The Dianne van Hook University Center at College of the Canyons has opened. The 100,000 sq. ft., $35 million building houses university extension and graduate programs from colleges like CSUN, UCLA, and professional universities like LaVerne and Chapman.
I’ve been looking forward to the completion of the UC for awhile, both because I like COC and its place in the community and because I may enter a program there for career development.
But during yesterday’s open house, I just wanted to explore the building and take pictures.
The UC rises like the obelisk in 2001: A Space Oddyessy from the rolling hills of Valencia. It’s sleek, modern, and very corporate. It doesn’t feel like an educational institution at all; rather it’s more like an upscale convention center.
I’ve heard both praise and criticism for the way it looks from I-5. Here’s some photos:
It’s an impressive building, especially compared to the older parts of the COC campus. That said, this building could very easily have been fit in an industrial/office park. Not sure it fits into the oak-studded rolling hills of Valencia, but then again, most structures built here look out of place.
Here’s the main entrance.
A computer lab. Each classroom has a digital projector, a digital document camera, and a PC for the instructor. This building is wired and hooked up! I imagine they’ll have free wifi for users at center once it’s completed.
On the third floor of the building there is a video conference lab and large conference rooms. I overheard some COC officials saying that those rooms will be available for rent for the community. So if you’re trying to wow some clients, the UC may be the place to go to host a small conference.
Each classroom has a plaque near the door with the classroom number and corporate or individual sponsor names, which I found a bit odd. That’s probably because I walked into the University Center expecting it to feel somewhat like a university; it is not. This is a facility built for business and career development programs (rather than academics) and the classroom ’sponsorships’ make that clear. There’s a classroom sponosred by the Legacy Christian Academy; another is sponsored by the Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Foundation (a San Francisco entity apparently).
In this shot you can see how far the UC is from the rest of the COC campus. It’s pretty much completely separate, divided by oceans of parking spaces. I found that arrangement confusing; I actually turned the wrong way as I exited the UC’s parking lot and ended up in a sort of Kafkaesque situation, driving my car in circles around a vast parking lot, unable to escape DVH’s gravity, until I finally found the exit.
There also doesn’t seem to be a path or walkway from the UC back to the main COC campus. The UC is, for all practical purposes, completely divorced from the “COC Experience” which may be just what you want if you’re a fast-track corporate type attending the UC campus (who wants to be near all those shaggy-haired high school-aged kids anyway?)
Finally, I was dissappointed to not find a single bike rack at the UC. None near the entrances or closer to the parking lot. So if you were hoping to ride your bike to the UC on those nice new Rockwell bike lanes, you may have to lock your bike to a tree once you get there!
The Supreme Chancellor, Dr. Dianne Van Hook, in the building named after her, which surely must be a huge, ego-boosting experience (I’ll let you know how it feels once this community wakes up and erects a Wilson building for me…just kidding).
Joking aside, DVH made this project happen through sheer force of will and because she recognized the SCV needed something like this. Raise your hand if you like driving to CSUN, UCLA, or other universities over the hill after a long day at work? Now you won’t have to; you can just drive up to Rockwell Canyon Road.
Chalk up another win for DVH- this after she built the PAC and several expansions of the main COC campus.
My tour over, I went back to the lobby and picked up some free schwag: a DVH UC t-shirt and pen.
It was cool to see the UC open in what has been a pretty dreary year for the SCV. All around us retail stores have and are continuing to close shop. The titans of the SCV -realtors, car dealers and Newhall Land- continue to face troubles. But COC and DVH and the UC perservere and those feelings of loss (RIP Mervyn’s, Circuit City, Newhall Hardware) have been replaced by the giddy excitement of a new sleek, corporate yet useful structure.
The UC’s opening isn’t the only thing I’m looking forward to in 2009. Construction is nearing completion on the Patios project at the mall. Stay tuned for that!