This is the definitive place to discuss everything that makes life on & off campus so unique in Central Virginia.

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By TH Spangler
Registration Days Posts
#641802
Since Biden was "put" in charge in 2020 building materials are 4 to 6 times higher. A friend of mine that's a builder stopped by yesterday and he was quoting prices then and now. This not a good time to spend on construction. It will probably take Trump / DeSantis three terms to strengthen it out. :lol:
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By rogers3
Registration Days Posts
#641806
TH Spangler wrote: April 24th, 2022, 7:54 am Since Biden was "put" in charge in 2020 building materials are 4 to 6 times higher. A friend of mine that's a builder stopped by yesterday and he was quoting prices then and now. This not a good time to spend on construction. It will probably take Trump / DeSantis three terms to strengthen it out. :lol:
Love to hear you explain how this will change. I also find it interesting that building materials skyrocketed in the fall of 05 during the Bush era.
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By TH Spangler
Registration Days Posts
#641807
rogers3 wrote: April 24th, 2022, 9:02 am
TH Spangler wrote: April 24th, 2022, 7:54 am Since Biden was "put" in charge in 2020 building materials are 4 to 6 times higher. A friend of mine that's a builder stopped by yesterday and he was quoting prices then and now. This not a good time to spend on construction. It will probably take Trump / DeSantis three terms to strengthen it out. :lol:
Love to hear you explain how this will change. I also find it interesting that building materials skyrocketed in the fall of 05 during the Bush era.
If I remember correctly 05 was a different situation. There was a building boom and materials rose ... nothing like what's going on today.

Bush was a sleep at the wheel while Barney Frank and company started unprecedented growth of the subprime mortgage market. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac made home loan to borrowers who had low credit scores. By 2008 most ended up defaulting on the loans.

A good start to fixing this Biden disaster is to stop flipping all the good Trump administration policies just because they're his. (Energy independence, regulation reduction, encouraging domestic supply chains, etc).

Bottom line, it wouldn't be wise for Liberty or any University to build now.
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By badger74
Registration Days Posts
#641822
Rarely do prices come down significantly when you want them to. Two years ago would have been much better but thats water under the bridge. I still see new construction all over the area. If you need the building build it. Engineering is a high pay high demand field now. But you need proper facilities. Charge a supplement to tuition for engineering majors. Many schools do that.
By rogers3
Registration Days Posts
#641828
TH Spangler wrote: April 24th, 2022, 9:44 am
rogers3 wrote: April 24th, 2022, 9:02 am
TH Spangler wrote: April 24th, 2022, 7:54 am Since Biden was "put" in charge in 2020 building materials are 4 to 6 times higher. A friend of mine that's a builder stopped by yesterday and he was quoting prices then and now. This not a good time to spend on construction. It will probably take Trump / DeSantis three terms to strengthen it out. :lol:
Love to hear you explain how this will change. I also find it interesting that building materials skyrocketed in the fall of 05 during the Bush era.
If I remember correctly 05 was a different situation. There was a building boom and materials rose ... nothing like what's going on today.

Bush was a sleep at the wheel while Barney Frank and company started unprecedented growth of the subprime mortgage market. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac made home loan to borrowers who had low credit scores. By 2008 most ended up defaulting on the loans.
now.
The problem here is that you choose to politicize everything. Building prices skyrocketed at the end of 2005 due to material costs rising. Remember, hurricane Katrina shut down all refineries which led to shortages in shingles floor coverings and other building materials. With that, came an astronomical rise in fuel prices that has never really recovered. Of course, there were folks in government who blame bush the same way that you are choosing to blame Biden for rises that are more related to labor issues in the supply chain then to political action. True, you might say that Biden shut things down too much, but it did start with Trump. Also, we've seen a change in the way the American worker has responded, even after the boat has mostly been righted. People are just flat-out choosing not to work in the traditional sense and to assume that they are all just getting government aid to do that is incorrect. I know plenty of people who are not taking traditional jobs but are doing odd jobs for cash and have simplified quite a bit. This is a generation that doesn't value homeownership and would choose to rent or live the life of a nomad in their van.
Politics do play a role in all of this but to simply blame the president because he's not Trump is a pretty lazy and uninformed position.
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By TH Spangler
Registration Days Posts
#641829
rogers3 wrote: April 25th, 2022, 7:16 am Politics do play a role in all of this but to simply blame the president because he's not Trump is a pretty lazy and uninformed position.
Biden is compromised. He and his family are deep in corruption, he has to do what he's told to see another day. The far left and China are his master. His orders so far are to "reverse everything Trump did". There are a lot of Blue Dog Democrats that are very disappointed in their choice.

As far as building material inflation, 05 and 22 do not compare and I'm afraid we are just getting started.
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By BlueBlood
Posts
#641834
I liked the look of the Engineering Building that they put out there (and filed plans for). However, I was not a fan of its placement. They were going to wedge it very tightly catawampus in front of DeMoss (in the existing parking lot). I'm wondering if someone had second thoughts about that and pumped the brakes. It was very much a little building in front of big building look (How nice would the White House look if it was built 30 yards and angled in front of the Pentagon?)

Also, I'm assuming that some academic unit will take over the old cafeteria location after they move into the new cafeteria. That is really the last prime real estate on the academic lawn - so I'd expect a really nice building to occupy it at some point.

And, every time an academic unit moves out of DeMoss, it frees up room for the remaining schools. I think DeMoss is right around 500,000 square feet - which is as big as the Music Building, Library, Business Building and Natural Sciences Building combined. All that to say, not everybody is going to need their own building.
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#641838
BlueBlood wrote: April 25th, 2022, 2:19 pm I liked the look of the Engineering Building that they put out there (and filed plans for). However, I was not a fan of its placement. They were going to wedge it very tightly catawampus in front of DeMoss (in the existing parking lot). I'm wondering if someone had second thoughts about that and pumped the brakes. It was very much a little building in front of big building look (How nice would the White House look if it was built 30 yards and angled in front of the Pentagon?)

Also, I'm assuming that some academic unit will take over the old cafeteria location after they move into the new cafeteria. That is really the last prime real estate on the academic lawn - so I'd expect a really nice building to occupy it at some point.

And, every time an academic unit moves out of DeMoss, it frees up room for the remaining schools. I think DeMoss is right around 500,000 square feet - which is as big as the Music Building, Library, Business Building and Natural Sciences Building combined. All that to say, not everybody is going to need their own building.
How many schools do we have in total? I already put aside the idea of the master plan being completed. I'm sure they're reasons for why the plans have halted, but I do not expect much being done when the other Jerry is in the presidential position.
By stokesjokes
Registration Days Posts
#641844
BlueBlood wrote: April 25th, 2022, 2:19 pm I liked the look of the Engineering Building that they put out there (and filed plans for). However, I was not a fan of its placement. They were going to wedge it very tightly catawampus in front of DeMoss (in the existing parking lot). I'm wondering if someone had second thoughts about that and pumped the brakes. It was very much a little building in front of big building look (How nice would the White House look if it was built 30 yards and angled in front of the Pentagon?)

Also, I'm assuming that some academic unit will take over the old cafeteria location after they move into the new cafeteria. That is really the last prime real estate on the academic lawn - so I'd expect a really nice building to occupy it at some point.

And, every time an academic unit moves out of DeMoss, it frees up room for the remaining schools. I think DeMoss is right around 500,000 square feet - which is as big as the Music Building, Library, Business Building and Natural Sciences Building combined. All that to say, not everybody is going to need their own building.
It’s weird to consider, but Demoss is now the ugly, outdated building on campus. I wonder if they would renovate Demoss instead of building new standalones.
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By BlueBlood
Posts
#641864
stokesjokes wrote: April 25th, 2022, 7:25 pm It’s weird to consider, but Demoss is now the ugly, outdated building on campus. I wonder if they would renovate Demoss instead of building new standalones.
There is so much room in that building. Unless there is something structurally wrong with it, the guts of that building can take the place of several standalones. Instead of them wedging a standalone Engineering Building in the parking lot, it might make more sense to do the same thing they did on the academic lawn side (where they added the Montview Student Union) and extend DeMoss out with a new face. I really like how the Student Union gives the appearance of being two or three separate buildings from the lawn but is really just a face for one huge building. They could do the same thing on the highway side - giving the outward appearance that different schools have their own building, but really those facades all connect to the existing space in DeMoss. It seems like it would be very flexible - they could easily rework the innards of DeMoss as different schools grow or contract.
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