1. Burying the food court in the basement and pushing it toward the core of the building was a terrible idea. Need that space to bleed into the public space on the drill field side to enliven both. Terrible space planning error. And the one indoor/outdoor connection that is made with the food court - on the opposite side of the building is completely ruined by an improperly sized wall height containing the outdoor eating area. Seriously. Go eat there if you haven't. You sit down at some lovely Restoration Hardware outdoor furniture and stare at a wall. Hot girls are walking by - you just can't see them. Mistake unless your training was in either military campus design or some idiot modernist who still thinks he's/she's right. People like to see people. You can't. And don't give me the safety thing. It just doesn't wash.Terrorists aren't looking to drive a truck bomb into the Mississippi State Colvard Union. Seriously, they aren't.
2. Really a continuation of the outdoor indoor space relationships, they have some decent looking ones, but the relationships to the building are questionable. We'll see how well-used they are.
3. On the drill field side, bombed what was a reasonably successful, if somewhat dated, outdoor plaza and made into a runway. Nowhere to stop. The one outdoor space that connects to the building right there is elevated with no physical connection to the drill field elevation. It's a giant fortress-like wall with people on top and I would really love to hang out with them, but I can't. That pisses me off.
4. Semi Union related, but really the "plaza" between the cafeteria and the Union is terrible as well. It's a student Highway. Not a space of any value for gathering or hell, even stopping to catch your breath. Oh, and they screwed the interior renovation of the Cafeteria up royally. Way to turn a beautiful old building into a mall. Awful.
5. The detailing is not terrible, but it isn't exciting either. But maybe people just can't detail buildings anymore. Maybe that's the most I can expect.
6. And what's with the narrow outdoor space on the cafeteria side of the main entrance. What are you supposed to do there? Why didn't it step down/ open up to the "plaza" area between it and the cafeteria? It's like 4 ft. wide. Do they want you to hang out there, or what? Instead you have to go AROUND the wall up some side steps to get there. It's like they really don't want people inside and outside to interact or even be aware of each other at all.
Now I'm tired. But they should blow out that wall and elevated seating area between the Union and McCool and turn what is now that grassy space with a sidewalk in the middle of it into a legitimate hardscape gathering space that encompasses the leisure of the eaters from the Union, the students, etc. coming and going from the McCool entrance there, and the transient traffic coming from the Cafeteria direction. I think that could fix it. And a new, somewhat more exciting water feature to replace the one they razed could tie the space together well.
I was just not happy with it. But hey, maybe it's better that our students stay in the dark and watch TMZ on a flatscreen whilst jamming pizza slices down their gullets, rather than congregate and truly relax for a bit. Who knows? I'm not a psychologist.