ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, February 9, 1997 TAG: 9702100016
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
Back in the 1880s, an early Virginia Polytechnic Institute president planted 2,000 indigenous trees around the campus.
In the 1950s, many were cut down to build the road, called The Mall, that leads from downtown Blacksburg into the campus.
"There was tremendous criticism for cutting down all of those magnificent trees," said Henry Temple, a Tech Corps of Cadets historian. "The argument they used for putting in The Mall was it would feature the chapel pylons."
Now history may be repeating itself, as people around campus wonder how the new, 15,000-square-foot bridge framing the War Memorial Chapel's pylons will look. The memorial anchors the Drillfield at the heart of campus, and was built as veterans returned from World War II and the university sought to honor its lost heroes.
"The view both ways on The Mall will be destroyed," said Raymond Plaut, an engineering professor, who also questioned spending the money "for a building that apparently will be a study hall."
But Minnis Ridenour, Tech's executive vice president, said the campus desperately needs study space for students.
"One of the greatest needs we have on this campus is space related to the library," said Ridenour, who considers the bridge an extension of Newman Library.
Faculty and others around campus roundly applaud the Advanced Communications Information and Technology Center - to be constructed across The Mall - which the bridge will connect to Newman Library.
"A marvelous extension to the university" is what landscape architecture professor Ben Johnson called the center. But he thinks the bridge will diminish the view of the memorial.
Another professor wondered if the buildings on each side of the street are "a mismatch."
"I don't find it attractive, myself," said education Professor Tom Sherman. "It seems to be such a drastic change to that part of the campus, and I don't know how it fits in."
Architects have done visualization studies as part of designing the bridge's height. Its "floor" arches 27 feet above the street. The aim is to test how far down The Mall one must drive to see how the memorial will be framed, university architect Scott Hurst said.
"I don't know that a tunnel wouldn't be just as good as a bridge," Sherman said.
As for the bridge's proposed role as a "signature," Plaut pointed out that the university always could construct a Main Street gateway just down the street if it wants a portal.
"I think the memorial there is sort of a signature. Burruss Hall is sort of a signature," he said.
Temple confessed to mixed emotions. While he's happy that the neo-Gothic architecture will fit in with the older buildings on campus, he's not so sure the bridge will frame the memorial.
Even Henry Dekker, rector of the Board of Visitors, said he had reservations when the project was proposed several years ago. But after examining the architect's drawings, he said, he was sold.
"In the long run," he said, "people will come to think of it as a valuable addition to the campus."
The 85-year-old Temple recalls the "whoop and howl" that went up when the trees were cut.
"Now they're going to do something across The Mall, and you get to whoop and holler again," he said. "Whenever you get progress, you gain some new things and you lose some old things."
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