Dorman DIscussion...

[ArcherSPS]

I know the eyesore can't be demolished, but why can't it be improved on the outside? Imagine Dorman's outside sort of matching the brick and look of the union.. For example, OM did this w/ one of their ugly *** dorms, why can't something similar (a outer renovation) be done for Dorman?

 

[RPOdawg]

Why can’t it be demolished and build a new building?

 

[ArcherSPS]

Bc of all the forestry etc offices that operate year round in there.

 

[Duke Humphrey]

Someone told me a no frills replacement for Dorman was $100m-ish

Why can’t it be demolished and build a new building?

Because of all the lab space that would have to be built to replace what would be lost.

 

[Go Budaw]

Bc of all the forestry etc offices that operate year round in there.

Like we’ve never torn down a building on campus with year-round operations? We could blow it up quite easily. Temporary forestry office space would be no problem. Additional lecture auditorium availability elsewhere would be more of an issue. The plan needs to be to be to either phase out Dorman entirely or drastically limit its office and classroom footprint. Either one involves building the replacement facilities first, then getting out the dynamite.

 

[LTblows]

That number’s way too high. I build some freaking expensive TI and tech lab space, and that’s in the Seattle metro. Replacing Dorman would be expensive, but not $100M expensive.

 

[dawgstudent]

I'm with you. Just redo the outside - paint the brick or something. They added a roof to McCain when I was there. Used to be a flat roof.

 

[signdawg]

I'm with you. Just redo the outside - paint the brick or something. They added a roof to McCain when I was there. Used to be a flat roof.

Most of my classes were in McCain. It's all offices now.

 

[G-Dawg]

Is that now a Holiday Inn Express?

 

[Jeffreauxdawg]

I say quit spending money on the campus for 20 years... At this rate my 5 year old is going to pay $50k per year in tuition and fees... You want the biggest baddest school in the country, have tuition and fees pegged to inflation for the next 15-20 years. State will be a third of the price of any other school in the SEC and 500,000 students will be lining up.

ETA... Deleted sarcasterisk. I would love to see how much has been spent on campus infrastructure since 2000. Sure it's nicer, but 17 these little *****. Dorms should suck a little... Now the athletic facilities, keep cranking baby, but to hell with the rest if campus. Mow the grass and plant a few annuals and keep **** from leaking... It will be fine.

 

[39762]

Need to Tear it Down

With the addition of The Junction, Dorman’s location is now a focal point of campus and more guests will likely see that area than will ever see Lee Hall or the Drill Field.

The University needs to identify an alternative location for plant and soil sciences along with their greenhouses and gardens. Dorman doesn’t really add anything special (interior or exterior) yet the there is so much potential for a well-designed building in that location overlooking the Junction. I would love to see something designed for that site in conjunction with the south endzone project. May not be built at that time but at least start working to relocate Dorman’s offices and facilities elsewhere on campus and have a plan in place. Would be ideal location for Enrollment Services, Alumni Center or something of that nature with a wide-open first floor with restrooms and rooftop terrace accessible on game days. Could be a game changer for that part of campus.

 

[FQDawg]

Most of my classes were in McCain. It's all offices now.

There are still plenty of classrooms in McCain.

 

[UpTheMiddlex3Punt]

Lab space for Ag majors? It's called "outside"**

 

[The Peeper]

Hilbun Hall across from the archaeology/middle eastern studies renovated the outside and improved 100% and they couldn't have spent much on it. Dorman definitely needs a facelift but I don't see tearing it down

 

[L4Dawg]

Hilbun Hall across from the archaeology/middle eastern studies renovated the outside and improved 100% and they couldn't have spent much on it. Dorman definitely needs a facelift but I don't see tearing it down

They gutted Hilburn pretty much back to the steel, inside and out. It's almost a totally new building.

The thing about Dorman I have always been told is that there is equipment in there that is pretty much built into the building, very expensive equipment. A new facade might be about all that can be done.

 

[PointAfter]

Bring back Suttle and Hamlin!!
They were almost brand new when I was there and they still sucked. But, good times had by all.

 

[MeridianDog]

Relocating the forestry, soil science Greenhouses and Biochemistry to new homes would be a very expensive project. Perhaps doing the new building on the parking lots behind Dorman would work and could be accomplished for maybe $80-$100MM, since labs are very expensive to build because of fume hoods, acid proof plumbing and OSHA/EPA rules for assuring lab safety. If they were only replacing offices and classrooms it would be a lot cheaper, but that is not the case. After the new building was completed, Dorman could be demolished and the space converted to a parking lot or garage to recover the lost parking lot.

All that is missing to make this happen is a donor with $100,000,000.00 who is willing to throw it at a new building.

I bet there is nothing in the master plan to do any of this and to change the master plan requires a donor that will only give their money if it is spent for a specific reason and otherwise goes somewhere else to dump wildly excessive wealth.

I doubt there is any money in the master plan for vinyl siding to cover the current Dorman façade.

 

[jlove20]

Dorman, M-Club and the older Jumbotron should be demo/renov. within the next decade. IMO; the two "premium" trailers in the south endzone are more offensive than Dorman Hall.
It would be very interesting to see a removed Dorman/Greenhouse/Parking lot area to create a lengthy greenspace thereby stretching the "Junction" towards the Vet School.

 

[Shamoan]

that seems like a really bad reason to not demo a building that badly needs it.

 

[RocketDawg]

Bring back Suttle and Hamlin!!
They were almost brand new when I was there and they still sucked. But, good times had by all.

I was in Suttle when it WAS brand new and I liked it. Of course, that was relative to having been in Critz (no A/C and community bathrooms) and the one across from the laundry (also no A/C and community bathrooms). Having a 4-room suite for 8 guys was sheer heaven in comparison.

 

[RocketDawg]

A simple facelift is all that Dorman needs, to make it look like the more attractive buildings on campus. Dorman was built when "modern" was in vogue.

People complain about Dorman ... how about the crazy looking Hunter Henry alumni building? I seem to remember that they were planning on having palm trees outside ... how'd that work out? I don't remember seeing any lately.

 

[Trojanbulldog19]

I always enjoy looking at the master plan they do. I did a GIS project during my time at MSU on looking at the different campus maps through the years and the different plans to look at the land use and development changes to campus over time.
https://www.opdca.msstate.edu/files/MPI.pdf
It looks like the latest master plan is from 2016 and doesn't look like there are any plans to change anything with Dorman. The master plan isn't always followed and several things have been built over the years that weren't in the master plan, and several things have been abandoned in the master plan. I still think it's interesting to look at. I will see if i can upload several of the historic campus maps I have that I scanned from the library archives during that project.

 

[FQDawg]

I will see if i can upload several of the historic campus maps I have that I scanned from the library archives during that project.

I would love to see these. I've been looking for old (20+ years old or more) maps of MSU for a while.

 

[Shamoan]

huh....dorman used to be a baseball field.

 

[Trojanbulldog19]

that's true. the old location of home plate is supposed marked in the junction I believe.

 

[SheltonChoked]

Relocating the forestry, soil science Greenhouses and Biochemistry to new homes would be a very expensive project. Perhaps doing the new building on the parking lots behind Dorman would work and could be accomplished for maybe $80-$100MM, since labs are very expensive to build because of fume hoods, acid proof plumbing and OSHA/EPA rules for assuring lab safety. If they were only replacing offices and classrooms it would be a lot cheaper, but that is not the case. After the new building was completed, Dorman could be demolished and the space converted to a parking lot or garage to recover the lost parking lot.

All that is missing to make this happen is a donor with $100,000,000.00 who is willing to throw it at a new building.

I bet there is nothing in the master plan to do any of this and to change the master plan requires a donor that will only give their money if it is spent for a specific reason and otherwise goes somewhere else to dump wildly excessive wealth.

I doubt there is any money in the master plan for vinyl siding to cover the current Dorman façade.

No way it would cost that much. Granted it was build 20 years ago, but Swalm was about 1/3rd of that and it has labs.

 

[Dawg1976]

All that is missing to make this happen is a donor with $100,000,000.00 who is willing to throw it at a new building.



I doubt there is any money in the master plan for vinyl siding to cover the current Dorman façade.

I'll donate a bucket of paint.

 

[Joe Schmedlap]

All Dorman needs is an exterior facelift/facade. The building is sound. In fact, it is one of the most sturdy buildings on campus. It will be there when those newest, most fancy dormitories are falling apart.

 

[Duke Humphrey]

This does not even have the 3 new buildings (Meat Lab, Animal Dairy Science, and Poultry Science ) on the corner of Blackjack and Hail State (by Vet School).

 

[Shamoan]

i took a finance or economics class in the meat lab building once. that place is crazy....like really crazy

 

[RocketDawg]

i took a finance or economics class in the meat lab building once. that place is crazy....like really crazy

They need to come up with a better name for the place. Name it after Mullen or something ....

 

[RocketDawg]

All Dorman needs is an exterior facelift/facade. The building is sound. In fact, it is one of the most sturdy buildings on campus. It will be there when those newest, most fancy dormitories are falling apart.

The dorms get a lot more abuse.

 

[Duke Humphrey]

Proper term is "Muscle Biology Building"........ New building, unlike Ballew (old meat lab building) will only have the slaughterhouse, coolers, etc and classroom for those students. No outside courses like finance/economics.

 

[archdog]

A simple facelift is all that Dorman needs, to make it look like the more attractive buildings on campus. Dorman was built when "modern" was in vogue.

People complain about Dorman ... how about the crazy looking Hunter Henry alumni building? I seem to remember that they were planning on having palm trees outside ... how'd that work out? I don't remember seeing any lately.

Hunter Henry building is one of the worst. 1. Allen Hall. 2. Dorman. 3. Hunter Henry

 

[HammerOfTheDogs]

One can hope

 

[Bucksnort_Dawg]

My office is in Dorman and I am in there every day. It needs an exterior and interior facelift. It’s not a bad building, just in bad need of some TLC.

We just added a Precision Agriculture laboratory with some funding from an outside company. It is a very nice addition.

 

[RocketDawg]

I did a google, and apparently the real name is "Meat Science and Muscle Biology Laboratory". That's at least as bad, maybe worse than "Meat Lab". Has sort of a disgusting sound to it. I'll stick with engineering.

 

[thekimmer]

Dorman houses....

Why can’t it be demolished and build a new building?

....the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences and the Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Entomology and Plant Pathology.

Any building can be demoed and replaced but there are a couple of things that would ramp up the expense of such a project. There is a buttload of laboratory research space in the building. That type of space is going to be way more expensive to replace than a building composed of classrooms and offices. Also, there are activities in this building that use open sources of radioactive chemicals. The decommission and disposal of such facilities is very involved and very expensive.

Ultimately though I think it boils down to being hard to justify razing a still functionally useful structure just because some don't like the way the facade looks at football games. Perhaps there is a way to remedy or at least mitigate that with exterior work.

 

[thekimmer]

i took a finance or economics class in the meat lab building once. that place is crazy....like really crazy

Not crazy. Just research related to the production of a safe and economical food supply.

If you think what goes on there is crazy I advise you to never venture into a modern abattoir. But then again, I believe that understanding what goes into producing the safest, most affordable, and most readily available food supply in the history of mankind is not just a good thing its kind of a miracle of science.

 

[MagicDawg]

The Hunter Henry building looks like the result of a rich donor who was determined to have his name on something that looked "modern," but whose concept of "modern" was based on The Jetsons, Logan's Run, and Space Academy.