Off topic - renaming MSU buildings

I recently heard they are renaming the Carpenter Engineering Building to a new big alumni doner. I have big issues with this. A new building would be fine but Carpenter is a Historic Landmark. An icon of MSU engineering and forever cast into the heart and soul of MSU especially an engineering students that have come thru. 100+ years of Carpenter history flushed. Just name a room or lab after the new doner, leave the buliding along. So how long before we rename McCain Engineering or Lee Hall? Just get a big enough check? Don't like it at all.

How does the board feel about renaming buildings.

If you have enough stroke for the university to feel like you need a building named for you then you should have enough stroke to build a new one. Now if it is a building that is not presently named after some individual then that would be fine. But I would not take a name off a building to put another name on it. Especially one that has been around as long as Carpenter.

I'm not a big fan of renaming historic buildings. I managed a National Landmark with 34 buildings for 15 years. Our foundation was always throwing out the idea of selling naming rights and I fought it. People just don't seem to care or else we wouldn't have "Davis Wade Stadium at Scott Field" and Georgia Tech doing away with Grant Field and now calling it Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field (YUCK!).

Imagine if we used our internet handles for naming buildings......
Coach 34 business school..... IYOK Library...... so many possibilities.
How much to rename the food court?

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Originally Posted by State82

If you have enough stroke for the university to feel like you need a building named for you then you should have enough stroke to build a new one. Now if it is a building that is not presently named after some individual then that would be fine. But I would not take a name off a building to put another name on it. Especially one that has been around as long as Carpenter.

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Well, if you are paying for a significant remodel, you are just about paying for a new building. A significant amount of money is in the finishing work, and that tends to not last decades. If there's 50 year old building on campus and somebody pays to remodel it, because of the increased cost of labor, the person paying for the remodel probably has as much or more money in it, on an inflation adjusted basis, as the original donor. I don't have a problem with naming the building for them at that point. The original donor got naming rights until the stuff they paid for largely deteriorated away.

I know for things like Lee Hall the original naming wasn't for a donation to begin with, but speaking generally for buildings named after donors.

I do not like renaming buildings. I spent a lot of time in Carpenter as an Engineering student back in the 1970s.

All I can do is SHM!!

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Originally Posted by R2Dawg

I recently heard they are renaming the Carpenter Engineering Building to a new big alumni doner. I have big issues with this. A new building would be fine but Carpenter is a Historic Landmark. An icon of MSU engineering and forever cast into the heart and soul of MSU especially an engineering students that have come thru. 100+ years of Carpenter history flushed. Just name a room or lab after the new doner, leave the buliding along. So how long before we rename McCain Engineering or Lee Hall? Just get a big enough check? Don't like it at all.

How does the board feel about renaming buildings.

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IDK, outside of a few nerds, most of us didn't know there a Carpenter Engineering building on campus.

I'm definitely all for taking Larry Templeton's name off of the athletic building with his name on it.

I don't agree with them renaming older buildings, especially that one! Carpenter Hall is named after my Great Grandfather.

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Originally Posted by Santiago

Imagine if we used our internet handles for naming buildings......
Coach 34 business school..... IYOK Library...... so many possibilities.
How much to rename the food court?

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Probably be more apt for me to have a barstool in the Cotton District with my name on it rather than a building on campus.

Eh I could go either way. Would I prefer to keep buildings names for sentimental value and traditions sake? Yes. But growth and renovations costs money, so if the best way to continue to improve campus is by letting a rich alum place their name on the building than so be it. It's not like they tore the building down, just slapping some different letters on the sign out front.

I took a lot of classes out of McCool Hall. If I went back to campus today and saw they had changed it to John Doe Hall I would probably say, "Huh, I remember when this used to be McCool Hall." and then I would continue to carry on with my everyday life.

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Originally Posted by Todd4State

I'm definitely all for taking Larry Templeton's name off of the athletic building with his name on it.

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LT was anti MSU Athletics.

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Originally Posted by R2Dawg

I recently heard they are renaming the Carpenter Engineering Building to a new big alumni doner. I have big issues with this. A new building would be fine but Carpenter is a Historic Landmark. An icon of MSU engineering and forever cast into the heart and soul of MSU especially an engineering students that have come thru. 100+ years of Carpenter history flushed. Just name a room or lab after the new doner, leave the buliding along. So how long before we rename McCain Engineering or Lee Hall? Just get a big enough check? Don't like it at all.

How does the board feel about renaming buildings.

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Absolutely agree.

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Originally Posted by viverlibre

IDK, outside of a few nerds, most of us didn't know there a Carpenter Engineering building on campus.

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So which program did you finish in? More MSU students and alumni know about Carpenter than probably any other building outside of Lee. One of the historic buildings on the drill field.

In case you didn't know, MSU largest (around 5,000 eng students) and one of most respected programs is engineering in academia and industry - it is a big deal. Carpenter is also one of most historic buildings on campus and a National Historic Landmark. Many of us spent a considerable part of our lives in that building.

Per others comments, they can't do any major structural work to building either due to the historic cataloging of the building.

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Originally Posted by DawgFromOxford

Eh I could go either way. Would I prefer to keep buildings names for sentimental value and traditions sake? Yes. But growth and renovations costs money, so if the best way to continue to improve campus is by letting a rich alum place their name on the building than so be it. It's not like they tore the building down, just slapping some different letters on the sign out front.

I took a lot of classes out of McCool Hall. If I went back to campus today and saw they had changed it to John Doe Hall I would probably say, "Huh, I remember when this used to be McCool Hall." and then I would continue to carry on with my everyday life.

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I don't like it for any existing building but Carpenter has a lot more history and pedigree than McCool; now it they had named the new business building Old Main well it would have to stay. There are just some buildings that should never be changed - Lee, Carpenter, McCain, Chapel of Memories and probably some others.

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Originally Posted by R2Dawg

So which program did you finish in? More MSU students and alumni know about Carpenter than probably any other building outside of Lee. One of the historic buildings on the drill field.

In case you didn't know, MSU largest (around 5,000 eng students) and one of most respected programs is engineering in academia and industry - it is a big deal. Carpenter is also one of most historic buildings on campus and a National Historic Landmark. Many of us spent a considerable part of our lives in that building.

Per others comments, they can't do any major structural work to building either due to the historic cataloging of the building.

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That last paragraph is just absolutely not true. I've been working in historic preservation for 30 years, and managed a National Historic Landmark with 34 structures for 15 years. I've adapted historic buildings into hotels, museums, a conference center, and a sea turtle rescue center, and preserved one of the oldest structures in Georgia. You can always modernize and adapt historic buildings - it just costs money and you have to do it following NPS standards.

I could see building used to house Major being named The CaptainObvious School of Sarcasm!

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Originally Posted by BrunswickDawg

That last paragraph is just absolutely not true. I've been working in historic preservation for 30 years, and managed a National Historic Landmark with 34 structures for 15 years. I've adapted historic buildings into hotels, museums, a conference center, and a sea turtle rescue center, and preserved one of the oldest structures in Georgia. You can always modernize and adapt historic buildings - it just costs money and you have to do it following NPS standards.

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May be but an engineering professor that was in that building told me that few years ago when I discussed why they didn't do some things to part of it. Just repeating what eng professor told me about the building. They renovated the basement lab and very nice and modern. Not sure if these changes have to go before a historic board review and maybe something got turned down? But that is what I was told.

McCain to Raytheon Engineering
Carpenter to Eastman Engineering
Simrall to Nvidia Engineering
Walker to SpaceX Engineering
Perry to Chic Fil A Cafeteria
McCool to Boston Consulting Building
The Verizon Student Union
Bost to BASF Extension Center

Use the naming payments to NIL a Sunday Starter and a Closer each year.

I don't think they are renaming the building. They are naming the School of Mechanical Engineering.

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Originally Posted by DawgFromOxford

Eh I could go either way. Would I prefer to keep buildings names for sentimental value and traditions sake? Yes. But growth and renovations costs money, so if the best way to continue to improve campus is by letting a rich alum place their name on the building than so be it. It's not like they tore the building down, just slapping some different letters on the sign out front.

I took a lot of classes out of McCool Hall. If I went back to campus today and saw they had changed it to John Doe Hall I would probably say, "Huh, I remember when this used to be McCool Hall." and then I would continue to carry on with my everyday life.

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This is well said, and I agree 100%. Also, anyone opposed to the name change can certainly write a check to the school for equal or greater value than the currently contemplated gift, with the gift conditioned on there being no name change.