Certainly one factor is the cost of initial construction. Do you want a home built of stone and solid brick? You can have one, but it will cost you perhaps 2 or 3 times more money upfront. Why do that when you can build a home that looks just as nice, built from 2x4s and plywood that will easily last you a lifetime, at a fraction of the cost.

Same with an insitutional building. If you're a contractor bidding on new dorm buildings on OU's campus, you won't likely plan to overbuild or overengineer--lest you get outbid and lose the contract altogether. That falls on the head of capital projects at OU, whoever that is, to ensure the specifications are high quality. Of course, if he did that, he would be the target of an angry public crying that he overspends.

Catch 22.

Spent 2 years on New South...LOVED the mod concept.  I would sleep in a cardboard box if it meant not having a roommate in my sleeping/TV area...But still had the camradie of roomates with the mod-mates.  I'd hate to see the concept go.

As we've branched a bit from campus to housing and built-to-last/disposable, this is a semi-relevant but interesting 60 Minutes piece from a couple weeks ago about the housing situation in Cleveland that might interest some of you.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57344513/there-goes.../

Regarding the build-to-last question, it is worth pointing out that those older buildings you refer to were no doubt constructed without central AC/Heat being an issue. Adding those to older buildings does not always work well, and rarely results in a very energy-efficient building. As energy costs rise, costs will increasingly favor newer, more energy-efficient construction.

Stone buildings are a perfect example of this - in their natural form, the are a thermal flywheel, holding cold from the night before well into the day, and heat from the day well into the night. That worked well in days before AC when we were willing to allow temperature to change during the day, but now that we want temperature controlled within a degree or two all the time, it would be very inefficient. Insulating the inside or outside can help, but then you lose the natural beauty, and rarely approaches the energy efficiency and/or comfort you can achieve starting from scratch.

Wolfe Street will likely become a parking lot, since the current lot in front of Adams Hall will be the site of one of the two large new dorms to be built in the near future.  Then they'll start to tear down the smaller New South dorms a few at a time.  I'm guessing the new configuration will be suites of 4-6 roommates rather than mods.




 

Did it say they were the first? Or only? 

If/when Smith/Atkinson come down, I'll have to try to get a couple bricks, to go along with a few others I have as keepsakes.

there is a joke in there waiting to happen.....