Photo Update: Campus 10/16/12

Took a few pictures in Boca yesterday for you guys. Didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked because of time constraints but I'll go back and get some more soon.

First and foremost...

Dorm construction is still progressing pretty quickly! Looks like they might top it off pretty soon and then tilt-n-pour the walls. "Tilt-n-pour", by the way, is a technique used on many FAU buildings whereby a mold is made of the whole side of a building, concrete is poured into it, then once it's dry and in shape, they tilt the whole thing up and attach it to the framework of the building.... meaning this is pretty close to looking like a legit dorm from the outside!
(Opens Fall 2013)

The Administration and Student Services buildings have these inspirational banners attached to their columns saying things like "Imagination" and "Motivation." Also you may note that the Student Services parking lot got a row of shade trees. They're not the only ones...

The IRT lawn got a row of shade trees too. This lawn was intended for games of soccer, kickball, etc but there's plenty of open lawn space used for that purpose on the west side of the housing volleyball complex, so why not? I'm in favor of these kinds of developments because it can get pretty brutal in the summer/early Fall and palm trees give you NO shade.

Speaking of shade trees... the shade trees along Diversity Way - the long sidewalk connecting the Student Union to the south end of the Breezeway - are really starting to produce a nice canopy, covering another long walk in the heat and the rain. Another note here is that FAU is finally allowing sandwich signs to advertise on campus! It's about time they relented because it is incredibly difficult to get a student's attention simply by flyering in the Breezeway.

On the subject of Diversity Way, here are the school spirit banners (in case you haven't seen them) that have gone up along the path. Technically the bottom part (that says "The Board" here) is intended for student organizations to purchase the space at like $25/pole, but either this program wasn't as popular as originally envisioned -or- SGA dropped the ball because where there used to be banners on every pole, now it's every other pole and some of them don't have student orgs on them at all. Hope it gets better because this was a great idea.

The NightOwls carts got a spiffy new look. Overall there's a lot more red and blue on campus... as it should be.

Not really sure why this was out - I think they were transporting it somewhere - but I thought it was cool to see the "Talon X" sitting out by the old Engineering building. It weighs 230 lbs and had a showing at the 2012 Southeast Conference Concrete Canoe competition.

More to come, including pictures of the Student Union and some shots off-campus too.

I have to say, I was on campus between 5 and 6 pm last night which is supposedly the time when "everybody goes home" and "campus is dead." But it really, really didn't look like that. The Student Union had a ton of people, I saw people walking all over campus, and it just didn't feel like the ghost town it used to be at all. Having been on UF's campus about the same time (5-7 on a weekday), I can vouch for the fact that the after-hours environment was not all that different. As we continue to build more dorms and Greek housing and increase the number of recreational activities on campus, more and more people will stick around and enjoy the campus.

Even walking around campus now you can understand why high school seniors are telling their Twitter audiences, "I finally found my perfect school, FAU! Love it here!"

GO OWLS!