Senate hires Dive renovation architect, seeks student input

After months of planning, an architect has finally been hired and the Dive renovation project will move forward. When Student Senate Co-Presidents Seniors Jen Fox and Nick Prince were campaigning last year, the Dive renovation was one of their primary platforms.

“It’s a big project and it moved slowly. There are so many people involved and steps to take. It feels awesome. I’m really glad that Student Senate has been so supportive and energetic and that the community has been enthusiastic about this project,” Prince said.

Student Senate allocated the budget to hire the architect, although funding for the actual renovation has not been secured yet. The committee formed to choose the architect, which included Fox and Prince, four other students and two administrators, chose Workshop Architects out of a pool of four possible firms to design the new space.

“Workshop Architects encompassed what we liked about all three of the other firms. They have a huge amount of experience in student unions … that’s 90 percent of their work. The other 10 percent is in performance spaces,” Prince said.

“They were most able to think outside of the box,” Prince said. “The architects should be the ones pushing the envelope, making everyone on campus think about what the space could be, what all of the different options are, rather than be stuck in the confines of what’s right there. They thought about the project in a way that none of us had.”

The Dive hasn’t been renovated since 1987 and the push for renovation started approximately three years ago.

“Students and their needs are changing and event needs are changing, so it’s underutilized both day and night. It doesn’t suit any need very well, even the weekly dances. It’s out of date,” Megan Ruble, director of student activities and part of the committee that chose the architect, said.

The next steps involve getting more student input on possible designs, and finalizing the blueprints before May, when Fox and Prince will graduate.

“Whatever this process looks like, it will include a lot of student input and open sessions. They will be talking with specific groups too … but we’re really looking for all student input … that will give them the best idea of what campus wants rather than a limited picture of what Student Senate wants or what [Campus Activities Board] wants,” Prince said.

Students don’t have to have a specific design plan in mind to contribute to the process, either. The architects plan to take student input about how they want to use the Dive and turn it into possible designs, which will then be brought to students again to review.

“We need to define what the primary uses will be for the space, but we definitely want increased student traffic and to make it a place where groups want to host events. Currently it’s a last resort,” Ruble said.

Whatever shape the final design takes, the old pool areas will still remain in some form and the weekly dances will continue.

“Bonnie [my associate] and I believe that there is an opportunity to make a very special student gathering space at the Dive, a place that students feel really comfortable in. A place that they can connect with their friends and also build new relationships. However, we think it will take something unexpected to really make it come alive,” Principal Architect at Workshop Architects, Jan van den Kieboom said.