Walking from point A to point B has never been such a welcomed exercise.
For all the years of complaining, inconvenience and students who wondered if they would ever know BYU campus in a state of completion, the BYU community can at last breathe a collective sigh of relief and stand back in admiration. The quad is finished. The library is renovated. The results are stunning.
The facelift project took almost three years to complete. It endured a labor strike, made a big hole between the ASB and the library, and invaded the campus landscaping with heavy machinery, yards of chainlink fence and orange barrels. But the start of Fall semester greeted returning students and staff with a wide open plaza of newly planted flowers, more benches, and a shiny atrium at the north entrance of the library.
The aesthetic and practical benefits from the renovation are at once obvious: textured marble interior, superior woodwork, an eye-catching structure of glass and metal, and 50 percent more library space. There are terminals at every table for Internet hook up. And in a refreshing change, sunlight can stream onto the studying students below.
The administration has accomplished a difficult task among college students: an attractive, inviting place where people want to go to study. In comparison, older buildings like the Smith Family Living Center seem every bit imprisoned in '70s architecture. It's like comparing the study atmosphere of your apartment with the Marriott Hotel. The whole feeling in and around the new library is of makeover. And it gives school pride an appreciated boost.
But equally as important are the geographical benefits now enjoyed by campus pedestrians. Exclamations can be overheard in the nature of, 'Guess what I just did -- I walked directly from the JKHB to the Wilkinson Center!' Not only does the clearing of the quad unclog class to class foot traffic and cut travel time, it makes the HFAC accessible from the south.
Although renovation on the first, third and fourth floors won't be finished until October 2000, expansion so far has made the Harold B. Lee Library the largest library in Utah and one of the largest libraries in the Intermountain West. It has a 5.2 million book capacity and space to expand technologically.
The completion of the plaza and library represents more than a nice place to study; it is a concrete step toward BYU's goal of a technology savvy populous and expanding the BYU experience to horizons outside of Provo.