Just now noticed this article - Scott Quad is still sitting vacant last time I heard.

https://www.thepostathens.com/article/2021/11/scott-quad-...

Hanna Campbell also had an opinion piece talking about this in The Post a couple of days earlier.

When Ms.Nissley's article came out I emailed her about Scott Quad.

Scoot Quad was a men's dorm,when I was at O.U.

The building is a unique architectural structure.
It is the only "quad" on campus.

That alone makes it worth preserving.

Once its gone, its gone.

O.U. has a history of making really bad decisions when it
comes to certain buildings.

Remember the Tuberculosis Ward at the Ridges ?

Seemed like a couple of days after they tore it down, O.U.
regretted the decision.

O.U. seems to make a decision, then come up with reasons to try to justify it.

"Deferred Maintenance" on a building means "we ignore it, let it deteriorate, then say its too costly to fix".

I'm guessing Cutler, Putnam and McGuffey are maintenance nightmares to, so...

They should have found the money, renovated it for Our Honor's Tutorial program which is modeled on the British system, making the building a perfect fit.

Over the decades, having seen a goodly part of the world, it is clear that we Americans don't have the same respect for historic structures as do other cultures. That observation applies to academic buildings.

An example. Back in the 1400s, England's king endorsed a school for economically underprivileged boys. It was anointed Christ's Hospital School and was the equivalent of a grades 1-12 school. During the next 400 years increasing enrollment was overflowing the London campus. So a new campus was built about an hour's drive south of London in West Sussex. My British friend Peter Bloomfield is an alum of Christ's Hospital. Once he drove me to the "new" campus whose complex of buildings was constructed in the 1890s. During our visit, I asked Peter how those 125-year-old buildings could do justice to the electronic/digital age and its students.

Peter replied that the interiors of the buildings had been gutted to make way for installing cables.

I asked, "Was any thought given to razing them and building anew?"

His reaction was visceral. His eyes widened in surprise at my question. His reply, "Of course not."

Another example: In France my favorite village is Ribeauville. Its oldest building houses a hotel and restaurant and dates to 1392. My friends Christophe and Laura live in a home built in 1513. In December 2014 I was visiting to take in the outdoor Christmas market. One day Laura related that the next day would be their son Frederic's last before the Christmas break. She said students would be displaying projects they had been working on during the fall term.

"Would you like to go?" she asked.

"Yes."

A 10-minute stroll had us approaching the school. Its architectural design suggested a birth in the 1800s. Inside were signs of wear - scuffed flooring, marred doors, etc. But the building's outside was pristine - facade, window treatments, roofing. I remember thinking that the school still would be standing for students for another 150 or so years.

My hometown is Shelby. 1874 saw its first high school graduating class. The town's students are now in its 5th high school. Average life of those 5 schools - about 30 years.

Overbuilt, but we are still building more ;-)

Makes sense

OUPD is up on the Ridges

Imagine tearing down this 1927 beauty - perhaps the most beautiful high school in America. Thankfully it's now part of the National Parks Service and continues to operate as a public school today. I got to teach a few classes there not too long ago - a truly humbling experience. The late Frank Henderson, an emeritus OU prof and my former neighbor, was the four black graduate of this school.

https://www.nps.gov/chsc/index.htm

In Tennessee, the ironically named "Moms for Liberty" are a GOP group trying to ban books about Ruby Bridges because it's too harsh in it's description of a “large crowd of angry white people who didn’t want Black children in a white school,” as well as for not offering “redemption” in the end.

I'm old enough to remember when conservatives were rightly concerned about speech on college campuses and trigger warnings and safe spaces and the like. Turns out you turn the BS dial shit Critical Race Theory up to 10 on Fox News, ONN, and social media and suddenly conservatives want safe spaces of their own.

I'm pretty disgusted people thought that way back then - One of America's darkest chapters in my opinion. I hope others my age will be the most accepting of diversity generation yet.

The wrecking ball was active during my stint at OHIO.

Watched Ewing Hall and Howard Hall come tumbling down. Nothing rebuilt in either locations.

Too bad Scott Quad couldn't become the math building or the music building and instead tear down the significantly UGLY Morton or Glidden Halls. Now those are some real campus treasures from the exterior point of view.

I had one class there.

Winter Quarter of my Sophomore year.

I remember it because most days there was no heat in the
building.

Had to wear coats, hats and sometimes, gloves.

I interviewed for a position in the Spring of '74 in Ewing, and when I returned in the Fall, it was gone.