If you're curious, Google streetview is not updated so you can still see the open road HERE (https://www.google.com/maps/@35.2040256,-97.4454155,3a,75y,9.78h,79.79t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sP0HdkRN6FDJy8gVuFAJbjg!2e0!6s% 2F%2Fgeo3.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DP0HdkRN6FDJy8 gVuFAJbjg%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_ sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26y aw%3D148.35185%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i3328 !8i1664). Just looking at it now, I realize what an improvement it was for this part of campus.

How often does streeview tend to get updated? This image shows Gould Hall still under constrution, which means the images are 2011 or earlier.

I guess it is all a matter of the type of campus, the size of the student body and the layout. Many campuses seem to be like OU and try to block off the main undergrad areas for pedestrians only. Some, like UCLA, U of Tx and North Carolina are in rather urban areas so have more streets. Even at UCLA there are areas the size of OUs main campus without through streets. The campus is much larger than OU so there are streets in the campus. As far as UCO, the east-west traffic flow through that segment of town is pretty low and 2nd and Dnforth can handle it I still see no issue. At Ou, they closed more than "a street." OUs main undergrad acedemic campus has no through streets. Asp ends on both the north and south campus into cul-de-sacs, Brooks was closed long ago east and west into a pedestrian walk and the South Oval was turned into a pedestrian mall. Lindsey St is a main road through Norman and shouldn't be closed. South of Lindsey are the residential areas, the grad school buildings, sports complexes, the Law School and the museum. These are all for commuters or otherwise need cars.
Campuses that are less congested, like our local schools. can certainly handle a few closed streets.

Completely different scenario and OU has through roads. My point remains valid that most universities have through roads and aren’t closing roads left and right like is being inferred here.

Just because OU close a road doesn’t change anything. I’m not familiar with OU so I can’t comment.

Actually, i think people here have made a pretty good case to counter your points. No one said they're closing roads left and right, but our point was that what UCO is doing is VERY normal and can be found on pretty much any university (regardless of size) but that it depends on the size/location of the university for the extent of those closures.

And that last comment i think points out that if you're not familiar and can't comment, then how can you totally discount the evidence from it. Just because we haven't been to university "X" doesn't mean they DON'T close roads either. Not knowing about the evidence doesn't change the fact that the evidence exists. So we discuss it here so people are educated about things they may not be exposed to in their world. I certainly wouldn't have known about u of Iowa if a couple of coworkers hadn't gone there both 40 years ago and 10 years ago. And while i've made my rounds to a number of universities in my time, i certainly don't know every detail about all of them, nor would i pretend to. Like you, i'm simply the summation of the experiences i've had. I just have to be willing to accept that there may be more to the story out there than what i'm aware of.

But to summarize, we have universities of all sizes in OK that are doing this. Does that mean they're doing it "all the time", of course not. What it means though, is that UCO isn't doing something crazy and weird. Can it be annoying? Absolutely. Is the world still going to spin the next day though? Yup.

Maybe if the neighborhood directly east of the university was larger I would be in favor of keeping that road open. It looks like most of the homes though are concentrated north along University drive. If anything the school would probably like to expand to the east in the future.

I’m not disagreeing with what everyone is saying but I stick by my points. Closing his street won’t increase walkability and down the line will be likely be reopened as it was a short sighted move.

I’ve said multiple times here, I don’t think this is that big of a deal. I don’t know how to else to say it.

Closing his street won’t increase walkability and down the line will be likely be reopened as it was a short sighted move.

It appears from the renderings the new dining hall/conference space building will be built with the entrance right in the middle of the current Ayers Street.

I will be surprised if they do in fact shut down the street. We’ll see.

Glad to see these kinds of festivals popping up in Edmond and I hope to see more like this that will further signify hatred and bigotry is not welcomed here.

http://newsok.com/uco-receives-approval-for-edmonds-first-lgbtq-pride-festival/article/5591523

I worked at UCO for 4 years, and I drove down Ayers several times a day every day. Between the speed bumps and pedestrians it can not be considered a thoroughfare. In the late afternoon is almost impassable while you are waiting for pedestrians to clear the crosswalk. About 1/3 of the campus housing is across from Ayers. I think it' s a great idea to close it.

Good for you. It probably isn’t happening and if it does then whatever.

UCO To Break Ground On North Hamilton Annex Project (https://bronchosports.com/news/2018/5/10/general-uco-to-break-ground-on-north-hamilton-annex-project.aspx)


EDMOND - The University of Central Oklahoma cordially invites you to attend the ground-breaking event of yet another facilities project within the athletic department. UCO will break ground on the North Hamilton Annex project Friday, May 11 at 10 a.m. on the north side of Hamilton Field House.

UCO will soon be removing the current wrestling room, weight room, and former swimming pool area and begin a multi-million dollar renovation project that comes in a string of ambitious projects the athletics department has undergone over the past few years.

In 2017, UCO opened a brand new softball stadium. Central earlier this year renovated the baseball field with new turf and a new fence. The university is also opening later this year its grandest project with the Sports Performance Center, a $15 million, 40,000 square foot athletics facility.

A new wrestling room, an auxiliary practice gymnasium for both of Central's basketball teams as well as the volleyball team and other sports to train in, and new locker rooms and coaches offices will be built. UCO will also renovate the current locker rooms on the north side of Hamilton Field House to give Central's varsity sports the opportunity to have their own space.

UCO has also already built what will be a temporary wrestling facility on the north end of campus that the 15-time national champion Broncho grapplers can train in while the North Hamilton Annex project is under construction. That facility will serve as an alternate dressing room for visiting football teams and will soon become an indoor hitting facility for the baseball team, the softball team, and both of UCO's men's and women's golf teams following the completion of the North Hamilton Annex.

For more information on the project and Friday's groundbreaking, please call Chris Brannick, UCO Director of Sports Media Relations, (405) 301-0187.

http://www.okctalk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=14621&d=1526046885

Supposedly, Ayers Street through campus will close July 5, 2018, the day after the Liberty Fest parade uses it for float staging. Although, the fireworks and park festivities will be moved this year from UCO to Hafer Park.

Guessing Ayers on the east side will continue to the Chowning intersection and to the parking lot south of the soccer field. On the west side, It will probably stop at the circle drive by the Common's apartments and Chamber's Library?

Supposedly, Ayers Street through campus will close July 5, 2018, the day after the Liberty Fest parade uses it for float staging. Although, the fireworks and park festivities will be moved this year from UCO to Hafer Park.

Guessing Ayers on the east side will continue to the Chowning intersection and to the parking lot south of the soccer field. On the west side, It will probably stop at the circle drive by the Common's apartments and Chamber's Library?

Good for you. It probably isn’t happening and if it does then whatever.

Its happening. University already owns it and plans to build a new dining hall right there in the middle of road. UCO wants all that land to the east of the school so they don't really care if that area has access to downtown Edmond or not. We're not even talking about a very large area between UCO and Bryant. Certainly not big another to warrant keeping the road open.

The new dining hall is out for bid:

http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/ucodining1.jpg

Are there any plans available for how that will actually lay out on campus?

Some pictures I took around campus this week, first the STEM building nearing completion:

http://www.okctalk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=14704&d=1529596871

And the liberal arts expansion:

http://www.okctalk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=14703&d=1529596871

http://www.okctalk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=14702&d=1529596871

The dining hall is being built south of the Fieldhouse. I'm assuming there is going to be some sort of pedestrian plaza in front of it which is why their wanting to shut down Ayers. Moving the dining hall is going to dramatically increase the number of students having to cross the street.

They want to close Ayers for construction? Or like permanently?

They want to close Ayers for construction? Or like permanently?

Permanently. See posts #102 (http://www.okctalk.com/showthread.php?t=37701&p=1023088#post1023088), #126 (http://www.okctalk.com/showthread.php?t=37701&p=1023961#post1023961) and #132 (http://www.okctalk.com/showthread.php?t=37701&p=1032090#post1032090).

Announced today:


Ayers Closure — Beginning Monday, July 9, a small section of Ayers that runs through the University of Central Oklahoma campus will close permanently to accommodate the construction/operation of a new dining facility. The section is south of Hamilton Field House and north of the university’s current dining facility, Buddy’s. The section will become a pedestrian walkway between the north and south sides of campus once construction is complete and the facility operational, which is anticipated in January 2020. For an alternate route from the east, go north on Chowning to University Dr., which will connect with Ayers on the west side of campus. Coming from the west, go north on University to Chowning, which will connect with Ayers on the east side of campus. Vehicular traffic will still be permitted on Ayers on either side of the closed area.

https://blasts.uco.edu/centralities/files/images/ucocampusmap-july2018dining1.jpg

A shot of the new dining facility construction site from about a week ago. Nothing too major yet, but the land clearing is in-progress.

http://www.okctalk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=14862

Apparently parking is becoming an issue. This is my stance on it.

Very easy solutions here, but they come with a small price to pay.

1. Parking garage. Build a 1,500 car parking garage.

2. Transit and bike friendly infrastructure. Improve the city bus system. Build a streetcar downtown the links to UCO and encourage urban housing. Build more bike infrastructure throughout Edmond so on days it is reasonable to ride, people will do so.

Once the commuter and metro wide light rail system is up, students living elsewhere in the metro will also have easier car free access to Edmonds transit system.

Either way, don’t expect parking to be a breeze anymore in a growing city. Most major universities have parking and traffic issues. Edmond needs to get used it and find ways to manage and mitigate.

Otherwise the closing of Ayers certainly won’t help traffic any. The surrounding neighborhoods need to have their streets redone and if needed widened to allow for parallel parking lanes. Perhaps Chowning could be redone and widened a bit, remove two car lanes, and add parking and protected bike lanes. Same thing with Baumann.

UCO has made some really short sighted decisions as of late. I am still against closing Ayers and I’m really bummed about the tearing down Acadia Inn for a parking lot.

None the less, this is an issue they choose to have. If parking is that much of an issue, a parking garage or several with adequate capacity could solve this problem in 6 months. That is short term solutions. In the long term having a better university with more housing around it along with more transit friendly initiatives needs to be a long term goal for the university and city.

http://m.news9.com/Story.aspx?story=39006036&catId=112032

As long as UCO exists, people will complain about parking but still find a way to get to class. In my day, I'd park in the nether-regions of the parking lots and bike in to class.

https://twitter.com/buildwithlingo/status/1125443488169046016 has a timelapse of the dining hall construction so far.


UCO Dining Hall: Look at the difference a few months make. Thank you to our subs and design team for pushing through this wet winter!

#Buildwithlingo
@UCOBronchos

@adgokc

Took these today:

http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/ucodining060219a.jpg


http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/ucodining060219b.jpg


http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/ucodining060219c.jpg

New dining hall is near the center of this photo; to the right and just south of the stadium is an expansion of the field house.

http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/uco060219a.jpg


http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/ucofieldhouse1.jpg


A new wrestling room, an auxiliary practice gymnasium for both of Central's basketball teams as well as the volleyball team and other sports to train in, and new locker rooms and coaches offices will be built. UCO will also renovate the current locker rooms on the north side of Hamilton Field House to give Central's varsity sports the opportunity to have their own space.

I had not been in this stadium since high school. Really impressive facility.

http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/wantland060219a.jpg


http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/wantland060219b.jpg


http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/wantland060219c.jpg


http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/wantland060219d.jpg

If you can swing a tour of the new Sports Performance Center in the north end zone I'd recommend taking a look at it. It's a nice facility.

Donation from Mr Paycom for 12,000 more seats at Wantland
https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/2021/10/20/uco-football-donation-chad-richison-stadium/8538277002/

^

Richison's donation will add 1,900 seats to the east side (visitors) bringing the capacity to 12,000.

Will also provide extensive landscaping to the south end.

The stadium will be named after him as well.


The expanded visitor's side will really help when it comes to hosting high school playoff games.

HTTP://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/uco102021a.jpg

Oops, misunderstood the number

UCO Football Stadium Renamed Chad Richison Stadium (https://www3.uco.edu/press/prdetail.asp?NewsID=29594)

There're some additional rendering pictures linked off of the press release.

Here they are:

http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/uco102021a.jpg



http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/uco102021b.jpg


http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/uco102021c.jpg


http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/uco102021d.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDG4W3ZYnpE

I wonder if UCO is going to go FCS in the near future

I wonder if UCO is going to go FCS in the near future

i wish they would ...

D1 would be great for them ... football sure it would work .... but in basketball i think they could do very very well ..

That'd be great if UCO went FCS. I had always heard their goal was to get to d-1, I believe that's why they moved from the Lonestar conference originally.

I wonder if UCO is going to go FCS in the near future

Average attendance in 2019 (pre-pandemic) for the 6 UCO home football games was around 3672. The top FCS teams ranged from 33k down to 8600 a game.

Other Oklahoma schools
OU - 83k
OSU - 54k
Tulsa - 18k
SWOSU - 3957
East Central - 3621
NWOSU - 3531
OBU - 2723
SEOSU - 2565

The renovations will help keep high school playoff games in the OKC Metro due to the central location for all divisional/classes to attend. The stadium has been nice since the renovation in ?2005? when they added the new pressbox and had Edmond school's playing there too. These new additions will only add to the "ambience" May even get an Edlam game to return.

http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/football_records/Attendance/2019.pdf

Needless to say that if they were D-1, the stands would fill up. I know I'd be more excited to go support my alma mater if they were playing at that level.

http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/uco051522a.jpg


http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/uco051522b.jpg


http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/uco051522c.jpg


http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/uco051522d.jpg

I'm not sure what it is but there's a big earth moving project going on at the NW corner of E Campbell and N Jackson a block or so west of UCO. Looks like the entire east half of the block and then some has been torn up and dug out. It's more than what I would expect if it was just another UCO parking lot going in.

Did they finally start on the residential project over there? Of course I just deleted it from the google maps development summary given they announced it a decade ago and had absolutely no movement.

I think that might be what is being done. I stopped by yesterday and took the following:

17460

17459

17461

17462

Based on that last image and a mild amount of website sleuthing, I assume it is this project: University Heights (https://www.raderbuildingcompany.com/#university-heights)?

I preferred the other name better. It was to be called The Campbell. :D

That's still listed too: The Campbell (https://www.raderbuildingcompany.com/#the-campbell). I may have guessed wrong based on the description of the two projects.


Downtown Edmond landscape will change with the construction of two multistory buildings containing retail, restaurant, office and living space. The Campbell, located West of the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond, will be completed the Summer of 2023.

vs


Modern townhomes near University of Central Oklahoma

"Downtown Edmond landscape will change" made me think that that project must over on Broadway somewhere.

http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/uco071722a.jpg


http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/uco071722b.jpg


http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/uco071722c.jpg


http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/uco071722d.jpg

Seems like a lot of work for a water feature.

The water feature is arguably silly, but the brickwork improvements to the visiting stands is really nice looking.

The water feature is arguably silly, but the brickwork improvements to the visiting stands is really nice looking.

Oh, I know, and honestly, I'm glad they're putting work in, but like you said, the water feature is a (arguable) silly, so it's fun to dunk on them a bit over it. I feel like my great aunt designed that end of the stadium.

I know they are not D1, but... I am not a fan of wasted space around a field. I would rather some type of seating here...

I know they are not D1, but... I am not a fan of wasted space around a field. I would rather some type of seating here...

As a UCO student, I can almost guarantee you if there was some type of seating there instead, nobody would sit in it.

Honestly the biggest complaint with most of us have from this renovation is that if Chad Richison can afford to put his name on our stadium(rest in peace Wantland) and the Thunder's, why hasn't he donated an ounce of his money to education at the very place he was educated.

As a UCO student, I can almost guarantee you if there was some type of seating there instead, nobody would sit in it.

Oh I don't doubt it, last time I was there for a game there was ample seating.. Just in general I like fans as close and as fully encircling the field as possible, for any sport.

Oh I don't doubt it, last time I was there for a game there was ample seating.. Just in general I like fans as close and as fully encircling the field as possible, for any sport.

If only UCO football games got the same energy as UCO hockey games. Those are always fun and completely packed even though it's a smaller league.

I know they are not D1, but... I am not a fan of wasted space around a field. I would rather some type of seating here...

In my day, all the fraternities and sororities would put their letters up in that space.

If only UCO football games got the same energy as UCO hockey games. Those are always fun and completely packed even though it's a smaller league.

The UCO hockey fans are rabid but for good reason.... They've won a couple of National Championships.

Going to be interesting with UCO and OU both playing out of Arctic Edge this season.

The UCO hockey fans are rabid but for good reason.... They've won a couple of National Championships.

Going to be interesting with UCO and OU both playing out of Arctic Edge this season.

That's very true and they also sell cheap beer. Usually in OU-UCO games we take out our pent-up anger of being a D2 school.

That's very true and they also sell cheap beer. Usually in OU-UCO games we take out our pent-up anger of being a D2 school.

Every game of the season only has 3 refs until OU/UCO then they have 4 on the ice and probably 8 or 9 in the back just in case...... And you know it's a rivalry game when they have to separate the net minders.... Before the first puck drops! ;)

I have a pic from a couple seasons back where there are more players in the penalty boxes than are on the ice... LOL

Sounds like I need to go to a UCO hockey game. My dad played back when they were still Central State.

Their home opener is this Thursday 9/8 and they are rushing towards getting everything done.

As of Sunday, the water was already flowing.


http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/uco090422a.jpg


http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/uco090422b.jpg


http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/uco090422c.jpg


http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/uco090422d.jpg


http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/uco090422e.jpg

I'll be in the press box for the game. Definitely hoping to take some stadium pictures.