“New Housing” Presentation at ASU

I attended both sessions this evening of a presentation that ASU had
the Architect and the Private Management company that will run the
“Small Group Cluster Housing” (the use of the word cluster is quite
appropriate when you see the description further down) project to
show us what a wonderful new utopia they will be building for us and
the other Fraternities on the “South” campus. They showed us all
seven or so phases that are planned for this area in addition to that
encompassing the Housing described below.

Well to sum it up in a single sentence – as Fraternity Houses they
will make nice Freshman Dorms for non-local students.

Now some details just pulled in order from my notes.

1. Location: Bordered to the South by the railroad tracks that run at
the half mile point between Apache Blvd. and Broadway Rd., to the
east by Rural Rd to the west by the Sonoran Dorm (separated from the
dorm by a pedestrian walkway) and to the north by the bike trail that
runs at about the 1/4 mile point south of Apache.

2. Last item on their list that they are considering (and it is not
even planned) is how to safely move students across Apache Blvd to
the Main Campus. There is talk of a Bridge (ala that over University
Dr) or a tunnel but no plan and no commitment.

3. Not one single parking space is planned for this development that
will house at least 560 people! The closest parking will be a half
mile away on the other side of Apache Blvd. The neighbors to the
northwest of this development will be the Adelphi Commons where the
Sororities were moved to and for whom no parking was built either.

4. The first phase calls for building a line of eight identical
building. The front door will open onto the pedestrian walkway
across from Sonoran Dorm. Entering the house through this door will
find you in what they are referring to as the “Chapter Room” will
obviously double as a living room and foyer. This room will be about
1,200 sq feet, certainly not big enough to accommodate an actual
Chapter Meeting. Unless of course all the furniture is moved out and
everyone stands shoulder to shoulder.
Continuing into the building you will come to two small 180 sq. ft.
rooms. The room on the left will be a study/office and the room on
the right will be a kitchen with the typical type appliances that you
would find in a single family tract home, one fridge, one stove/oven
and one dishwasher. There is no dining room. Don Anderson from
Delta Sig asked the question “Why bother?” No additional University
owned dining facilities are planned to accommodate these University
housed (or is that hosed?) students either.

5. The bedrooms will be arranged on the first, second and third
floors into two man suites that share a bathroom between the two
suites. The second and third floors are reached via one of two
staircases at either end of the facility. The front door of the
suites empty into courtyard if you are on the first floor or a
balcony that looks down into the courtyard. The back end of the
courtyard faces Rural Rd.

6. 45 feet across the courtyard will be the back wall of the next
cluster which comprises the shared bathroom facilities of that
building. There will be non-functioning windows mounted high up on
each floor with the glass frosted or otherwise treated so that they
will just let in light.
Just imagine what this concrete canyon courtyard will be like in
August/September/October and March/April/May with no ventilation
except from directly overhead!
I asked the architects if they had actually modeled what amount of
sunlight will actually make it into this courtyard since it will be
bordered by three story walls to the north and the south. The best
way I could describe the look on their faces was “vacant” I do not
think the idea had even crossed their mind, well it did mine and I am
not an architect nor do I play one on TV.
The guy making the presentation also works as an instructor in ASU’s
architecture school. Don Anderson (Delta Sig) asked them after the
presentation if they had thought about actually visiting a Fraternity
House to see how we operate and utilize a building. They said
no. Lord help this instructors students. Finding out what the
customer needs, wants and how they make use of your product is the
first thing that a consultant needs to ascertain. I would give this
ASU instructor an “F”.

7. There will be a breezeway running down the front of the buildings
on the second and third floors that will tie the clusters
together. On the second floor landing at the front of the building
is where they plan to have a couple washers and dryers to accommodate
two clusters. Now we will have 80 guys from two different chapters
sharing a single laundry room. Oh, yeah that sounds like some
thought went into the design.

8. At separate ends of the facility will be an elevator. If a house
in the middle finds that it has a member with a sprained ankle
(probably obtained during his mile long hike to and from his car in
the parking lot on the other side of Apache Blvd.) he will have to
take the elevator in one building and walk through three other
houses. I say “through” because on the second and third floors there
will be a bedroom positioned above the front door of the house and
across this walkway from the balance of the House. Kinda
cantilevered out in space.

9. The total floor space will be about 10,000 sq. feet but if for
some reason you are unable to occupy all the rooms in your building
ASU will take the third floor away from you and house general
population students in your facility. ASU will also enter into
separate leases with your members instead of allowing the House Corp
to do a master lease and then sublicense the members the rooms so
that a member causing problems cannot be removed by the Chapter.
There are currently no plans to allow us to “customize the exterior
fronts and entryways to our buildings either (although Mernoy
Harrison indicated last week this might be able to be
changed). Kinda like being in a fascist police state type of Home
Owners association with they won’t let you grown a flower that is not
on the approved list.

10. They are currently planning on having three single rooms in each cluster.

11. Phase 1 (eight clusters) calls for them moving Old Row into this
facility in January 2004 (two semester away) and Phase 2 (six
clusters) calls for moving the Alpha Drive Houses in the Fall
Semester of 2004 (three semesters away).

Summary: Based on the presentation I am even more convinced that we
cannot and will not move into this facility. With no parking we will
not be able to get students to move. If we do not get students to
move in the University will squeeze us out. once we are out of
housing our chapters die.

Even if we somehow manage to get guys to live-in (all rooms filled
means 1/3 of the Chapter is around) we will have no way to provide
for the other 2/3rd of the Chapter to come over for Chapter meetings
or just to be around the house because there is no parking for them.

The size of the “Chapter” room is not big enough to accommodate us
and we do not want to use the Chapter Room as a living room and
entrance foyer to the House either.

Without parking, meeting space and dining facilities we will not be
able to attract Alums to come by the House either.

If Michael Crow is serious about wanting to beef up ASU’s Home Coming
festivities he should help us on Alpha Drive because with our current
proximity to the Stadium and parking and the size of our houses we
could make a good focal point for that goal of his.