The Dam Centerpiece:
A Proposal For New A Student Center at CCNY

Fig. 1: Images from other student centers with the aesthetic our proposed center will have.

The Debugging Squad

Malachi Birkett, Houenangnon Avocegan, Ahmed Zaher, Yassin Mezmaz

Introduction

A well-designed student center is a vital hub for fostering community, collaboration, and engagement on campus. It serves as a central space where students can connect, access resources, and engage in activities that complement their academic experience. As universities evolve to meet the diverse needs of students, creating a dynamic and multifunctional student center has become essential for the quality of student life. This proposal outlines the vision for a new student center that will provide a welcoming and inclusive environment, support extracurricular activities, and promote interdisciplinary collaboration. With spaces for social interaction, study, relaxation, and hands-on project work, this center will enhance student life and academics at The City College of New York by reducing stress and creating chances to increase students’ communal security.

In creating a campus space where interaction and inclusion are encouraged, it is imperative to know what the students of the campus themselves have to say. Therefore, we conducted a survey among our peers around campus to find out what they would like to see in their new student center. The greatest insights of the survey were produced in the final question (Fig. 2). The majority of students were in favor of each suggestion, which would address common complaints, such as sleep deprivation, or come in the form of a communal space for familiar activities, such as gaming. In implementing them, we believe that our center will appeal to students and foster a sense of community far more than the current center of Wingate Hall will.

Fig. 2: Results from the student survey. Every feature suggested by the question received plenty of support, especially the gaming lounge.

The student center is an excellent way to increase engagement in school, GPA’s, and retention rates. It is ideally designed to make members of the college feel that they belong and are cared for. If the center fails to do so, it will promote “feelings of isolation and exclusion…[and] can harm a student’s physical and psychological health, self-efficacy, and overall academic success and retention”, according to Rullman and Harrington, academic writers for Wiley Periodicals (2014). Our proposal aims to eliminate major problems that students have when it comes to student centers, such as insufficient capacity to embrace every student, and not having the tools and resources needed to make students feel competent enough to belong on campus. Our proposed center will also provide entertainment and address student’s physical needs to keep them healthy of mind and body as will be explained in our Action Plan.

Action Plan

A student center is a space that benefits students going to college, and is an environment that creates a vibrant experience for new students. Our student center, named The Dam Centerpiece (or simply the Centerpiece), will be designed to ensure students are provided things that satisfy their college experience.

Fig. 3: The Centerpiece will be 64×64 feet, or 4,096 square feet in area. It will be built between Baskerville Hall and the Wingate Center, in the blue box drawn above.

The Centerpiece will be made fairly large in order to provide capacity for all students to have access to its features. These will include food, a gym, study areas, and components that will be new to City College.

The first floor of The Centerpiece will be a food court. This is where students can grab something to eat before class. Students can choose from Subway, Chipotle, Starbucks, Shake Shack, and many other spots. If students are looking for a healthier option, we also have multiple open salad bars.

Fig. 4: The floor plan of the first floor. This will contain a large dining hall for students to eat from the options requested in the survey. There will be an elevator in the bottom-left corner and staircases in every other corner to access the upper floors. The left and right walls have cooking areas and counters that can be rented by food vendors.

The second floor would be the game lounge. This area is to allow students to be in an environment that they can have fun. There will be multiple ping pong/pool tables, arcade games, and tvs connected to video game consoles for students to play on. Also there will be adjustable seats and gaming chairs so students can feel comfortable.

Fig. 5: Floor plan of the second floor. The center of each wall will have TV screens with connected consoles on them. The lower section will have ping pong (left) and billiards tables (right).

The third floor will be a gym. This area provides students a space to work out and promote physical fitness. There will be equipment for strength, cardio, and flexibility exercises. This includes treadmills, adjustable benches, dumbbells, weighted plates, barbells, and much more equipment. Also included are multiple filtered water fountains, cleaning supplies, tissue dispensers, and hand sanitizer.

Fig. 6: The third floor, being a gym, will have plenty of equipment for exercising. As in every other floor, the bottom right corner will have an elevator, and every other corner will have a staircase.

The fourth floor will be a sleeping/studying lounge. This area offers a quiet space for students to study for classes, and take a nap if they’re tired. This floor will have separate study zones, comfortable rest areas, access to computers, and charging stations.

Fig. 7: The fourth floor will have tables and seats for studying (right half), four separate rooms from group studying (bottom left), and a sleeping area with rows of beds (top left).

The rooftop would be a grass area with an open space. Students would have an amazing view of the campus, and it’s also a great spot to take pictures.

Fig. 8: An image of the CCNY quad the Centerpiece will be built over. Our team will build a replica of it on the roof of the new building.

Since the current student center at Wingate Hall is mostly composed of a cramped gym and a set of offices for the Undergraduate Student Government (USG), the space for developing creative projects will be provided by Wingate to replace the gym. This will come at no cost during construction because grant money can be given to students with worthy aspirations.

Construction Timeline

Assuming optimal working conditions throughout construction, our team has planned to begin site preparation on the quad in June, to make best use of the year’s warm months while working on the exterior of the Centerpiece.

Fig. 9: The Gantt Chart of the Centerpiece displays when each construction task is expected to start and end. The expected duration of the project from the approval of our proposal to its opening is 13 months.

Cost of Construction

Items		Cost (U.S.Dollars)
Building Cost	Permits	$ 200,000
	Foundation	$ 1,500,000
	1st-4th Floor Construction	$ 15,129,600
Building Furnishing	First Floor	$ 1,000,000
	Second Floor	$ 85,000
	Third Floor	$ 200,000
	Fourth Floor	$ 400,000
	Roof Top	$ 416,000
Total	$ 18,930,600

Fig. 10: The total cost to construct the Centerpiece and furnish it, according to standard costs in New York and the way each floor will be furnished as stated in the Action Plan.

Benefits

Despite the cost, our proposed student center will serve the recreational demands of many students at City College, in a large space that will encourage social interaction and help students reduce stress. The Centerpiece will offer many familiar and popular activities, like playing video games and exercising as well as opportunities for student growth in the development space dedicated to independent projects. It will also provide more useful space in Wingate for the USG to work and interact with visitors, thus increasing students’ political engagement on campus. Moreover, the center will provide students with a comfortable area to sleep, thus reducing cognitive imbalances from a lack of it and raising many GPA’s. To replace the area taken by the proposed building, a green space unique to this center will be constructed on the roof, where students will be able to eat, relax, and socialize. Finally, in offering corporation-provided food options on the first floor, the college will gain a new stream of income to recover from expenses paid for the proposed center.

About Us
Ahmed Zaher is a third-year Mechanical Engineering Student pursuing a career in robotics and embedded systems. He was born and raised in Alexandria, Egypt. He has 3D design and rendering skills using 3D modeling software such as “SolidWorks”. Passionate about his work and studies. He is detail oriented and driven. In his free time he likes working out and gaming. His dream is that one day he will have his own PCB and custom robotics company.

Houenangnon Avocegan is a senior mechanical engineering student at City College of New York. With a solid background in product design, he excels at using 3D CAD software to bring new ideas to reality. Aside from his academic interests, Houenangnon enjoys playing tennis, which allows him to relax and stay active. His combination of technical skills and sporting passion makes him a well-rounded man who is keen to take on new challenges in both his education and personal life.

Malachai Birkett is a sophomore at City College majoring in civil engineering, and pursuing a career in structural engineering. Grew up in New York, Queens, where he fell in love with working on home projects such as building closets, fixing doors, and designing a green roof model. Interested in doing hands-on projects and learning new skills. Strives in teamwork, problem solving, and communicating with others. He also shows great leadership, and devotes his time to getting work done.

Yassin Mezmaz is a second-year computer science major at the City College of New York, with particular interest in operating systems and graphics. He has experience programming in C++ and MIPS assembly. Deliberate and analytical, he makes sure to fully understand what he learns and complete his work thoroughly. His hobbies include origami and programming.

Conclusion

After having researched good qualities of the student center requested and conducting a survey with 100 participant students from the college, we have designed a solution that uniquely accounts for its location by replacing the area it will take over with a new lawn and seating on the building’s roof. Our proposed student center will suit popular demand for areas of recreation, leisure, and independent creative work in each of its four floors that are lacking or insufficient elsewhere in the college. Our center will promote student interaction, reduce stress and sleep deprivation, and provide free usable space in Wingate Hall in addition to including food vendors on the first floor that will earn City College further income each year.

References
Rullman, L. J., & Harrington, K. D. (2014). College unions, learning, and Community

Building. New Directions for Student Services, 2014(145), 39–47. https://doi.org/10.1002/ss.2007