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Scotch

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  1. While I hated how events unfolded, I hardly think this will make A&M a laughing stock. The flagship university does need to make sure it is strong and independent and not micromanaged by the system any longer. As a former student said recently, this episode was the tail wagging the dog. If that keeps up, then yes, the reputation will take a hit.
  2. Well, there is no way they could do LoTrack now, and while it was expensive, TxDOT was footing a huge percentage of the bill. College Station's portion was 3 or 5 million, can't remember which. Even adjusting for inflation, it was a helluva deal.
  3. Oh, that's the way the opponents in College Station shut the project down. Bryan, Texas A&M, and most importantly TxDOT had agreed to fund the vast majority of the bill to not only lower the tracks, but lowering Welborn Rd. all the way from Villa Maria in Bryan past 2818(Harvey Mitchell) in College Station. Overpasses would have been built at Villa Maria, Old College/F&B, University, New Main(including a vast pedestrian walkway), Joe Routt, George Bush, either Holleman or Southwest Parkway, maybe both, and 2818.Instead we are now enduring terribly expensive separate projects at Villa Maria(completed), 2818(underway) and later George Bush. This still leaves railroad crossings and road intersections at four or five places that could have had a grade separation under the LoTrack plan. I'd say LoTrack wasn't marketed correctly in College Station, but Bryan and Texas A&M both understood it was much more than "a ditch for a train".
  4. Some things to keep in mind, most of that 20/20 Vision document is a number of years old. Plans in the above link show a future West Campus parking garage, but it has been built and open at least 6 years. Also, mass transit is a great option when there is demand, and demand easily occurs when the mass transit is the fastest/easiest most of transporation. Thing is, even in the heaviest congestion(aside from football game traffic), it only takes a maximum of 30 minutes to navigate anywhere in town. I have seen plans that call for an outer and inner loop bus route at A&M, using underpasses under Welborn Rd. The underpass option is less ambitious than light rail, yet would still be very costly. They probably should have put Joe Routt Blvd. in a tunnel when they built the pedestrian underpass. In a few years George Bush will go under Welborn, and I really wonder if the plans for either underpass in the interior of the campus will actually occur. Of course, so many of these problems on campus and along the tracks could have been avoided if College Station voters had simply voted for LoTrack in the early 90's. All of this expensive contruction today is a direct result of that shortsighted foolishness.
  5. MSC Renovation Architectural Renderings "New contruction will take its inspiration from the original MSC's building lines and geometry." Texas A&M Unveils "New Look" MSC "It won't be long until one of Texas A&M's most recognizable facilities undergoes a dramatic makeover. A transformation is about to begin on the Memorial Student Center. Wednesday, students and faculty got to see what the finished product will look like."
  6. Bland and boring? You must not have seen the "Soviet" style buildings that A&M threw up in the late 70's/early 80's to deal with the population explosion on campus. The Mitchell Physics Building covers up the view from University Dr. of the Blocker building, a truly awe-inspiring piece of design:
  7. Ground has also broken on the Emerging Technologies and Economic Development Interdisciplinary Building: Engineering and Applied Technologies Align By REBECCA WATTS, AbouTown Press ...The building will house the Dwight Look College of Engineering, the Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineers, and the research of interdisciplinary partnerships. International design firm Perkins + Will designed the three-story building to include ample display space, nine classrooms and two lecture halls equipped with state-of-the-art technology, two computer labs, dry and wet bench labs that will support bioscience experiments, underwater research labs, visualization rooms, workshop facilities, and offices. The construction of the Emerging Technologies building will better accommodate the 100 additional faculty positions added to the Dwight Look College of Engineering through the faculty reinvestment plan. Initiated by former Texas A&M president and current U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates in 2006, the plan adds 447 faculty positions over five years to the university...
  8. Quite a few of the buildings mentioned in the article linked above are nearing completion. I took a few photos around campus yesterday- George P. and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy and the George P. Mitchell '40 Physics Building (connected together) link The HUGE Interdisiplinary Life Sciences Building New building west of the Vet School, not quite sure what the name is: Texas Transportation Institute state headquaters in Research Park link
  9. It looks like the information, which as I said I was repeating from another post, was partially incorrect. Thanks for providing the proper history of Tinsley's.
  10. HSC, City of Bryan raise flags on new Bryan campus as construction steams ahead BRYAN, TX � It was all smiles under hard hats Wednesday, November 5, 2008 as the Texas A&M Health Science Center and City of Bryan hosted a joint flag raising at the new Bryan campus. Surrounded by heavy machinery and dozens of construction workers, Nancy W. Dickey, M.D., President of the Texas A&M Health Science Center and Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs for the Texas A&M University System, joined D. Mark Conlee, Mayor of the City of Bryan, for the ceremonial event as the A&M System makes its first permanent physical presence in the city. They were flanked by top administrators from each organization and key project personnel. The A&M System Board of Regents approved the allocation of about 200 acres along State Highway 47adjacent to Traditions Club Golf Course to the health science center in December 2006, having earlier accepted the $6.6 million land gift from the City of Bryan. Fifty of these acres will be for health-related public-private partnerships and facilities. A construction contract has been awarded to Houston-based Satterfield and Pontikes Construction Inc. The new Bryan location will ultimately allow the health science center to consolidate its academic programs and administration currently located throughout Bryan and College Station onto a single campus. The first two buildings � the Health Professions Education Building and the Medical Research and Education Building � are scheduled to open in 2010 and 2011, respectively. City of Bryan and health science center officials said the new campus would provide an estimated economic benefit to the city of $1 billion for 2010 alone.
  11. Frank's Place has been Fox & Hound for many years now, Yesterday's pool hall is still between Luby's and the old Fajita Rita's(been through a few name changes, still a Tex-Mex place).
  12. I was guessing that the C.E. people were just using the Tinsley's name in Huntsville. I just was over there Saturday though and it is definately a Tinsley's "Chicken & Rolls", and Chicken 'n Rolls can't be missed on the sign. It is on Hwy. 30 just past the Post Office as you are entering Huntsville from BCS, a block before I-45, so if you ever get the craving you should be able to get there in about 40-45 minutes.
  13. It may have been on this thread, but I'm pretty sure it is somewhere on HAIF, that former Tinsey's owners(who sold the chain in the early 90's?) are the current Chicken Express owners. They just had to wait for a non-compete clause to run out before opening Chicken Express. They probably are just going back to using the Tinsley's name in Huntsville.
  14. I only go to the mall about once every year or two, but last time I was there and went to the food court, the restroom entrance at Post Oak Mall was the same.
  15. The steakhouse you are thinking of must have been Ft. Shiloh, which was actually on the site, and I think even used the building of the old Shiloh community center, a long lost community. Ft. Shiloh was owned by Ken Martin, I just read on TexAgs that the sign came down a few days ago. My favorite old places were 3-C's BBQ in Culpepper Plaza, their Texas Toast was awesome. Swenson's in CP was also great in the 80's. I don't really remember those places listed for Post Oak Mall aside from Corn Dog 7, Chick-Fil-A, Swenson's and later Subway and McD's.
  16. Regents pave the way for $100 million engineering building By HOLLY HUFFMAN Eagle Staff Writer The Texas A&M System Board of Regents moved forward Thursday with plans for construction of a $100 million engineering building that will house programs focusing on technology commercialization and interdisciplinary research. About two-thirds of the Emerging Technologies & Economic Development Interdisciplinary Building will be devoted to biomedical and industrial engineering, both programs with high commercialization possibilities, said Kem Bennett, vice chancellor and dean of the Dwight Look College of Engineering. The remainder of the 230,000-square-foot facility, to be located on Bizzell Street across from the Zachry Engineering Center on what's now a parking lot, will be earmarked for interdisciplinary research, he said. The new engineering facility will consist of classrooms, research labs, faculty offices and meeting rooms. "I think probably one of the most exciting things that's happening is the cross-disciplinary work," Bennett said, explaining how the effort was breaking down long-standing barriers between various colleges and departments. "People are starting to work together in these teams." The plans were approved unanimously Thursday by the Board of Regents Committee on Buildings and Physical Plant. Regent Erle Nye chairs the five-person committee, which includes Regents Phil Adams, Lowry Mays and Ida Clement Steen and Chairman John White, who is not a voting member of the panel. Mays did not attend the meeting. The proposal now will be submitted to the entire board for a final vote. The full panel is expected to vote Friday. Plans for the new engineering facility first were outlined in the A&M System Capital Plan, which was approved last fall by the Board of Regents...
  17. Oakwood is still a school in the CSISD system, I think it is called Oakwood Middle School. The place with the little building was called "Safety City" or something like that. I went to BISD schools, but we took a field trip to SC to learn about fire safety, etc.
  18. You would not recognize where Tinley's or Pooh's Park was. In that space there is now Hobby Lobby, Ross, PetCo, Starbucks, etc. The CS Winn Dixie is now a Lacks furniture store, the only Piggly Wiggly I can think of that was around then was in Bryan and is now a Dollar General, about a block from where a Hooter's will be built. I can envision Pooh's Park in my mind, but don't know that I have ever seen a picture of it. A bowling alley, skating rink, mini-golf, go-karts(I think?), bumper cars and a HUGE water slide all in one place, not bad for a community of about 60,000 in BCS at the time.
  19. Medical campus designs begin By APRIL AVISON Eagle Staff Writer The master plan for the first phase of a new Health Science Center campus will be complete by summer and is expected to outline a vision for a biomedical research building, simulation center and education facility, center officials said Friday. A site for the new campus was selected by the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents on Dec. 1. The system accepted a $6.6 million gift of 200 acres from the city of Bryan at the corner of Raymond Stotzer Parkway and Texas 47. About 50 of those acres will be used for public/private partnership businesses. Bryan city officials have said the spinoff from the Health Science Center will bring new businesses, residents and jobs to the area. Although the Health Science Center won't be on the city's tax rolls, the surrounding development is taxable. Bryan owns 88 acres adjacent to the Health Science Center site, and city officials say they hope to attract some complementary businesses, such as doctors' offices and clinics. A retirement community also is planned in the area. The discussion about where the medical campus would be located lasted several months, causing talks about the center's future to take a temporary back seat. But Friday, the center's president, Nancy Dickey, said she's getting started on a master plan for the first phase of the project. It could include three buildings amounting to a $128 million investment, she said. "Over the course of our conversation with the regents, which was going on for about a year, we were desperate for space," Dickey said. "We had all sorts of programs and projects that were taking wings, but there was no place to put them." While the master plan will be ready this summer, the buildings won't be on the ground until late 2010 or early 2011, Dickey predicted. The education building may include a pharmacy or nursing component, Dickey said. The simulation center, she said, will allow medical students to practice treatment on dummies. "When I was in medical school, the way you learned medicine was you watched somebody do it, then you did it with their hand on your hand, [and] then you did it by yourself," Dickey said. "All this was done on a real patient. Now you can simulate things like starting IVs, putting in a chest tube. The simulators allow you to learn the procedure." While the Health Science Center already has a simulation center, it's small, and the school wants to double its enrollment to 2,000 students over the next few years. Texas has a great need for physicians, and it's nationally recommended that the number of trained professionals rise by 30 percent because of the aging population and greater demand for health care, Dickey said. "Our priority is to go from 80 students per class to 200 students per class," she said. That will take care of about 40 percent of what Texas needs." The Health Science Center received $45 million in tuition revenue bonds that can go toward the first phase of the project, Dickey said, but officials are counting on the Texas Legislature - and old-fashioned philanthropy - to help cover the balance. "Now that there's a site, individuals may be interested in naming a road or a building," she said. Although the land surrounding the planned center is owned by Bryan, Dickey said, city officials won't be intensely involved in the Health Science Center's master planning process. "We'll have times that we'll sit down with the folks from Bryan," she said. "We've made it clear that while we're thrilled with the gift, we're going to be separate entities." The second phase of the Health Science Center, on which planning will begin after ground is broken on the first part of the project, could include a teaching hospital. The hospital could be built during the third and final phase of the project, Dickey said. Eventually, the center's facilities now in use at Texas A&M's Joe Reynolds College of Medicine and the School of Rural Public Health would be housed at the new Bryan site, Dickey said. The center's administrative offices, now operating out of the John Connally Building on Tarrow Street, may also be moved after the first phase is complete, she said. "Depending on how you build, you can put a lot on 200 acres," Dickey said.
  20. Bryan site chosen for Health Science Center facility By APRIL AVISON Eagle Staff Writer The Texas A&M University System accepted a $6.6 million land donation from Bryan on Friday and will build a new Health Science Center campus at the corner of Raymond Stotzer Parkway and Texas 47. Although city officials acknowledge it's a significant investment, they said Friday they consider the deal a victory. "It will promote growth in the city of Bryan, and it brings name recognition not only locally but nationally," Bryan Mayor Ernie Wentrcek said at the A&M system's Board of Regents meeting in Prairie View on Friday. "The return will be in the long term. It will play out over decades." The land is on the College Station border with Bryan, near Easterwood Airport, but entry to the Health Science Center will be from Bryan, the mayor said, adding that when the new campus is built, its name will include the word "Bryan," in accordance with an agreement between the city and the A&M system. Bryan officials exchanged handshakes and congratulations after the regents made their decision and shrugged off questions about the potential financial impact that could come from "fronting" $6.6 million to pay for the land they're giving away. The city won't issue debt or raise taxes to pay for the land, Wentrcek said. "This in no way will impact our ability to provide service," he said. The city didn't offer any cash bonuses and won't pay for infrastructure on the land. The gift from Bryan amounted to about 200 acres. The Health Science Center campus, which will include a research building, a college of medicine and an education facility, will be built on 150 acres. An adjacent 50 acres will be used to recruit public-private medical partnerships. The city owns an additional 88 acres next to the donated land, and officials hope to attract some complementary - and taxable - businesses, said Bryan Business Council director Dennis Goehring. The acreage occupied by the Health Science Center campus will be tax-exempt. Adjacent to the planned Health Science Center campus is 55 acres currently owned by local resident Tommy McDonald. Plans are in the works for a retirement community that will include homes and an assisted-living facility. A group of former Texas A&M yell leaders is under contract to purchase the land, and the retirement community would be marketed to university alumni, Goehring said. "We thought that would be a great fit," Goehring said. "With all the research going on at the Health Science Center, the retirement community would have an opportunity to interface with them." The retirement community alone would have a $100 million property value, Goehring said. The Health Science Center, its pharmaceutical companies and medical offices would be worth more than $300 million in the next 10 years, Goehring said. Although Bryan had to spend $6.6 million to pay for the land, only to give it away, the return on the investment will more than cover the cost, Goehring predicted. "I would spend $6.6 million to get $100 million any day," he said. The city began trying to recruit the campus several months ago, originally offering its golf course property on Villa Maria Road. Although that option was briefly considered by the Board of Regents, it was later taken off the table for undisclosed reasons. But the Bryan Business Council continued to pursue the campus, holding meetings with A&M officials and spending $70,000 in earnest money to secure the land on Texas 47 from several property owners. Nancy Dickey, president of the Health Science Center, recommended earlier this year that the new campus be built on a system-owned site at the corner of F.M. 2818 and George Bush Drive in College Station. Her recommendation came when Bryan was still offering the golf course land rather than the tract at Texas 47 and Raymond Stotzer. Dickey said Friday after the regents meeting that she's thrilled with the selected site. "It's in an area where there's lots of opportunity for development," she said. "It's close to campus, but it will be clear that we have two major universities. It's important that we have different identities." But there was another major selling point that set this property apart from the others, Dickey said. "Certainly, the fact that it was a gift didn't hurt." Site selection The process of selecting a site has been lengthy and has received a lot of local media attention, explained Erle Nye, chairman of the regents building committee. "I think it's been in the newspaper enough that everybody knows we have a great vision for our Health Science Center," Nye said, pointing out that the center plans to double its enrollment to more than 2,000 students over the next few years. The Bryan site was "clearly superior" to two others that were discussed during a closed session Thursday, Nye said. In previous meetings, regents considered the site at George Bush and F.M. 2818, and 53 acres known as the "Westinghouse property" off Earl Rudder Freeway in College Station. The Westinghouse site is too small for expansion, Dickey said in a report to the regents. The Bryan site, however, is "appropriate and advantageous," Nye said. "We have benefited by our friends from the city of Bryan," he said during Friday's meeting, as he acknowledged the mayor and council members who attended. "These gentlemen have worked very hard to bring us a site that will provide 200 acres at what we believe is an excellent location." Regent Phil Adams said after the meeting that the location is conveniently close to the Texas A&M campus and complements the existing development in the area. Traditions golf and residential community is to the east of the property. It's also close to Easterwood Airport and Texas 47, which provides good access for travelers, Dickey said. "As frustrating as this process can be, it has taken some time to get the best site," she said. "It would be hard to top the list of advantages it comes with." The future System construction projects generally take about four years from the time the agreement is finalized to the day of the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Dickey said. Now that the site has been approved, A&M and Bryan officials will get to work on a master plan. "We intend to start Monday morning," Dickey said. Some ideas are already in the works - although they won't necessarily be used when officials sit down to craft a master plan. Seven teams of A&M architectural design and construction science students recently completed a research and design project and will present models of their proposed Health Science Center campuses Monday afternoon. The presentations are scheduled from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. in the lobby of the Joe H. Reynolds Medical Building. The models will be presented to Health Science Center faculty and staff. The projects were compiled without a specific site in mind. When actual construction begins on the Bryan site, it will likely be done in phases, with expansion projects and facilities added over time, Dickey said Friday. Because the Health Science Center aims to double its enrollment, plans call for the system to spend about $130 million on construction over the next five years, Dickey has said. "Even our short term will be 10 to 15 years," she said Friday. "Long term, we're looking at a 50-year plan." The mayor said he believes, over time, the area will "explode" with medical offices and research facilities. While 1,300 people are employed by the Health Science Center now, that number will skyrocket in the next decade, and more homes and property taxes will follow, he predicted. "What this project will bring to the west side is the start of what is possible in Bryan," Wentrcek said. "About 135 years ago, the Legislature decided to put the A&M campus south of Bryan. Now we've finally got a campus in Bryan."
  21. from the City of Bryan: Today, the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents announced that its future Health Science Center campus would be located in Bryan. Bryan Mayor Ernie Wentrcek issued this statement following the regents' decision:
  22. Bryan Guy was right on. I looked up the land using Bryan GIS system and it is to the bottom of the above Traditions plan. Even if the HSC does not locate on the land, it seems like a pretty good purchase, if only to expand the size of Traditions. Here's hoping Bryan can lure the HSC away from College Station. Bryan-College Station Eagle article: Bryan signs contract for 285-acre site By APRIL AVISON Eagle Staff Writer Bryan made a payment Wednesday on a $6.6 million tract of land at the corner of University Drive and Texas 47 - a site the city wants to give to the Texas A&M System for construction of a Health Science Center campus. The documents were stamped just after 4 p.m. Wednesday. The earnest money paid to several landowners totaled about $70,000. It can be returned if the Bryan City Council decides within 150 days that it doesn't want to close on the land. Mayor Pro Tem Mark Conlee, designated by the council to be the spokesman on the issue, said Wednesday the money for the land purchase will come out of Bryan's general fund balance. "We're not raising any taxes, and we're not going to issue any debt," he said. The move is an aggressive approach toward recruiting the Health Science Center campus. The Bryan Business Council, the city's economic development arm, has been vying for the campus over the past few months since it was announced the center would expand and open a new location. Council members have said they may be willing to give the 285 acres to the Texas A&M University System in order to get the facility in Bryan's city limits. Texas A&M facilities are tax-exempt, which means it wouldn't offer any property taxes to Bryan. The payoff, officials say, would be in the form of commercial and residential development that likely would occur in the surrounding area. The Texas A&M System Board of Regents will decide where the Health Science Center will be built. The regents have considered several sites, including land that already is owned by the system off George Bush Drive. That site, which covers about 150 acres near the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum, was recommended by Health Science Center president Nancy Dickey. The next regents' meeting is Nov. 30. Mayor Pro Tem Conlee said Wednesday the Health Science Center is one of three prospects for the site. "If the regents say they want that piece of property, we'd love to sit down and talk about what we can work out," Conlee said. "That land is not 100 percent being purchased for the Health Science Center. We have three plans, three different options. The land is for economic development on the west side of town." The land was purchased from Thomas Whitt Lightsey, Bruce Treybig, Sally Ann Vavra, Vicki Jan Proctor and the Gainer B. Jones Jr. estate, according to the contracts. It borders College Station, which means if the Texas A&M System chooses that site to build the medical campus, College Station also stands to gain from it. But it's Bryan that will be spending money to purchase the land. "College Station gets a spin-off of everything we do," Conlee said. "You can't keep all the benefits from crossing lines. We get benefits from them, too." The College Station City Council recently sent a letter to the Board of Regents expressing its interest in recruiting the Health Science Center to a site within the College Station city limits but said it would not get into a bidding war with Bryan over the facility. The land Bryan is purchasing is close to the Texas A&M campus, Easterwood Airport and Texas 47, making it accessible and ripe for development, Conlee said. "It's going to be huge," he said. "I can't give you a number or percentage. The possibilities are more than my brain can handle." Former Councilman Russell Bradley also weighed in on the issue when contacted by The Eagle on Wednesday. "There's very little risk if you put that Health Science Center there," Bradley said. "There is a lot of spin-off opportunity. The Health Science Center is a tax-exempt entity. It's what it spins off and brings in as far as commercial and residential development that will increase your tax base. That's why you'd do it." Bradley said Bryan needs an innovative development to spawn activity on the west side. Some people who work at the medical campus, if that's what's built there, would probably buy homes in the nearby Traditions golf and residential community, Bradley said. "The spin-offs are going to be in Bryan," he said. "When you put something on that much raw land like that, you're going to see housing that's not there right now. All that will go into your tax base." The former councilman said he doesn't think it's a bad idea for the city to buy land and give it away. "It will more than pay us back for the investment," he said. "We have to look 10 or 20 years down the road. The payoff is huge." The increase in tax revenue could boost Bryan's revenue stream, he said. "Cities are not static things," he said. "They're dynamic. Either we're getting better or we're getting worse, but we're not standing still. If you're growing and bringing people to your town, they go and tell other people. The way to provide more services is to raise taxes or increase your tax base. A project like this really increases the tax base. Bingo."
  23. It is not free, but it is a municipal course so it is much cheaper than courses than require memberships or only allow non members to golf at a premium rate. I believe that the Muni course is off the table, and I wish it wasn't. I think that location would have been great for all involved. The new site is probably along Hwy. 47.
  24. Your thread title is a bit adversarial. The Texas A&M Health Science Center, which is no longer under the umbrella of Texas A&M University(C.S.), wishes to move off the A&M main campus and create a distinct campus of its own. What better way to do this than to move to a great Bryan location? Choosing a piece of land adjacent to the campus of Texas A&M will not help them to create the separate identity they are looking for.
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