Housing construction a safety concern, expected to continue

In the past three years, several student housing facilities have opened around campus, which students say has caused safety issues. Logan city officials said they expect this pattern of near-constant construction around the Utah State University campus to continue.

Logan city senior planner Russ Holley said the concentration of apartment complexes near the university is a deliberate zoning effort.

“We look at where are people going to live, how will they get to work, how are they going to get to the store — planning is really to manage growth,” Holley said.

According to the city’s website, Logan’s population is expected to double every 33 years. Holley said that city zoning is fluid and changes according to elected officials and citizens’ needs.

With USU’s enrollment at all-time high, Holley said housing complexes are a good investment. In January, The Factory — the long-awaited luxury apartments — are expected to partially open. Its neighbors at Bridgerland Apartments are looking forward to construction concluding, although it won’t be completely finished until the end of spring semester.

“It sucks,” said resident Jake Bellucci, who has lived at Bridgerland since May. He is frustrated with the loud construction equipment. “Every morning you wake up to this noise. This is a quiet day.”

Mareille Jewett also lives at Bridgerland, and — like Bellucci — she is a junior at Utah State University. Driving on 900 East, the street between The Factory and Bridgerland Apartments, has been “the worst,” she said.

“It’s really annoying… Not a lot of it’s in their control,” Jewett said. “It’s kind of just little annoyances like it being loud. Blocking off the road wasn’t very fun for us.”

The four-way stop turning off 900 E and onto 600 N has been a cause for serious concern because of the construction, Bellucci said.

“I think it’s wasn’t done in a timely way. That should’ve been something done over the summer. If they had to block off the road, that shouldn’t be done when there are 16,000 undergraduate students trying to get up to campus,” Bellucci said. “I’ve almost gotten in so many accidents.”

Holley said that — while an inconvenience — construction around the university will not stop because of its growth.

“My impression is that it will continue, but it will ebb and flow a little bit. Some years you may not see as much as others,” Holley said. “I don’t have a crystal ball, but I think it’s a pretty safe bet that construction will continue to grow in that area.”

Artists' Gallery to participate in holiday gallery walk

"Don’t ever be an artist,” Scott Bushman said as he straightened his painting on the wall of the Artists’ Gallery. "But you know, I've always loved art."

Bushman has spent the past few weeks volunteering at the gallery, a co-op with community artists and the Cache Valley Center for the Arts. On Friday, the displays will be featured in the Christmas Gallery Walk. Bushman said it has taken a lot of work to prepare for the event.

“What we’ve done is got together 25 artists, some of which are students,” he said. “Usually they come through a recommendation from the art department, so they’re good students.”

In addition to compiling the work of photographers, painters and jewelers from the community, Bushman has been making his own landscape paintings show-ready.

“That one I’m gonna take it back and repaint it,” Bushman said, pointing to a painting of the Bear River. “I’ve got a drip right here. I’ll just sandpaper that down.”

There are 20 businesses and galleries participating in the Christmas Gallery Walk. Carole Warburton, who is featured at the Artists’ Gallery, said the co-op provides many opportunities they wouldn’t otherwise have, including the six gallery walks a year.

“The reason we’re a co-op is because nobody’s paid — we’re all volunteers,” Warburton said. “So we pay a small rental fee to the Bullen Arts Center. They sort of sponsor us, so they give us a really good rate.”

The gallery walk will go from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Utah Theatre expected to open late

Due to complications with funding and renovations, the Utah Theatre may not be reopening until late spring, almost a year after the owners announced it would be operating.

Renovations began on the 91-year-old theater in 2008, but when the economy took a turn for the worse, so did the theater. Gary Griffith, managing director of the Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theatre Company and overseer of the renovations, said he has been remodeling the theater “longer that I care to think about.”

“Funding is always an issue. We’ve slowed down a couple times, but we’re getting close to finishing,” he said. “You never know. Things keep getting pushed back. It’ll probably be open in the spring.”

The biggest difficulty with the renovations has been remodeling the building -- namely adding more plumbing and better electricity. The walls of the theater are two feet thick, with reinforced concrete.

“If you want to build a door or add wires or plumbing, you have to cut through it,” Griffith said. “It gets messy.”

Terry Hunsaker studied music education at Utah State University in 1986 and — except for a religious hiatus — did not move away from Cache Valley until 2002. She dated her husband here, and they would often see films at the Utah Theatre.

“During that time, pretty much the only place I could afford to go to movies was at the Utah Theatre,” Hunsaker said. “I remember going to the movie ‘Newsies,’ and not very many people knew about the movie. It became my favorite, and it turned into a Broadway musical.”

Hunsaker said she has many fond memories of the theater, and she was disappointed to hear it had shut down.

“It was always run-down. I remember walking in all the time thinking it could be a beautiful place if someone fixed it,” she said. ”I was sad to see it had closed, because that was the main social thing I did. When my husband and I were dating, that’s what we did because that’s what we could afford.”

Hunsaker said she would absolutely visit the theater if it reopens, even though she now lives and teaches in Nevada. She is especially interested in seeing silent films and live productions, both of which Griffith said will be featured.

“It’ll be unlike anything this valley has ever seen before,” he said. “It’ll be a live theater but also a movie theater, performance hall and recital hall. People can hold events and have dinner here. After a performance they can go on the rooftop to have dessert. It’ll be a very multipurpose theater.”

The Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theatre Company will own and maintain the theater when it opens, Griffith said, but many other groups will use it for performances.

Hunsaker agrees that — when it does open — the theater will the jewel of the community.

“It’s just so sad to see it sitting closed for so long,” she said. “I can understand the difficulty and expense involved, but it’s just sad.”

Community event to help fund students' research

Scott Bartholomew had no idea the Logan Tabernacle had a secret room for hiding polygamists. That is, until he researched the tabernacle and produced a video for the Cache Valley Historical Society this summer.

Bartholomew is one of three students who was awarded a $1,000 scholarship by the historical society in May. He is student to earn his doctorate at Utah State University, which is where he originally heard about the scholarship.

“My adviser saw that I had a background in videography, and she pointed it out to me as something I should try,” he said.

All of the money for the scholarships is raised from the historic home tours in Cache Valley, which the historical society helps with. Bernice McCowin, who has chaired the tours for the past eight years, said the historical society does the scholarship because it helps students conduct their own research.

“It only goes to students who are researching local history. Their research needs to be local,” McCowin said. “We’ve had no trouble finding students.”

Most of the buildings featured in the historic homes tours are in the historic district in Logan. The six homes are almost all about 100 years old. Additionally, McCowin said there is usually a “bonus” building thrown in the mix.

“In the past few years we’ve shown homes in Cache Valley as far north as Lewiston and as far south as Paradise, and also west to Wellsville,” she said.

As part of a gallery walk being held by artists in the community, the historical society will show several historic homes on Dec. 11. They will donate $1,000 of their proceeds to the American West Heritage Center, but a portion of the funds they raise will go toward the scholarships for student researchers at USU.

USU named most impressive historic campus — but is it?

When a website named Utah State University the most impressive historic college campus in the United States, the story caught the attention of USU students and began circulating on social media. But by the site's own standards, Utah State may not actually be qualified for the honor.

College Values Online, the website, has compiled more than a dozen lists of colleges — lists like, "30 Best Value Agricultural Colleges 2015" and "Top 10 Cheapest Online Master's Degrees 2015." For "20 Most Impressive Historic College Campuses in the U.S.," the school's campus had to have at least three historic buildings, landmarks or historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places. This was in addition to other criteria, like climate, mountain views and architectural style.

While USU still has three buildings on the registry, one of them was demolished more than two years ago.

Lund Hall — or the women's residence hall — was built in 1936-37 as part of the New Deal program in Utah. According to the statement of historical significance for Lund Hall, the three-story dormitory was built "in such a manner that sunshine is available in every girl's room." In 1985, it was added to the National Historic Registry, but it was demolished to make room for Huntsman Hall in 2013.

Paul Lusignan is a reviewer for the National Parks Service for 12 states, including Utah. He said not realizing Lund Hall had been demolished might have been an easy mistake for College Values Online to make.

"Until someone is notified here that the property needs to be removed, it still turns up in our database," Lusignan said. "Three properties are still considered listed. No one started the full process to unlist the registered building."

Currently, Lund Hall, Old Main and the Family Life building are registered. Lusignan said there's no requirement for the university to remove properties from the registry, although it occasionally causes confusion.

Since federal funding did not go into renovating or updating the building, Lund Hall's historic status could not prevent the university from demolishing it.

"The school is free to demolish it according to federal law, at least," Lusignan said. "In almost no circumstance does it absolutely prevent demolition. In the end, if the agency decides to, then they can do that."

Lund Hall, originally a women's resident hall, was
demolished in 2013.

The Family Life building was added to the National Historic
Registry on April 1, 1985.

Old Main was added to the National Historic
Registry on Feb. 23, 1972.

Norman Jones, a professor who has worked with the university since 1979, thinks Utah State has an impressive history despite the error by College Values Online.

"I think that we've got many eras of architecture," Jones said. "With the registry, you kind of do that yourself. So I suspect with the amount of buildings we have, it could be on the list if they just looked around. Ray B. West should be there too — it's the same era as Family Life."

In order to be considered for the National Register of Historic Places, a building needs to be at least 50 years old, retain its architectural integrity, and be significant nationally, statewide or locally. Most of the buildings around the quad, including the David B. Haight Alumni House and the public relations office, were built at the same time as Old Main and still retain the style of that era.

"If you think about how campus grew, the historic core is there, and they haven't messed it up. It still feels like it has a center, with the quad and student center," Jones said. "It has a historic center. If you look at the famous historic campuses, they all have that.

Utah State placed ahead of 19 other universities, including Yale and Princeton, on the list. Jones said there is pressure for old universities to lose their "center" as they grow. He referred to an incident in 1984 when Old Main caught fire and suffered water damage.

"They could've just knocked it down," he said. "But instead they put the money into rebuilding it and maintaining it historically. As the needs of campus change, you have to make some decisions. We've made some good decisions."

Local speaker to present on history of Cache Valley arts

Wendy Hassan, the director at Cache Valley Center for the Arts, will be speaking to the Cache Valley Historical Society about the history of the performing arts in Cache Valley, which — she explains — is extensive.

Hassan began researching the topic in 2008, when she worked for the Utah Arts Council.

“It was really inspiring to me to see that Cache Valley was such a rich landscape of the performing arts with historic offerings,” she said. “We’re sitting on generations of investment in performing arts — decades of it.”

Hassan has given speeches on the history of Cache Valley performing arts many times before. She was one of nine speakers scheduled to present to the Cache Valley Historical Society from September to June. Scott Bushman, the president of the society, said during the meetings in the summer, the group throws out a bunch of ideas for topics they’d like to hear more about, and Bushman invites experts on those topics to speak.

“All the topics are on local history,” he said. “We cover just about everything you could ever imagine.”

This year, topics include women and poetry, the history of Cache Valley skiing and inventions of 19th century Utah women.

Bushman said he has heard Hassan speak before and he is looking forward to her presentation.

“We have a surprisingly rich history in performing arts, back since it was first settled,” he said. “All the wealthiest people here were patrons of the arts.”

As part of Hassan’s role as director of the center for the arts, she invites performers to come to Cache Valley. This, Hassan said, is not very difficult. Performers are often eager to visit the valley and perform in unique venues.

When Hassan was grateful for the opportunity to come to Cache Valley. It has three musical performance groups, one performing arts center, a ballet studio, modern dance — in short, a uniquely well-rounded performing arts community, Hassan said.

“All the history — that’s really what inspires me,” she said.

Photo gallery in library shows history of Logan and USU

An art exhibit on former Utah State University professor Harry Reuben Reynolds is on display in the Merrill-Cazier Library.

Chris Terry began curating shows of work by former faculty members at USU five years ago. Terry, himself a professor at the university, regularly puts together exhibits for the Tippetts Gallery in the Chase Fine Arts Center, but this display is in the library during the center’s renovation. Most of the photos he uses come from special collections archives division of the library.

The exhibit includes several dozen paintings and photographs by Reynolds, many of which feature Old Main and scenes around Cache Valley. Terry said Reynolds was inspired by the local landscape and he believes displaying this art helps preserve history in several ways.

“The images show what Cache Valley and the campus looked like many years ago, but they also remind us of significant faculty members who built the programs that still exist today,” Terry said.

Reynolds first came to the university as an art instructor in 1923. He was an advocate for the arts in Utah and he taught several courses, but he was best known as a pioneer in photography.

“Harry Reynolds goes way back before my time at USU, but I’ve always been impressed with his photographs,” Terry said.

Reynolds was one of the first people to produce quality photomicrographs, or photographs of microscopic objects, and he was invited to display his work around the country.

Katie Weaver, a staff worker at the library, sits across from the exhibit most days.

“I think it’s cool to have people see what the school was like in the past, and so we can see how far we’ve come,” she said.

The exhibit will be on display until Jan. 22, when a closing reception will be held at 3:30 p.m. with a talk presented by professor emeritus Craig Law.