Upon walking into the renovated Clayton University Center (UC), a $70 million project, you’re immediately struck by incongruities.
Those who experienced the UC prior to its updates may recognize that new glass doors have replaced the towering, wooden, historic ones, and sterile, white walls now stand in contrast to the intricate stained glass windows.
The inside of the UC is a microcosm of Lehigh as a whole. Across campus, sleek and modern buildings — such as the Business Innovation Building (BIB); the Health, Science and Technology building (HST); and the Singleton, Hitch, and Maida houses — stand in stark contrast to the gothic architecture of Linderman Library, Drown Hall and Chandler-Ullman Hall.
Some members of our community were drawn to Lehigh for its charm, whether it be the sense of history in Linderman’s rotunda or the stories of past students etched in Packard Hall that leave us wondering what they went on to achieve.
Yet, staring at the artificial window mural in the new UC, it’s difficult not to wonder if Lehigh is gradually losing that very charm.
According to the Princeton Review, Lehigh ranks 15th for the most beautiful college campus in the U.S. However, with the steady erosion of Lehigh’s reputable gothic architecture, will the beauty remain?
As historic elements have been wiped away, while other buildings on campus have awaited decades-late updates, we can’t help but be curious about whose interests were served by the refurbishing of the building.
The UC is an integral part of Lehigh’s campus, and it’s evident some community needs were taken into consideration throughout the changes made. For example, the new Club Hub was created to provide a space for clubs to collaborate on projects, hold meetings and work together as needed, which is a new and valuable resource.
But one major consequence of the renovations is the loss of the Lower Court Dining Hall that used to live in the UC.
One of the only other swipe-access dining halls on campus, Brodhead Dining Hall, is only accessible to residents of the building. With no replacement dining hall planned for Lower Court, students are left with just one non-retail dining hall open to all — Rathbone, which is almost always chronically overcrowded.
This leaves students with limited options, especially those with cheaper meal plans or those who, despite paying for the most expensive plan at $3,900, only receive 10 meal credits per week at retail dining spaces.
Further, during the renovations, offices including the Center for Gender Equity and the Student Organization Resource Center, among others, were temporarily relocated to Christmas-Saucon but have now returned to the UC.
In addition to the uprooting and discomfort relocation can cause for an on-campus office, the Center of Gender Equity’s new space doesn’t have a TV like its old one, which means the staff must reserve a room elsewhere for meetings.
The functionality of the new UC becomes more questionable when we look at implementations like its new Clutch and Go store, located on the first floor.
The store was modeled after Amazon’s checkout-less stores and may already be obsolete.
Amazon began phasing out its checkout-less stores in April 2024 after discovering it relied on thousands of workers in India to monitor cameras and ensure accurate checkouts.
All this said, we recognize building something as ornate as the UC, constructed in 1868, is nearly impossible today. The rising cost of labor and declining popularity of the techniques needed to create these Victorian masterpieces make construction a daunting task.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the cost of such elaborate facades dropped as technology improved, allowing for mass production. However, post-World War II disillusionment has generally led to a trend of more “practical” buildings, a trend which has persisted since.
The new UC will long serve as a reminder of how quickly not just Lehigh, but the modern world, has given up on beauty in favor of cost cutting, especially as the “innovations” inevitably become dated.
Yet, as the country enters its second Gilded Age — or third depending on who you ask — is it too much to ask to still be able to look at beautiful things in the midst of such transformation?
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