UCF village discussion

[UsfGoose]

I almost agree with you.  I think instead of building a pre-package entertainment district on campus (like UCF Plaza or a Channelside), have something more authentic.  Tell the few USF bar owners (Legends Sports Bar, UA Hangout, Bulls Club, and Peabody - all of these are on Fowler, Fletcher, and Bruce Bee Downs), they should move their location to the Northeast part of campus.  Plus add two late night food places like a pizza place and jimmy johns in that same location.   USF should do something with their own flavor attached to it and not something that isn't too pre-package like a Channelside.   

I'm all for anything that encourages more organic growth.  The prepackaged, plastic pile of **** that is Orlando can stay there.  If USF intends to build restaurant space they may as well populate it with local establishments.  Bringing in chain competition doesn't seem to be the best way to foster warm fuzzy feelings from the local business community.

Unfortunately, all food service on campus has to go through the official vendor ... which used to be Sodexho (Marriott), but not 100% sure who has it now.  Local businesses will NOT be moving on campus.  So let's not get our hopes up.

If something gets built, it will be like Channelside... which, in reality, is why nothing like that will ever be built on campus.

Hey Jim,

I was talking to a UCF alumn and it looks like they are doing exactly what I recommended in my last post.  Well almost.  They are going to take an existing shopping plaza (corner of Alafaya and University Ave).  This is where majority of UCF's nightlife is at (Deco, Knight Library - I heard there is like 5 bars in this one strip mall) and build a dorm on top of it.   I admit that is pretty cool.  The article states, they want the existing business  to stay there and create room for business to move in. 

http://www.bizjournals.com/orlando/stories/2009/09/14/story3.html

They also plan to build the first LEED certified housing complex.  They plan to build a bridge that will go over Alafya directly to campus.   I really hope USF thrives to create something similar to this (creating dense entertainment (bars, stores, restaraunts) and more pedestrian friendly campus area....

but with their own flavor.

http://www.centralfloridafuture.com/first-green-complex-at-ucf-1.2035678

  I wonder what big city universities have done to meet this same challege?  Has anyone been to Rutgers or Pittsburg?  How is the atmosphere there?

[smazza]

USF FELL ASLEEP  at the wheel

[Knight_Light]

They also plan to build the first LEED certified housing complex. 

FYI...it has already opened, The Sterling, which opened its first phase last August, and has their 2nd phase under construction and set to open up this August.

See link for some photos and renderings of the first LEED housing complex:

http://www.sterlinghousing.com/Florida/Orlando/Sterling-Central/Home-1746.html

There are now 3 private housing projects under construction with at least 2 more under review. Good news is that some of these projects are tearing down old housing or other not so great retail areas and turning them into more attractive residents for students to live in.

[SattyBull]

They also plan to build the first LEED certified housing complex. 

FYI...it has already opened, The Sterling, which opened its first phase last August, and has their 2nd phase under construction and set to open up this August.

See link for some photos and renderings of the first LEED housing complex:

http://www.sterlinghousing.com/Florida/Orlando/Sterling-Central/Home-1746.html

There are now 3 private housing projects under construction with at least 2 more under review. Good news is that some of these projects are tearing down old housing or other not so great retail areas and turning them into more attractive residents for students to live in.

Sterling has been across the street from USF for about 3 years now. Not LEED though.

[cmhatter]

ucf's campus owns ours....

[USF c/o 2010]

I was the exact SAME way. Back when I was applying to college I was like "Over USF, I would never go to UCF!" Their campus at that time was bare, plain, non-structured and boring. Boy how times have changed! I also went visiting their campus and I was beyond impressed. The funny thing is that UCF's rise is just like the rise of any underdog. UCF was looked down on, they didnt like it, so they improved. When you are at the bottom you will do whatever it takes to get to the top. When you are on the top you don't work as hard as the underdog because you are where you want to be. Hopefully the rise of UCF, a school thay we have always exceeded in almost everything yet has taken our thunder, to an extent, will be our motivation to go out and conquer the world.

I completely agree with you atl86bull.   Someone USF fan posted this on a separate forum.  He use to blast UCF and make fun of it.  Look at this post.   I do get heat from people on this forum because they think I'm just a UCF supporter.  I'm not, I just want what is best for USF.    I do like where the university is going with the building of the new Athletic Facility but I still want more.  Here is the guy's post.  It looks like it killed him to post this but he did. 

"

After going to the basketball game last night, I can no longer make fun of UCF as being a worse place than ours.  As we drove on campus the first thing we saw was huge fraternity houses- LOSS there.  They have a great little downtown area close to the athletic district for people to go to before and after the game-LOSS there.  They have their own football stadium on campus- say what you want LOSS there.  They have a brand new 100 million dolllar arena for basketball, which is as nice as I have seen in college hoops- LOSS there.  Their student section was easily 2000 strong and stood and cheered all game- LOSS there.  The real seats cheered just as loud as the students and were full- LOSS there.  Crater shot an airball in the first five minutes of the game, and got heckled the rest of the game, all game.  I could not of been more impressed with the atmosphere on campus, and I hate UCF.  They have overpassed us by far as a cool place.  I see why we lose recruits there.  If I was a kid in high school right now, I would go there instead of USF.

It pains me to write this!!!!!!!!!!!!

"

[USF c/o 2010]

I talked about his in another post. USF's buildings, for whatever reason, seem like they are just randomly placed anywhere on campus. There is no central theme nor grand scheme. It hurts future development when buildings are so close because when they were build there was no master design.

Please USF admin and BOT, please hear our commentary!!!! We care so much about USF and are pointing-out areas of needed improvement!

It seems UCF had a plan to how to lay out the campus from when they opened while USF just threw buildings anywhere.

[Triple B]

And before K_L starts whining like a little girl, I split and moved this because there were some unanswered questions about the USF village that were getting buried behind the UCF discussion ...

[Danm1983]

I can't even remember what the name of that bar was on the north end of the "L" of that plaza back in 2002 when I was at UCF, but I remember some good times there, and plenty of hot bitches. An elevated crosswalk over Alafaya would be so money, even with a perfectly sober DD driving 3 or 4 drunkies home (across the street to the frat house area and Lake Claire), it was a tense time because the campus cops were pretty nazi.

Would be super cool for USF to hit up something like that too, but I dunno what plaza is around for them to do that to.

I'm not sure about putting dorms on top of the plaza itself. Maybe having apartments above them. There is a few places in east orlando that have that (avalon park has it), and i've seen them in tampa too.

these newer all-in-one type communities are pretty sweet.

[UsfGoose]

I can't even remember what the name of that bar was on the north end of the "L" of that plaza back in 2002 when I was at UCF, but I remember some good times there, and plenty of hot bitches. An elevated crosswalk over Alafaya would be so money, even with a perfectly sober DD driving 3 or 4 drunkies home (across the street to the frat house area and Lake Claire), it was a tense time because the campus cops were pretty nazi.

Would be super cool for USF to hit up something like that too, but I dunno what plaza is around for them to do that to.

I'm not sure about putting dorms on top of the plaza itself. Maybe having apartments above them. There is a few places in east orlando that have that (avalon park has it), and i've seen them in tampa too.

these newer all-in-one type communities are pretty sweet.

Yeah.  They don't have renderings of the place but I imagine it would like similar to what is around Channelside.  There are a lot of condos where the bottom floor is just empty retail space.  I'm sure it won't be that huge probably more on a smaller scale similar to what is right next to Channelside (the one condo that is attached to the Club Aja)