The constant construction and commotion around campus may seem pesky, but many students associate their BYU memories according to the construction projects they witnessed.
Most on-campus buildings receive some type of renovation, but some of the most memorable construction projects to this generation of BYU students include the tearing down of Deseret Towers, the building of New Heritage and the old versus the new Cannon Center.
Marissa Prisbrey, from Newark, Del., graduates in April 2013. She recalled back to her earlier years at BYU when everything was being removed from Deseret Towers.
“I had friends that would sneak into DT while they were ripping everything out of it,” she said. “They would use the old mattresses and slide down the stairs. I know that some of them got caught.”
She recalled wanting to accompany her friends on one of their trips to DT.
“I never did it, though,” Prisbrey said. “I was too scared and a little bit of a ninny.”
BYU graduate Ashley Allen recalled when DT was actually taken down, but most of her memories are centered around the old Cannon Center.
“I was there when they started tearing down DT and when they completed the Hinckley Building,” Allen said. “But when they tore down the old Cannon Center, I felt like it closed the chapter on my freshman year, because it wasn’t my Cannon Center anymore.”
BYU student Holly Garner, from Joseph, Ariz., also graduates this April. She hasn’t kept track of the individual constructions projects she witnessed, but she said the mass emails from campus are what stick out most to her.
“I just get the mountain of emails every week with these maps of different areas on campus I can’t drive through, but I honestly don’t even pay attention to them,” she said. “I just delete them and find some other way to get around.”
Garner took a year off from school and still recalled receiving the construction-reminder emails when she wasn’t even enrolled in classes.
“They send the emails campus wide all the time,” Garner said. “I took a year off of school, and I still got them! Now that I’m graduating, I’m wondering, ‘When I’m done with BYU, will I still get all of these emails about the construction on campus?'”
