has completely changed the landscape of west campus.

No longer can drivers turn on to Pollock Road through the Atherton Street gates. (The new entrance to campus between College Avenue and Park Avenue is at Curtin Road extension that winds between Rec Hall and the Nittany Lion Inn, past the Lion Shrine.) A major project itself, the lion-head stone gates were moved to the intersection of Pollock and Burrowes, creating a new gateway into what could be called Old Campus, while Pollock Road between Burrowes and North Atherton became a construction zone. Across the highway, another construction area was set up because the 199,000 square-foot building sits on both sides of Route 322 with a multi-story walkway connecting the two parts of the structure (finally, a safe way to cross busy North Atherton Street).

The building’s inside is as impressive as its outside. State-of-the-art technology is built into every room, including a “Cybertorium,” which is 150-seat room outfitted with computer stations, and a Cyber Café in the overpass.

Like many other construction projects on campus over the years, the IST Building has an AE connection. There are at least four AE alumni working on the IST Building project, including Shawn Bell, B.A.E./M.A.E. ’02.

While still an AE student, Shawn interned with Turner Construction, the company overseeing the construction of the IST Building. When it came time for his graduation, Turner offered Shawn both a full-time job and a choice: he could take a position in the Pittsburgh office, which is near his home town and where he did his internship, or he could stay in State College to join the crew at the IST Building. Even though, like many graduating students, Shawn was anxious to move on after five years in State College, he decided that working on the IST project was an opportunity that he couldn’t turn down.

“I thought working on the construction site would be the better career move for me,” Shawn explained.

The decision appears to have been the right one. He is an assistant superintendent, managing and scheduling the interior subcontractors, and he expects a promotion in the near future, something he doesn’t believe would have happened as quickly had he not taken this particular job.

“Everything changes daily when you work on a site,” Shawn said. “I enjoy that. It’s a challenge.”

He also likes that he is working on what many are already calling Penn State’s signature building. When asked his opinion on the University’s building boom, he smiled, saying it was great for the construction industry, but “it certainly makes it more difficult to get around campus.”

The IST Building is scheduled to be finished in November 2003.

Meanwhile, over on the east side of campus, visitors driving into town on East College Avenue will notice a change every bit as dramatic as the IST Building on the west side of campus. Gone are the World War II era duplexes that served as graduate student housing and acted as an eyesore rather than a welcome mat to the University. In their place is the first dorm complex to be built on campus since the 1960s. Eastview Terrace will have a somewhat familiar look; the seven buildings will be arranged on a four-acre quad that is similar to West Halls. Scheduled for completion in July 2004, it will house 800 upperclassmen in suites that share a common lounge and kitchen area.

Like the IST Building, Eastview Terrace is set to be the landmark building on its side of campus, the bold new welcome to campus. And, like the IST Building project, the Eastview Terrace project employs AEs, including Mark McCann ’86.

As a project engineer for Turner Construction Company, Mark is responsible for all aspects of the project except for the coordination of trade work. He works with the owner, architect, and contractors on approvals, changes in the work, budget, information requests, and problem resolutions for the project. The end result of Mark’s (and Turner’s) work will provide a beautiful east-side entrance to campus, with terraced courtyards, bike and pedestrian walkways, and a stairway from College Avenue to the quad.

“I believe that the community will welcome the changes,” said Mark, speaking of the campus building boom. “Eastview Terrace in particular will become a campus landmark.”

No matter where you go on campus, each new building, each with its unique architecture, will be a new landmark. The landscape of campus has changed forever, and from east side to west side, AEs have had a significant part in it.

For more information regarding all campus buildings under construction on the University Park campus, visit the PSU Office of the Physical Plant website at:

http://www.opp.psu.edu/const/index.htm