SCS Complex Information and Blog

The Move

Guy Blelloch — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 21:40:54 +0000

We moved into the Centers during the second and third weeks of August and started classes there on the fourth week. The move involved over 500 people and computers and was carefully choreographed by Jim Skees to fill parts of the building as they became finished enough to move into. Not everything was done when we moved in and there were some inconveniences due to the “early” move, but overall it was certainly worth being in the building before classes started. I’m delighted with the way it turned out, but I’m biased. We now look forward to the official opening on September 22nd.

Common and Uncommon Spaces

Guy Blelloch — Tue, 05 May 2009 17:46:12 +0000

The Gates and Hillman Centers will have 12 conference rooms, 11 classrooms, a 250 seat auditorium, and various other shared spaces. Here is a brief guide of what will be available to the SCS community.

Connections: The Bridges of Gates Hillman

Guy Blelloch — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 12:54:02 +0000

Pittsburgh is the city of Bridges with 446 of them, apparently more than Venice. This is historically due to the terrain and many rivers. The bridges have always been both practical but also symbolic of the city. Although we do not have a river through our campus, our terrain is no exception.

The Gates Hillman Centers have six bridges (not counted in the 446), all pedestrian. These Bridges serve both as practical access but also important symbolic connections among units. Here I briefly describe each one.

The Pausch Memorial Footbridge: This 230′ long bridge connects the Purnell Center for the Arts with the Gates Center crossing 35′ above the lawn below. The Purnell Center houses the Drama department so in addition to be an extremely useful connection from the cut to the Gates Hillman Centers, it represents the connection between two very strong and diverse Schools within the university, a connection strengthened by Randy Pausch and the formation of the
Entertainment Technology Center.

The NSH/GHC bridge: This 110′ long closed bridge crosses from the Helix in the Gates Center to the Atrium in Newell Simon Hall (NSH). It connects two parts of the School of Computer Science. During the planning process we asked in a survey what the most important feature of NSH was. The overwhelming response was the existing bridge from NSH to Wean, connecting our previous spaces.

The Gates Hillman Bridges: This closed connection attaches the Gates Center to the Hillman Center at all levels of the Hillman Center. It supplies views out over the winter garden and to the West Quad on one side and towards Purnell on the other. The bridges connect the undergraduate classrooms in the Gates Center with Research Labs in the Hillman Center

The Rain Garden Bridge: This short bridge in the landscaping goes over a rain garden, a green planted area for capturing water runoff from the site. It is located between the Gates and Hillman Centers and is part of a path that leads from the main entry of the Gates Center on the West Quad (level 3) to Forbes Avenue.

Gates Upper Atrium Bridge: These bridges crossing at two floors connect the two sides of the Gates Center upper atrium. From the Bridge one can look North over the winter garden, and over the top of the Hillman Center to Bloomfield. The bridge connects space belonging to the Machine Learning Department with the Computer Science Department.

The Helix: The Helix forms the heart of the building connecting levels 3, 4 and 5 and the five main entrances of the building. It also connects all the classrooms in the building, the Dean’s suite, the “Cafe cluster”, and the undergraduate conference room. It, along with the Pausch Bridge, is part of the main connection from the East Campus to the West Campus and the connection from Forbes Avenue to Newell Simon and Wean Halls.

Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics

Guy Blelloch — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 18:25:27 +0000

4% of graduate students want to be within an office or two of their advisor and 60% don’t want to be on the same floor
55% of people think the bridge to Wean is the most important feature of NSH
84% of people would like a cafe with light food in Gates Hillman
91% of people believe having individual temperature controls is important
84% believe that having a large window is important
Our favorite conference rooms: NSH 3305 and Wean 7220/8220.

These are just some of the results from a survey that we did 3 1/2 years ago. Many of the decisions about the building design were influenced by this survey.

When will we move?

Guy Blelloch — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 04:15:48 +0000

In case you have your opinions on when the buildings will be done you can bet on it, although not with real money. Abe Othman has set up a Prediction Market for betting on when it will be completed, where completion will be measured based on the date we receive a “temporary occupancy permit”. Note that the official date is sometime in July 2009.

Topping off Ceremony

Guy Blelloch — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 15:47:54 +0000

We celebrated the raising of the final beam after allowing campus to sign it—it was left out by Cyert hall for two days with a supply of markers. There seem to be several hundred signatures on the beam, although who counted?

President Jared Cohon, Dean Randy Bryant, and the architect Mack Scogin spoke at the ceremony.

More information can be found here.

The Randy Pausch Memorial Footbridge

Guy Blelloch — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 20:51:11 +0000

With the sad passing away of Randy Pausch we are honored to be working on the Randy Pausch Memorial Footbridge. The concrete structure of the bridge is almost complete (see pictures) and the design of the handrail and finishes are underway. The design will incorporate symbolic homages to Randy and his teaching.

The Bridge will link the Purnell Center with the Gates Center—it is hard to think of a link that better represents Randy’s contributions to our campus community. At a larger scale the Bridge will link our upper central campus at the cut with the lower West Campus and Craig Street.

The Tree House

Guy Blelloch — Tue, 27 May 2008 13:33:04 +0000

The steel structure started going up in the beginning of May and is scheduled to be done by the end of Summer. Students returning in the fall will be surprised to see an almost complete structure, although with no walls.

For logistical reasons the first steel to go up is suspended 45 feet up in the air in a tree-house like structure built on top of concrete columns. It is complete with a ladder to get up to the hamlet.

The Gates Hillman Test

Guy Blelloch — Thu, 22 May 2008 00:00:35 +0000

What is on level 2 of the Hillman Center? What part of the building has been referred to as the nose? There is a bridge in the landscaping not attached to a building, where is it?

These questions are all part of the Gates Hillman Test which was given out to faculty of the Computer Science Department during their retreat. Please feel free to take it. You might find the building plans (8Mg) useful. If you think you got all the answers, send them to Guy Blelloch.

Hillman Center Gift

Guy Blelloch — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 13:58:30 +0000

During Bill Gates’ visit in February, the Henry L. Hillman Foundation announced a gift of $10 Million for the second of the two structures comprising the SCS Complex. The building will be named the Hillman Center for Future Generation Technologies. We are grateful for the generous gift. More information can be found on the Carnegie Mellon’s News Page. In the picture (l to r): Henry L. Hillman, Bill Gates, Elsie Hillman and Jared Cohon.