In summer it was Olympic Trials archery.( Olympic years)
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I wonder if there was this much angst about location when Herron Gymnasium (aka Van Voorhis) was built? That was a central location!
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Might that have been before the Advent of prevalent social media wheress now differing views and outrage can now be offered ad infinitum.
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Used to sit on the front porch of Fisher at dusk during Halloween week. When the sun went down you’d hear something stirring in the old belfry. We used to think it was bats. They were probably pigeons. Spooky either way!
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I guess I am not all that worked up about the Miami hotel taking up part of Cook Field. Sounds like the University already have plans to expand the open space to the south, and to be honest, I never felt that the open field there was particularly visually appealing. A beautiful red brick hotel on that corner might be…
I personally never set foot on Cook Field when I was at Miami, as intramural football wasn’t played there, at least on the 70’s. We used to practice in the field in South quad used by the band to rehearse when I was a freshman, and then the fields in front of Millet when I was in a frat house. The games themselves were never played at Cook Field, at least when I was there.
As I mentioned in my previous post, I do recall the Archery range set up there, and another poster reminded us that the Archery Olympic trials were held there. Obviously if this is the only available space for this activity I hope the plans to preserve much of this green space would be adhered to, or adjacent land could be used as necessary.
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Intramural football games in the mid 70’s were down the hill on 73 across from the equestrian stables.
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The National Archery Tournament was held several years on Cook Field, not exclusively in Olympic years. I staffed the check-in for housing in Dorsey Hall for the tournament during the summer of either 1969 or 1970. It was fun because I got to use a little bit of my Spanish with members of the Puerto Rican team.
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Correct, JDad!
Well it sure sounds to me from the public press release that if the hotel goes in there, Miami is making plans to preserve or expand the open green space to some degree. How much space will likely depend on whether or not parking will be underground. Also, on the satellite view I see that there are currently two smallish parking lots already on the west and south ends of the field.
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Actually, Herron Gym was technically NOT in the center of campus when it was built. It was on the northwest side. Then, when Ogden was built, it was moved further east down the hill to its final location (by my great-grandfather’s construction company).
I don’t know if this is “urban legend” or not (it probably is), but when I used to do campus tours, one of the nuggets we told to groups was that the woman who donated the money to build Ogden did so under the agreement that nothing would ever be built west of it along High Street. She wanted her building to be the first thing people saw coming out of town. If wonder if that’s true and, if so, if it’s legally binding all these years later…
Ogden is fascinating for its legends. When I was a summer orientation tour guide the legend we told was that the woman who bequeathed the endowment for Ogden as a women’s residence hall insisted that a six-foot brick wall be build around it when it was built. Legend has it there is a six foot brick wall buried underground all the way around the building.
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Yes, we told that one, too.
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I was on campus today for open house for prospective students, as my youngest daughter is considering Miami. I purposely walked around and looked at Cook Field, Phillips, Millett, and the open space in front of Lewis Place.
The space in front of Millett is clearly not an option, as it is a construction site already, as they are putting $52 million of geothermal wells underneath the ground right there. So, it is simply not an option. I did see a ten point buck across the street from the construction site right below North Quad, so there is that.
I guess Cook Field could work, but it just didn’t feel like the right place. The current students need their intramural space, and pushing them down the hill to Ditmer or the field that’s even further east on 73 than Ditmer doesn’t seem fair, and JohnnyMac won some intramural softball championships on Cook, so Cook is out.
Knocking down Phillips and putting it right there seemed like the right answer. It would be right next to Goggin, very close to the parking structure, and right across the street from Central Quad and all of the students. But, kinesiology and a couple other important academic departments are in there, I guess, so knocking down Phillips isn’t really an option, either.
About the block across from Lewis Place. It was an absolutely, positively beautiful day. I stood there by Harrison Hall and I looked over the green space toward uptown. The trees were at their peak, including an oak that probably pre-dates the university. As I stood there, I thought that every single person who ever attended Miami has only known this space as green space. Every single one of us has the same memory. I couldn’t imagine there is value in putting a building there, especially a sports arena. Just think how much the college sports landscape has changed in the last couple of years. And then think, will basketball even be a sport in 50 years? Will fans actually attend games in person in 50 years? Will Miami even have inter-collegiate athletics in 50 years? So, is it worth destroying 225 years of our history for this project? Hell, no.
So, I propose a different site. If we’re going to knock down stuff and build new stuff, I think we should go one block north of Phillips and knock down Williams Hall, Joyner House, and the Myaamia Center and that whole corner and put a basketball arena there. None of those buildings are historically important, the site itself is big enough, it is in the center of campus near uptown, and near enough to the parking structure.
JohnnyMac has spoken.
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Great points. I do think an arena at Phillips could still work as you could have space added for kinesiology. Your thoughts on Cook and the Lewis site mirror those of others opposing those sites and are well stated. And nice proposing an alternative site. Thank you.
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I like the idea of the arena in the Phillips space. Any academic program that has some tie to sports can be housed there too. Cradle of coaches used to be more than just successful coaches….we actually had academic programs that educated future leaders in that space….
And is mass comm still in Williams? Could work in a new arena/academic building. And Bonham is the seekie building still?
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And $52M on a geo thermal project? How exactly will they do air exchange, into the buildings campus wide, from the current Millett location?
Edit: that was the conversion of Billings from natatorium to chiller plant. It will serve as the exchange for north quad
The Miami police moved down to Ditmer a while ago.
And, about the Millett project, I’m not an engineer, I’m just a guy who talks to engineers. I’m a guy who takes pictures of trees and deer. Here’s that oak (I sure hope it’s an oak!) across from Lewis Place.
!
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Bonham House, which is the home of the Myaamia Center has a historical marker but I’m not sure if it’s on any of the historical building registers. I don’t think it’s an option to build there but anything south of it would be fair game assuming a plan to rehome the programs is put into place.
https://stantonhouse.lib.miamioh.edu/exhibits/show/the-remarkable-stantons/an-oxford-landmark
In the thread a point was made that the university was short sighted when it failed to build Goggin as a multi-purpose facility. With these projects they have an opportunity to not make the same mistakes. To the point that JohnnyMac made it feels short sighted to build on a site with 225 years of shared history. It also feels short sighted to not locate the hotel and arena next to each other. You could do so much more with a hotel & conference center attached or at least adjacent to the arena.
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