UMass Lowell Celebrates Opening of University Crossing Student Center

09/17/2014
Lowell Sun
By Grant Welker

LOWELL -- The bookstore was in three locations, and the student health office was in four. Financial aid, counseling, student activities and other offices were spread out in so many locations that students who needed services had to hopscotch across the three UMass Lowell campuses.

All those services are now in one spot, located at the center of the three campuses, in a building that also forwards the university's goal of environmental friendliness.

University Crossing, UMass Lowell's new glass-fronted $95 million student center on Pawtucket and Merrimack streets, is the answer to the "perception that there was three separate campuses," said Larry Siegel, associate vice chancellor in the division of student affairs.

It is the 10th new building opened in the past five years at the university, which combined have dramatically transformed the look of the campus, as well as the city.

"Of all the changes over the last five years, this change, this project, is the biggest," UML Chancellor Marty Meehan said Tuesday at a ceremony marking the building's official opening.

The building was designed with environmentally friendly features expected to result in LEED silver certification, the second best, from Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.

University Crossing has skylights over its massive atrium with reflectors that draw the sunlight down to the main floor, decreasing the need for artificial light.
 
Sensors and other lighting controls throughout the building measure the level of natural light and adjust the level of electric light to save on energy.
Builders used refurbished materials where possible, along with material from local suppliers and materials and furnishings from low-emissions materials, according to the university.

Areas of the roof are covered with plant beds to absorb rainwater and provide insulation, and bathrooms are outfitted with low-flow toilets and sinks.

In adjacent parking lots, stormwater containment systems store the water before slowly releasing it underground to avoid a rush of stormwater that could end up flowing into the river.
Bike racks have been installed to encourage biking to school, and showers are available to those who take their bikes to campus. Food waste will also be composted.

The features most notable to visitors, however, are things like the larger new bookstore called the River Hawk Shop that drastically expands space for school apparel, which has grown in popularity since UMass Lowell upgraded to Division I athletics. A café at the other end of the building includes a Sal's Pizza and Starbucks coffee, adding to brand-name food outlets that have opened on campus in recent years.

The design of the 230,000 square-foot building -- the most expensive UMass Lowell has ever built -- encourages people to walk. A pair of elevators stand off to the side, while a prominent staircase rises from near the center of the atrium. Stairs between each floor are in slightly different locations off the atrium so people will end up walking around more, Siegel said.

"You're walking the building instead of walking the stairs, he said.

The two-story Club Hub includes shared space for the school's 150 clubs and groups, which previously had their own spaces. That had led to spaces that were unused a majority of the time, Siegel said.

In the Club Hub, each group will have their own lockers for storage space. Groups can book rooms online.

"We had no idea the transformative effect it would have on student life," Student Government Association President Amanda Robinson said of the building.

Henry Thomas, chairman of the UMass system's board of trustees, called University Crossing a testament to a student-first approach.

By moving the bookstores, student services and other offices to University Crossing, the university is also opening up about 60,000 square feet of space in academic buildings that will be repurposed for classroom space.

The former St. Joseph's Hospital, where University Crossing was built, remains only in the back wing of the new building. The old hospital buildings were too costly to renovate and wouldn't have offered efficient space, the university said. Among the services using renovated space in the old hospital space are the university police station, financial-aid and transportation offices.