ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, February 18, 1997 TAG: 9702180075
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
COLUMN: reporter's notebook
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE
Later this week, we should find out how Virginia Tech's advanced technology/bridge project fared with the General Assembly's budget conference committee.
As you may recall, Tech hopes its $25 million project garners at least $2.5 million, the higher of two amounts recommended by each chamber's money committee.
The bridge is being called a "portal" to the university by some, a formal campus gateway and entry from The Mall.
"That argument would probably hold more validity if the mall were the main entrance into campus," Tech spokesman Larry Hincker said.
But everybody knows that's not how most folks arrive on campus - at least if they don't live in Blacksburg. You take the U.S. 460 Bypass to Southgate Drive, or you continue to the Prices Fork Road exit and then in short order turn on to West Campus Drive.
Either way, the entryways are in for more attention.
"It's prettier than the Prices Fork entrance," is how local historian Harry Temple views the Southgate entrance.
For her part, acting admissions director Karen Torgersen likes the Southgate entry for its utility. Students and their parents can come directly in from the highway and stop at the visitors center, where they can pick up parking passes and campus maps. That simplifies their visits right off the bat.
But some prospective students stay on the Prices Fork side of town, which means they come in next to a massive parking lot and big, flat buildings that nobody seems to be nominating for aesthetics awards.
"Granted, the parking lot is beautifully landscaped, but the first thing they see is all those cars," Torgersen said.
The parking lot trees will grow, says university architect Scott Hurst, which may "soften" the look over time. And that may be a good idea, because Tech can plant only so many trees at the Southgate entry. Future change is in store over there.
A raised interchange may be on the horizon, to be constructed whenever the proposed Southgate Road connector is built.
"I think we really need to look carefully at the design of that," Hurst said, "and make it as much as possible a statement about the entry into the campus."
He continued: "There are a lot of visual issues that will just have to be managed. It's something we have to do very carefully so it becomes an asset."
Just hope that the appearance of the Prices Fork entry has been improved by grown-up trees by the time construction starts on the new interchange. As Temple put it (facetiously, of course): They should "grow ivy on those buildings as fast as they can."
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