It’s been a hard year to navigate about campus with the ridiculous amount of renovations going on at USC-Columbia. Roads and sidewalks are blocked off and afternoon naps are made impossible by construction noises. Unfortunately for us Gamecocks, it’s not going to end anytime soon. The Women’s Quad and new business school are just the beginning of a huge project that USC is working on; but before you get heated up, wait until you hear what’s happening at USC.
Right now our historic Horseshoe is the center(ish) of our campus. However, buildings like the Coliseum, Public Health, and Greek Village are awkwardly off-campus and stranded in the middle of city streets. The “Innovista” master design, officially approved in 2010, has plans to move the entire campus toward the Congaree river, making the horseshoe the end of campus.
Here’s the current map and the new map of the campus to compare:
Having campus on the waterfront will no doubt look BEAUTIFUL, but the new University of South Carolina will also be more eco-friendly AND provide tons more parking (hallelujah).
I know you guys are probably dying for some computer-generated photos of the new campus so here you go!
And, as a journalism major, my personal favorite, the new School of Mass Communications (which will hopefully be done Aug. 2015!):
*cue choir of angels singing*
Now I know most of you reading this (like me) will not get to relish in this stunning new campus. Instead, we get to enjoy the lovely construction and lack of parking it creates. BUT look at the bright side: the new campus will make our school more popular, thus harder to get into, which will increase its academic standing, and (hopefully) make a USC degree more valuable in the future!
For more information about the new campus plan, visit: http://www.facilities.sc.edu/downloads/master-plan.pdf