CONSTRUCTION TO IMPROVE CAMPUS CONTINUES –
“Barton Hall, you’ve been good to Temple and CST. Now it’s time to say goodbye.”
Sounds morbid, doesn’t it? That’s what Temple’s College of Science and Technology posted on Facebook on Tuesday, September 22, 2015, with an accompanying photo of the nearly demolished Barton Hall.
If you’ve ever seen the movie Divergent, The Scorch Trials, or The Hunger Games, Barton Hall, in the hub of Temple University’s campus, now looks like an abandoned building from one of those films. For most of the 2015 fall semester, the building sat in the middle of campus half-demolished with cracked and broken windows and drywall leaking out of the sides. The other half of the building was split up into a few large piles of rubble.
Perhaps the most interesting part of this demolition was the equipment that brought the building down. There is one vehicle in particular that students were absolutely fascinated by.
“Jurassic World came to life and it’s tearing Barton down,” senior Jonathan Bui wrote online. He is, of course, referring to the Tyrannosaurus rex-looking vehicle that is literally biting down Barton Hall like a Philly cheesesteak. Seriously — it looked like a dinosaur.
On the other hand, some people were sad about the demolition rather than entertained. A lot of science and technology students had classes in Barton Hall and were sad to see it go. With the addition of the Science Education and Resource Center, commonly known as SERC, which opened October 2014, there is hardly a need for Barton Hall now.
So, what is going to replace Barton Hall? Something Temple students never thought would come to fruition: a new library.For years, there have been rumors circulating of a new, modern library to replace Paley Library. Temple confirmed these rumors with an announcement of Visualize Temple, a campaign for a new campus layout.
Temple University president Neil Theobald believes that a library should play a pivotal role in any student’s education.
Last year, Theobald said, “Temple’s academic heart will be where it belongs: at the core.”
As for Barton Hall, it may be almost gone, but it will not be forgotten.
Written by Lauren Waksman
Photographed by Sarah Whitehead
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