First of all its been a long time since I have been on campus and I must say things have changed quite a bit since I was last there. I was showing my new fiance around and wanted to get her view of campus as she is an IU girl. Born and raised in Indiana and she has never been on USC's campus so I wanted to get her take on Campus. BTW she is FAST becoming a Gamecock fan
I will give her critique regarding campus at the end of this post. But first a few things:
1) my impressions of the new Freshman dorms (where the towers used to be). Well they are definitely very nice. Certainly and improvement over what was there before but there is no WOW factor about them IMHO. They aren't ugly and they are very nice buildings but nothing that will stand out in 50 years IMHO. They wont be ridiculed either as being ugly or even outdated even though they have a VERY modern 2000ish look to them. I think in the long term people will say "oh yeah the (fill in the name of a prominent trustee) dorms." They are OK. As you can tell I am really having a hard time putting down how I feel about them. I think that on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the highest) I would put them at about a 7.5.
2) The dodie(sp?) athletic building over by the graveyard. Again this is one of those buildings that are nice. Definitely something that can be looked at as being a good starting point in the new USC sports "Horseshoe" but nothing that stands out like the Strom Thurmond PE Center. It wont be an iconic building on campus but I think aesthetically it will look better than the freshman dorms (see #1). They were close with making this a really interesting building on campus (from the outside) but came up a tad short in the wow factor. On a scale from 1 to 10 I would put this as a 8.
3) Cafe in front of the the humanities building (where the fountain used to be that would freeze over in the winter time). OK here is a building that hides a much uglier building but by the same time doesn't overpower. Its understated but it ties into the Horseshoe look we all know and love. I really think they hit a homerun with this building. Couldn't have done a better job if they tried. Scale from 1 to 10 -- I think its a 9.5
4) New Baseball Stadium -- Wow -- Just WOW --- This ball Park should last as long as the school stands -- Location could have been (SHOULD have been) much better. Wayyyyy too many warehouses surround this magnificent facility but the Park itself is outstanding. It rivals some of the nicer minor leage parks I have been to. Regarding Tanner and our recruiting, if it comes down to facilities we will sign the kid. I klnow LSU is building a mack daddy stadium (have heard rumors of 60 mil
) but until they open, USC has to be one of the 5 best college baseball stadiums in the country if not #1. Out of a scale 1 to 10 --- 10+++++++ (if I was nit picking I would take a point away regarding location but its sooo nice I couldn't fault the facility for its location)
5) Changes to WB, the fairgrounds and the area surrounding stadium --- OK the place is shaping up nicely. Still too many warehouses in the area but the drive to the stadium looks like it has gotten better with less Eyesores on the side of the road.
Fairgrounds -- was fortunate enough for someone to lend us their parking space in the fairgrounds. Gotta say I like what they have done with the place. They paved the parking lot but there is plenty of green space and they have planted a lot of trees
When the trees mature in about 8 to 10 years that place is going to be downright a PERFECT place to tailgate and a VERY nice backdrop for Gameday with WB in the background.
out of 1 to 10 -- 9
Condos around WB -- VERY nice improvement over what was there. Still some work to do. Work on Farmers market land and make that as nice as the fairgrounds and tear up the parking lot under the stadium. Out of 1 to 10 --- give that an 8
WB itself --- LOVE the color that was added and LOVE the names of the record holders on the ramps. It looks like we actually give a damn about our past and our history -- LOOOOVE it. Stadium looked better than it EVER has. Out of 1 to 10 Give it a 8.5 --- Hate to rank this because we really need to do a complete overhaul to give it a higher or lower ranking depending on what is done.
6) Horseshoe /Gibbs green --- I was debating whether or not to mention it but feel I had to. Although the trees are spectacular (as always) alot the buildings need some TLC ....... Peeling paint on a lot of buildings and on Barnwell(I believe) there is a piece of a main column missing on the top due to weathering (looks VERY bad). And for god sakes please istall central heating/AC in Pickney/Legare. Those AC units in the windows looks -- well bad. I know were in a horrible recession and these things can wait but please if anyone in the admin is reading this -- please address these issue when times get better. It looks bad and reflects pooly on USC to possible students.
7) An outsiders perspective regarding campus (From My Fiance
) ---- OK a little background -- She had never seen campus before and shes been living in SC for about 8 years. I showed her campus on Friday and we had watched one of our favorite bands on Thursday night and we were, well nursing a hangover on Friday but I showed her all the places she should have seen, Horseshoe, Russel House, Library and all the places listed above. Well she LOVED the Horseshoe, One of her favorite places on Campus. She thought that campus lines (where campus starts and ends) were defined but that she still had trouble in places realizing what was on Campus and off campus. From my perspective it is 100% better than it was in the early 90's but obviously there is still a ways to go in this area.
She really liked our stadiums/coliseum. She thought they were all top notch. She especially liked WB. Shes a big football fan and she really enjoyed the Ky game and kept commenting how she liked WB.
Well thats my short take on my visit. I know I haven't posted anything here in a while and I know I need to add the old pics of campus and a few other things but I am trying to get this stuff out there. And on a personal note I have rediscovered my love of biking over the summer and I plan to revisit the campus soon and bring my new bike
so I can get around campus faster and more conveniently than a car and take a lot more pics and maybe a video (again if the money is there). Please bear with me and this site as I have kids and a new fiance that I have in my life and its hard to find the time to get around to this site but I realize I need to either fold up this site or kickstart it in the ass and get more visuals out there. I have paid for another year so I plan to really start taking advantage of the bandwidth and getting new stuff added.
Downloads
