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New building on campus (link)

"Hey Oberdick - hold my beer....."

- Cheng Dong, head of the Department of Biomedical Engineering

Seriously though, it's a nice building and fits with the same aesthetic theme as most of the newer buildings on campus. I do wish it was a bit more adventurous architecturally (like the law school), but function > form for a school like Penn State. Not everyone can be MIT's Stata Center....(noting this kind of design isn't for everyone):

5889788402_265b78e7e7_b.jpg
 
Richard the LIONhearted said:
This was built to compete with UDel and their Chem Engineering program.

https://www.collegian.psu.edu/news/...ign=blox&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social

Anyone upset about this new building - hey, brick and mortar is going way, right?
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I was involved in the construction of a new Research/Lab on a college campus 20+ years ago, the cost per sf back then was right at $200, this one sits at $1300/sf. Inflation adjusted, my project would cost around 350-400/sf today..... talk about sticker shock!
 
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SLUPSU said:
I was involved in the construction of a new Research/Lab on a college campus 20+ years ago, the cost per sf back then was right at $200, this one sits at $1300/sf. Inflation adjusted, my project would cost around 350-400/sf today..... talk about sticker shock!
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This building also was Dambly adjusted, thus the sticker shock.
 
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Where, exactly, IS this building located? What Halls are located immediately adjacent to it? What street is it on? I'm frustrated that I cannot place it on campus with any specificity.
 
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LafayetteBear said:
Where, exactly, IS this building located? What Halls are located immediately adjacent to it? What street is it on? I'm frustrated that I cannot place it on campus with any specificity.
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The new Chemical and Biomedical Engineering Building sits on the space formerly occupied by Fenske Lab on west side of Shortlidge Road across from Eisenhower Auditorium, with the Ferguson Building and Pavilion Theatre to the north and the Chemistry Building adjacent to the south.
 
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SLUPSU said:
I was involved in the construction of a new Research/Lab on a college campus 20+ years ago, the cost per sf back then was right at $200, this one sits at $1300/sf. Inflation adjusted, my project would cost around 350-400/sf today..... talk about sticker shock!
Click to expand...
Yeah, I was wondering when someone would consider the price tag. Seems a bit loose with the coffers we’re constantly hearing we don’t have enough of...
 
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jdm202 said:
Yeah, I was wondering when someone would consider the price tag. Seems a bit loose with the coffers we’re constantly hearing we don’t have enough of...
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It comes down to one of two most likely scenarios ...

1 - somebody politically connected to PSU will be making money off this construction project or...
2 - if not #1, then it is always easy to (over) spend somebody else's money ... when it's not coming out of your pocket ... fiduciary fiscal responsibility? What's that??
 
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I wish Cheng "Long Duck" Dong, nothing but the best with his new building.

However, this statement troubles me:

“It’s here that students will grow into world-class, socially aware, globally connected engineers, educators and researchers who work inclusively to develop solutions to the world’s most pressing problems,” Justin Schwartz, the Harold and Inge Marcus dean of the College of Engineering said.

I may be getting a bit cynical in my old but......meh
 
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TheBigUglies said:
I wish Cheng "Long Duck" Dong, nothing but the best with his new building.

However, this statement troubles me:

“It’s here that students will grow into world-class, socially aware, globally connected engineers, educators and researchers who work inclusively to develop solutions to the world’s most pressing problems,” Justin Schwartz, the Harold and Inge Marcus dean of the College of Engineering said.

I may be getting a bit cynical in my old but......meh
Click to expand...

Penn state do love its adjectives.
 
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TheBigUglies said:
I wish Cheng "Long Duck" Dong, nothing but the best with his new building.

However, this statement troubles me:

“It’s here that students will grow into world-class, socially aware, globally connected engineers, educators and researchers who work inclusively to develop solutions to the world’s most pressing problems,” Justin Schwartz, the Harold and Inge Marcus dean of the College of Engineering said.

I may be getting a bit cynical in my old but......meh
Click to expand...

SOCIALLY. AWARE. :eek:

WORK. INCLUSIVELY. :eek:
 
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TheBigUglies said:
I wish Cheng "Long Duck" Dong, nothing but the best with his new building.

However, this statement troubles me:

“It’s here that students will grow into world-class, socially aware, globally connected engineers, educators and researchers who work inclusively to develop solutions to the world’s most pressing problems,” Justin Schwartz, the Harold and Inge Marcus dean of the College of Engineering said.

I may be getting a bit cynical in my old but......meh
Click to expand...
Is that Millennial speak?
 
BobPSU92 said:
SOCIALLY. AWARE. :eek:

WORK. INCLUSIVELY. :eek:
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Those were the exact words I was reading as the record scratched.

It does get a little embarrassing.... How can we jam all the right things to say into an announcement of a cool new building we just spent WAY too much on?
 
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Go Penn State. We're gonna be the first "public" university in America where it costs $50k a year in-state. With no financial aid to speak of. So they need architecture that speaks to the rich people who are now PSU's target market.

It probably wasn't what Abraham Lincoln had in mind with Land Grant universities, but it does look pretty spiffy in a Hudson Yards sort of way.
 
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Does anyone know what the tuition is for international students? There seem to be a LOT of wealthy international students around town driving super expensive cars that attend the university. I sometimes think PSU is catering more to the international student because they pay higher tuition then instate students. I also sometimes think these fancy new state of the art buildings are to also attract the international students. Maybe I think too much and should just drink more...

Again, my old age cynicism taking over....
 
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Universities love international students because they usually pay cash for out-of-state tuition. So, out-of-state students and international students subsidize in-state students. International students are also typically bright and hard working (check out the relative percentage of international students in Pattee Library on Saturday night and Sunday morning) and add to campus diversity counts.
 
jdm202 said:
Yeah, I was wondering when someone would consider the price tag. Seems a bit loose with the coffers we’re constantly hearing we don’t have enough of...
Click to expand...
Everything Penn State does costs twice as much as it should. But it's primarily because they have overly stringent construction standards, they hand pick their contractors and quite frankly not many people want to work for Penn State when given the choice to do other work because of the headaches it brings. Right now, the construction market is good so Penn State can't even get people to compete for their work.
 
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TheBigUglies said:
I sometimes think PSU is catering more to the international student because they pay higher tuition then instate students.
Click to expand...

Yes, PSU loves any out-of-state students. PSU would have gone under many times over if not for wealthy New Jersey parents willing to pay exorbitant out of state tuition with no financial aid.

The most despicable thing about all this is that it's largely driven by US News rankings -- which reward colleges with higher rankings essentially for spending money. The more PSU spends on buildings, the higher their US News rank. The higher tuition PSU charges, the higher their US News rank. And international students -- from wealthy Asian families, mostly -- love those US News rankings.

Someday I would love to hear how all this squares with the Morrill Act, which established land-grand universities:

"without excluding other scientific and classical studies and including military tactic, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, in such manner as the legislatures of the States may respectively prescribe, in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions in life"

In my lifetime, PSU has completely abdicated its mission to provide education of any sort to the "industrial classes." These days PSU is aiming more for the children of Saudi sheiks and Chinese politburo members and New York hedge fund managers.
 
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SLUPSU said:
I was involved in the construction of a new Research/Lab on a college campus 20+ years ago, the cost per sf back then was right at $200, this one sits at $1300/sf. Inflation adjusted, my project would cost around 350-400/sf today..... talk about sticker shock!
Click to expand...

I'm all for scrutinizing costs, but using an inflation adjustment comparison to an unspecified lab built to the projected needs over 20 years ago is absurd. Might as well compare the price of a station wagon 20+ years ago to the price of a excavator today.

You might want to start comparing to other labs designed for a similar use that are being built today.
 
tboyer said:
Someday I would love to hear how all this squares with the Morrill Act, which established land-grand universities:
Click to expand...

Frankly, I don't think the land-grant mission, which is effectively to be all things to all people, is sustainable in the future. Institutional resource demand is just too broad in an era of tight family and state budgets going forward. Sooner or later, Penn State and like institutions are going to be financially squeezed to the point that they'll have to make hard, unpopular strategic decisions about resource allocation. Making unpopular decisions is something that universities, especially those dependent on the goodwill of taxpayers, hate and scrupulously avoid. But, eventually, they won't have a choice.

I could see Penn State being 20,000 students smaller a decade or two from now. Most of the hit will visit the Commonwealth Campuses, but University Park will lose some academic programs, too. The University will protect UP first.

The real pain is coming to the small, private liberal arts schools. The Ivys and other super-elites will be largely insulated, and the research giants will change but survive.
 
manatree said:
I'm all for scrutinizing costs, but using an inflation adjustment comparison to an unspecified lab built to the projected needs over 20 years ago is absurd. Might as well compare the price of a station wagon 20+ years ago to the price of a excavator today.

You might want to start comparing to other labs designed for a similar use that are being built today.
Click to expand...

Absurd? really? I beg to differ, this cost comparison approach should get you in the ball park and is perfectly reasonable for a message board discussion. If this current project was $500/sf, then comparing my project wouldn't be too meaningful, but when the cost is triple, that should send you a message. I know that the project I was involved in was state of the art at the time for a university setting, this (PSU's) lab is likely state of the art at this time. The state of the art may have changed with new technologies which can impact costs but not to the degree of tripling the costs. If this lab contains clean rooms, which I would doubt, then comparing costs wouldn't be a reasonable apples to apples comparison.
 
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SLUPSU said:
Absurd? really? I beg to differ, this cost comparison approach should get you in the ball park and is perfectly reasonable for a message board discussion. If this current project was $500/sf, then comparing my project wouldn't be too meaningful, but when the cost is triple, that should send you a message. I know that the project I was involved in was state of the art at the time for a university setting, this (PSU's) lab is likely state of the art at this time. The state of the art may have changed with new technologies which can impact costs but not to the degree of tripling the costs. If this lab contains clean rooms, which I would doubt, then comparing costs wouldn't be a reasonable apples to apples comparison.
Click to expand...

Online inflation calculators are extremely oversimplified. Was the lab you worked on 20+ years ago designed specifically for Chemical Engineering? If it was, has the cost in changing needs for a chem lab followed the same track as your online inflation calculator. Are the percentage of lab vs. office vs. classroom the same? Are the overall total sqft comparable? Are the site restrictions the same? Where was your lab located? Was your lab required to be designed to LEED Gold criteria? There are so many variable that to simply take the cost of one lab building, run it through an oversimplified inflation adjuster and compare it to one lab building built 20+ years later for your reasonable comparison is assuming a hell of a lot of similarities.

I'm all for scrutinizing costs, but you might want to start comparing to other labs (plural) designed for a similar use that are being built today.
 
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stormingnorm said:
Has anyone been INSIDE the building? (I have :) )

Does anyone know HOW MUCH of the building is dedicated to Labs - and what types of labs - Classrooms, Offices etc? (I know :)..... and, BTW, one might be quite surprised to learn just how much of the facility is Lab Space )

Does anyone know the SIZE of the space - gross sq footage, interior sq footage, usable sq footage? ( I do :) )




Carry on :)
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Have you been inside other recently built Chem Engineering labs for comparison? Again, I'm all for fiscal scrutiny. However, I know not to trust the word of a politician on the campaign trail.
 
Well....Fenske chemical engineering building was considered out of date back in the early 1990's so this building should have been built 20 years ago when all the other buildings were getting built and renovated under Spanier. Amazing that it took this long to build for what is a pretty high profile major that draws some large research dollars into it. So the fact that it is 20 years late means that the chemical engineering Dean was not very good at politics and playing the game properly to have been passed by for so many years.

As for the outrageous cost, welcome to government projects. Over specify everything to drive up the initial engineering design costs and then whichever general contractor can smooze and give out the best perks to the decision maker wins the job.
 
stormingnorm said:
He missed one (I am sure he will be "educated" before his next public utterance).

It is now required that the term GENERATIVE be included at least once in every PSU Public Pronouncement of over 30 words.

Seriously - you'd have to see these folks in action. Its like someone stabs them with a cattle prod every 20 seconds and they shout out "Generative!" as if they were Pavlovian Dogs.
I would love to take a survey - to see how many of them could even define exactly what they mean every time they use the term :)
Click to expand...
When speaking of the BOT and their collective and ongoing dereliction of fiduciary duty, "degenerate" would be most apropos.
 
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