This summer, the city of Oswego and the Oswego State campus took the opportunity to begin some construction and repair projects. Some of these projects were more effective than others.
The city redid the sidewalks, adding truncated domes, those bumpy, red rectangular sections, to areas where sidewalks and streets intersected. They also began work on the western side of Bridge Street, which seems to be in its final stages of construction now.
The campus, for its part, repainted some of its red crosswalks, as the paint had faded in many spots. They continued to work on Wilber Hall, which remains closed despite original plans to open in Fall 2017. The Oswego State Facility Services webpage also details how the stairs in Scales Hall had to be demolished and rebuilt, despite the building being finished months prior. Previous work updates for Scales Hall stated that only closing walkthroughs were being performed.
The Hewitt Quad also received some maintenance late in the summer as students began to move on campus. Hastily, Facilities Services workers tore up the most cracked and damaged sections of the concrete and refilled them with pavement.
This adds to the blacktop paved pathways that surround center campus, and makes the area look even more poorly maintained than it already did.
The dips and cracks of the concrete around Hewitt, Penfield and Lanigan led to trips, falls, twisted ankles, and demonstrated how the campus could not keep up with itself. That area of campus looked completely different from the brand-new, well maintained buildings on Lakeside and around Sheldon Hall, including Marano Campus Center right across from the quad. Something needed to be done.
The buildings of center campus were built in the mid to late 1960s, and they have had little work done on them since that time. What little updating they have seen, most of it has occurred inside, leaving the most highly-trafficked area of campus to look like a Siberian mining town in Stalin’s Soviet Union. The high levels of snow that hit this campus add to that illusion.
The choice to add pavement to a totally concrete area makes the walkway look worse than it did with the cracks. The black squares stand out, dotted around the quad. They make it look disconnected, and like the school cannot even bother to use the same materials in its maintenance work anymore.
Concrete is more of an investment, but it also looks better, stands up to time better, and requires less maintenance. The concrete in the quad has been maintained since that part of campus was build, so why are we paving over it now?
If it is about sustainability, concrete has answers for that issue as well. A team of scientists in the Netherlands have developed a “bio-concrete” that can repair cracks in itself for hundreds of years, nearly eliminating the need for repairs or maintenance for generations. The school has shown itself as willing to use new technologies with the building of the Shineman Center, why has that philosophy changed when there is not a brand-new building involved?
There is a reason that municipalities use concrete for town squares and sidewalks. It is about more than just cutting costs when the way that our school looks is so important to potential students and to alumni. Invest in the facilities of this campus equally.
Photo by Maria Pericozzi | The Oswegonian
