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http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070911/NEWS03/709110364/1004/NEWS03
Rutland Herald
UVM's new student center is just too big, critics contend
September 11, 2007
By JENNA RUSSELL The Boston Globe
BURLINGTON — This city, the largest in Vermont, has always taken unusual pride in its smallness.
Home to not quite 40,000 people and a perennial favorite in ''best small city" rankings of national magazines, Burlington is dwarfed by the natural grandness that surrounds it: the wide, blue view of Lake Champlain; the hazy embrace of the Green Mountains. People here are deeply attached to that contrast and have long preferred to keep their man-made landmarks to a manageable scale.
So when the University of Vermont opened its huge new student center last month, a sprawling, four-story monolith of brick and steel built alongside Main Street on the hill that functions as the gateway to the city, it was met with considerable unease.
University officials have hailed the 4-acre, $61 million complex as a symbol of growth and revitalization at the smallest public flagship campus in the country. But residents have called the structure an eyesore, a blight, a blunder, and "an architect's ego gone wild" in letters to the Burlington Free Press. Students are also debating the merits of the building, and some say they are uncomfortable with its size, 186,000 square feet, which includes ample space for student clubs and activities; a food court with sushi, burritos, and Ben & Jerry's ice cream; a bank; a copy shop; a bookstore; a ballroom; and a game room with pool tables, lounge chairs and a fireplace.
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