Layers of Desire: University (cake)

The Board of Directors want a different kind of bus loop than students -- again, both above and below ground. (In this case, Board of Directors should be taken as people that work towards development of the University and are interested in cash flow as well as experience)

Directors want:

• to provide gateways to the campus which identify a sense of arrival, establish pedestrian/bike priority to the campus and slow traffic.
• to retain a transit exchange in the vicinity of East Mall and University Boulevard
• to encourage mixed use: retail, office, housing and other institutional uses
• a busy urban plaza
• a maximum average FSR of 1.6 FSR
• a retail and commercial space along University Boulevard with uses directed towards the daytime and evening population of the University
• to allow for the possibility of expansion to allow for new rapid buses
• to accomodate dwelling units for faculty/staff/students on upper floors and commercial use on lower floors
• provide weather protection for pedestrians

What's already there: SUB plazas

The most famous event that happens in the SUB plazas is Storm the Wall. The Plaza is filled with mulch (which is later spread around the campus) and 12 foot walls are erected that students have to haul each other over, after swimming, biking and sprinting their way through a relay race.
The plaza works as a natural collector. It is used for protests, displays and different kinds of events. In September, fraternities and sororities use the space during rush week, the Genocide Awareness Project uses the plaza for display, and protestors demonstrate around the Goddess of Democracy.

Many of these things were possible because of the placement of the plaza. Any student moving from the south side of campus to the Student Union Building will likely cross the plaza, and proximity to the old bus loop ment that almost every student who came into UBC on public transit would move through this space during the day.