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Post by manayunk53 on Dec 12, 2015 15:45:25 GMT -5
PHILADELPHIA - My wife is in the MBA program at La Salle and needed to be on campus to work on a project today, so I went over with her so that we could have brunch at the B&G (yes, I lead a very exciting life). Anyway, since today is an incredibly nice December day, I decided to take a stroll around campus and try to get to the bottom of the whole secret building situation.
My first stop was the tennis court area, rumored to be the site of the secret building. The two sets of tennis courts closest to 20th Street were quite dirty, but seemed normal enough. When I got to the third set of courts, however, I could instantly tell that something was up. There were piles of dirt on several parts of the courts. I needed to get closer if I wanted to figure out the truth. I walked out onto the court and found that someone had indeed broken ground on something. On the 20th Street side, by the Peale House, the rumored Zoning Notice was indeed posted. The notice mentioned some sort of residential building for 14 people with 7 parking spaces.
Something was clearly going on, but I needed clarification from the university. I decided to seek out security personnel and see if any of them would be willing to go on the record. All of the patroling officers (three of them) declined to comment to ExplorerTown, claiming that they "didn't know." I started to think that this whole secret building controversy could go way deeper than any of us expected. I marched over to the security headquarters, and upon arrival, demanded answers. Finally, they cracked. They informed me that the project is indeed a new residence for the Brothers, and that it is only going to be on the site of that third set of tennis courts (the ones closest to the Townhouses).
Unfortunately, there is still no word on whether this is related to seats being added behind the baskets.
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Post by JoeFedorowicz on Dec 12, 2015 16:37:28 GMT -5
Loge the brothers, I do, but if they put up a new building for them I'll be very upset at the waste...which seems to be done without announcement.
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joe
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Post by joe on Dec 12, 2015 17:10:17 GMT -5
It is going to be a nursing home for the brothers. The retired brothers will be sent to la salle. There is talk that lasalle hs brothers are closing their house.
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Post by JoeFedorowicz on Dec 12, 2015 17:11:50 GMT -5
It is going to be a nursing home for the brothers. The retired brothers will be sent to la salle. There is talk that lasalle hs brothers are closing their house. Weird spot. LSCHS has so much land.
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joe
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Post by joe on Dec 12, 2015 17:37:41 GMT -5
The area around the president house is the most beautiful area in north phila. Maybe this new building caused the school to cancel the new fitness center?
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Post by rp01 on Dec 12, 2015 20:38:29 GMT -5
Loge the brothers, I do, but if they put up a new building for them I'll be very upset at the waste...which seems to be done without announcement. The Christian Brothers organization is completely funding the building. La Salle isn't paying anything I don't think.
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Post by JoeFedorowicz on Dec 12, 2015 21:34:36 GMT -5
Loge the brothers, I do, but if they put up a new building for them I'll be very upset at the waste...which seems to be done without announcement. The Christian Brothers organization is completely funding the building. La Salle isn't paying anything I don't think. Great.
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joe
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Post by joe on Dec 12, 2015 21:42:33 GMT -5
Dumb place to put it. Retirement home will be placed at the center of campus. Will Homecoming be at the retirement home? where is the official press release? Lasalle knows this building is not going to benefit the school. It will cost the athletic department money. Only time will tell.
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Post by rp01 on Dec 12, 2015 21:45:19 GMT -5
La Salle should buy and demolish some of the homes along Olney and Wister and build the new weight room and bookstore across from the business school near the explorers den.
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Post by rp01 on Dec 12, 2015 21:46:14 GMT -5
Dumb place to put it. Retirement home will be placed at the center of campus. Will Homecoming be at the retirement home? where is the official press release? Lasalle knows this building is not going to benefit the school. It will cost the athletic department money. Only time will tell. They probably figure its the safest part of campus or its the only place to put it.
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joe
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Post by joe on Dec 12, 2015 21:55:54 GMT -5
Only place to put it. Lasalle is landlocked. Did this secret deal cost lasalle the fitness center?
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Post by durenduren on Dec 12, 2015 22:27:30 GMT -5
Loge the brothers, I do, but if they put up a new building for them I'll be very upset at the waste...which seems to be done without announcement. The Christian Brothers organization is completely funding the building. La Salle isn't paying anything I don't think. Not trying to be a smart ass, but I saw you said you're a high school student with no La Salle affiliation in another thread. How do you know this, if that's the case? And this all might be because I'm looking at this entire thing as an pile of BS. Something sounds weird, but I've got no reason other than a hunch, but I'm not convinced anything regarding this 'secret building' is fact. I'll admit fault if wrong, but just being fairly skeptical.
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Post by rp01 on Dec 12, 2015 22:36:48 GMT -5
I just know that the Christian Brothers are building a facility and paying for it, it's a 14 bedroom house with 7 parking spaces. Retired christian brothers will live there. It will be at the tennis courts.
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Post by blueandgold on Dec 12, 2015 23:00:16 GMT -5
I read "retirement home" as "the new party house". Everybody get your five bucks ready! We know the Brothers like to have a good time.
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Post by jellybean on Dec 13, 2015 7:25:45 GMT -5
The Christian Brothers organization is completely funding the building. La Salle isn't paying anything I don't think. Not trying to be a smart ass, but I saw you said you're a high school student with no La Salle affiliation in another thread. How do you know this, if that's the case? And this all might be because I'm looking at this entire thing as an pile of BS. Something sounds weird, but I've got no reason other than a hunch, but I'm not convinced anything regarding this 'secret building' is fact. I'll admit fault if wrong, but just being fairly skeptical. I saw the zoning notice when I attended the Homecoming event in the tent. Indeed it will be a retirement home for the Brothers. I do wonder why LSCHS wasn't the location however since they might have more land? Also agree with durenduren.
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Post by JoeFedorowicz on Dec 13, 2015 7:38:51 GMT -5
The general shift has been towards south campus. I wonder why they wouldn't raze E&F for this though.
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Post by SICguy84 on Dec 13, 2015 11:37:17 GMT -5
Agreed, that it would be stupid to destroy the park like setting in that area. Need to be careful not to encroach on the Belfield Estate area and Peale House (President's Office) in the future. Read somewhere that the President's Office is the oldest building used by a college in the United States. Since, before this thread, I had not heard of this building going up, I guess they are continuing to use new firms. I stand by my assessment on development practices recently at La Salle. "They foolishly turned away from the companies that were involved with the design, engineering, and construction of some of the respectable buildings on campus... the new (renovated ) science building, tree tops, communication center, library, basil, west campus Germantown hospital reno. Long term relationships were important with these firms for obvious reasons. I blame the new facilities head who came from Temple." Posted 11/19/2014 Read more: explorertown.proboards.com/thread/1478/facility#ixzz3u8tMBVKF
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Post by a10champion15 on Dec 13, 2015 12:04:13 GMT -5
Okay, so this is correct. Now that the president is following this board I don't want to leak any unnecessary or skeptical details. The building is a new home for the brothers with a few other odds and ends. The school will make an announcement. The school is not funding this project.
The school over the last year has been debating what they want to do with College Hall, the Brothers Residence, McShain and Wister Hall. College Hall is staying. There are a few ideas floating around related to the Brothers Residence and Wister.
There will be changes in time. I know the fitness building is a hot topic a few reached out to me about it. Funding for the building is not off the table. There are a few concerns they had in addition to the parking. This may have changed since September.
I'll provide an update in late January.
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MisterD
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Post by MisterD on Dec 13, 2015 12:33:07 GMT -5
I really like the idea of taking care of the older guys.
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Post by mookie on Dec 13, 2015 13:17:36 GMT -5
Agreed, that it would be stupid to destroy the park like setting in that area. Need to be careful not to encroach on the Belfield Estate area and Peale House (President's Office) in the future. Read somewhere that the President's Office is the oldest building used by a college in the United States. Since, before this thread, I had not heard of this building going up, I guess they are continuing to use new firms. I stand by my assessment on development practices recently at La Salle. "They foolishly turned away from the companies that were involved with the design, engineering, and construction of some of the respectable buildings on campus... the new (renovated ) science building, tree tops, communication center, library, basil, west campus Germantown hospital reno. Long term relationships were important with these firms for obvious reasons. I blame the new facilities head who came from Temple." Posted 11/19/2014 Read more: explorertown.proboards.com/thread/1478/facility#ixzz3u8tMBVKFThey may have not used the companies that helped with the previous buildings but do you know if they used companies that the new head of facilities used at temple?
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Post by SICguy84 on Dec 13, 2015 14:08:57 GMT -5
Agreed, that it would be stupid to destroy the park like setting in that area. Need to be careful not to encroach on the Belfield Estate area and Peale House (President's Office) in the future. Read somewhere that the President's Office is the oldest building used by a college in the United States. Since, before this thread, I had not heard of this building going up, I guess they are continuing to use new firms. I stand by my assessment on development practices recently at La Salle. "They foolishly turned away from the companies that were involved with the design, engineering, and construction of some of the respectable buildings on campus... the new (renovated ) science building, tree tops, communication center, library, basil, west campus Germantown hospital reno. Long term relationships were important with these firms for obvious reasons. I blame the new facilities head who came from Temple." Posted 11/19/2014 Read more: explorertown.proboards.com/thread/1478/facility#ixzz3u8tMBVKFThey may have not used the companies that helped with the previous buildings but do you know if they used companies that the new head of facilities used at temple? I believe so.
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Post by JoeFedorowicz on Dec 13, 2015 14:15:15 GMT -5
It's optics though. Whether or not they're paying for it, building a nursing home in the center of North campus without explanation is tough.
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Post by durenduren on Dec 13, 2015 14:42:51 GMT -5
I can't believe I'm about to say this...
La Salle clearly faces challenges that many of the other schools in our area do not, but at a certain point you've got to start making facility improvements on core items that will attract students, not free buildings for retired brothers (even if it is free and the Popr himself is paying for it).
It's asinine and I'm a total hypocrite for complaining about this because I can't help this cause because I'm no billionaire. But you've got to start looking at improvements that will get enrollment numbers up, that will attract students. They don't care about retired brothers - they want nice, new dorms. They want a kick-ass recreation center. Look at Temple's and Drexel's rec centers - friggin rock walls - and jaws probably drop each time a prospective student comes by.
I'm five years or so out. Anyone know what dorms were shown to prospective students? Neumann and North Dorms. And guess what, they looked like crap compared to what many other schools were showing. We didn't show the recreation center on South Campus because a tour of 10 people would have put that building over its legal occupancy coding. B&G and the new business building was a good step in the right direction, but they need to compete with certain student amenities and bring certain things to the 21st century, not 1960/70. Look at our Student Union versus any other schools - these kids see in 1970s architecture and run away to that other school that has Chik-Fil-A, a rock wall, and high-tech computer labs that aren't in the basement of Wister Hall.
/End Rant.
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Post by JoeFedorowicz on Dec 13, 2015 14:54:43 GMT -5
That.
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Post by fvp47 on Dec 13, 2015 14:57:11 GMT -5
Rant, rant, rant all you want. It is all about MONEY.
Here is a question? Are you a regular contributor to the La Salle Fund or the Explorer Fund and I don't mean $100.
I look at the annual report that comes out as to alumni giving and in my opinion it is a bit sad. Please do not tell me build it and they will come.
No one really needs to answer this question as to their personal giving. Just something to think about.
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Post by gymrat67 on Dec 13, 2015 15:26:18 GMT -5
Only place to put it. Lasalle is landlocked. Did this secret deal cost lasalle the fitness center? Why not simply convert / renovate one or two floors of the former Germantown Hospital building for use as the Christian Brothers nursing home ? It's right on campus, it's centrally located and it's already there. Answer : This solution is entirely too obvious, too economical and too sensible.
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Post by luhoopsfan on Dec 13, 2015 15:43:00 GMT -5
The general shift has been towards south campus. I wonder why they wouldn't raze E&F for this though. Saving that for the seats behind the basket expansion?
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Post by rp01 on Dec 13, 2015 16:36:21 GMT -5
Only place to put it. Lasalle is landlocked. Did this secret deal cost lasalle the fitness center? Why not simply convert / renovate one or two floors of the old Germantown Hospital building for use as the Christian Brothers nursing home ? It's right on campus, it's centrally located and it's already there. Answer : This solution is entirely too obvious, too economical and too sensible. I'm baffled why La Salle claims they don't have enough land... Isn't there a ton of land and parking near the Softball Field and behind the hospital?
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Post by explorerman on Dec 13, 2015 16:44:07 GMT -5
Why not simply convert / renovate one or two floors of the old Germantown Hospital building for use as the Christian Brothers nursing home ? It's right on campus, it's centrally located and it's already there. Answer : This solution is entirely too obvious, too economical and too sensible. I'm baffled why La Salle claims they don't have enough land... Isn't there a ton of land and parking near the Softball Field and behind the hospital? It is the location of the future Olympic sports teams fields (ie soccer).
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Post by a10champion15 on Dec 13, 2015 16:51:42 GMT -5
1. La Salle doesn't complain about their footprint.
2. I would never stick Christian Brothers in a damn hospital.
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