By Team Revamp Mac

The tremendous history of McArthur Court dates back almost eighty years to a group of ambitious University of Oregon students. They agreed with the university to instill a fifteen-dollar-per-student annual tuition increase to fund the mortgage of a new basketball arena on campus. Named after Clifton McArthur, the university’s first student-body president, the building quickly became an icon of Eugene.  In 1932, the students held a community ceremony to set fire to the mortgage papers and never looked back…until now. The brand new Matthew Knight Arena is opening in December of this year, and Mac Court is more silent than the graveyard across the street. A board of directors is currently coming up with solutions for the vacant basketball arena—all options of redevelopment will directly impact the students. The force behind the basketball arena’s construction and the creators of its legacy were UO students; they deserve some input in deciding McArthur Court’s future.

The arena holds a dear spot in the hearts of University of Oregon fans, students, alumni and community members. It is unlike any other gym and has been dubbed “The Pit” since the 1960s. On game days, the air inside The Pit was dank and the crowd pulsed with energy.  During times of intense action the floorboards practically buckled, the rims rattled and the mammoth scoreboard above center court shook as if the building was experiencing an earthquake.  The gym has always been a source of pride for University of Oregon students and a nightmare for opponents.  Its gladiator seating arrangement, vertical rows stacked high up on all sides of the court, is a lethal formula for volume. This combination allows for such acoustics that McArthur Court doesn’t even need a sound system. Matthew Knight Arena will be louder with its state-of-the-art acoustics and trigonometric wall and ceiling designs, but the air will not be dank. It will take decades to build character like The Pit.

Southern California native Brandon Holakiewicz has made wonderful memories at Ducks basketball games during his three years at the university. He got to see his favorite player OJ Mayo when the USC Trojans came to Eugene and remembers the relentless ferocity of the student section.  “It’s frustrating knowing that the students made Mac Court, and ultimately the UO, well-known across America as an intimidating place, and now we don’t get a say in what will happen to it,” he said.

The board of directors, which includes UO president Richard Lariviere, is reviewing three umbrella solutions: preservation, adaptive reuse and demolition.  Preservation options, the least expensive, revolve around keeping the gym the way it is, like using it as a community recreation center.  Adaptive reuse choices involve revamping the structure of the building to suit something more education-friendly, like extensions of the architecture and journalism schools.  Demolition is simple: bring in a wrecking ball and knock it down. This option would ultimately be the most expensive, so the university is using it as a last resort.

A renovation option that fits into the adaptive reuse category is turning the court into a concert hall.  Howard Griffiths, fifty-seven, has been living in Eugene for twenty years and saw Bob Dylan perform at McArthur twice.  “It’s a great place to hold a show,” said Griffiths. “I got to be right down on the floor and everything sounded great.”  He compared the court’s rustic appeal to the historic Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco, a town internationally recognized for its music scene.  In a recent online poll, forty-nine percent of students thought the court should be turned into a music venue. When the Grateful Dead, Simon and Garfunkel and Bob Hope performed there in the ‘60s and ‘70s, thousands of Eugene citizens filled the seats and floor, the same people who came to root for the Ducks.  Today, bands like Modest Mouse and artists like Kid Cudi would receive the same support.  A dynamic venue with a rich atmosphere can largely increase the ‘wow’ factor of a concert.  McArthur Court has spent almost a century creating that exact characteristic. Unfortunately, the University of Oregon is not considering this option. The intake revenue would barely supersede the need for the space to be used for something else like the new home of the Allied Arts and Architecture school or dormitories.

Other options the university has considered include making a new home for Allen Hall and the School of Journalism. The school is growing rapidly in size and is quickly outgrowing its largest classroom capacity of two hundred students. The Allied Arts and Architecture school is running into a similar problem. In recent years the university has lost potential students because of the unpleasant dormitory living conditions. The university does not have a lot of spare space around campus and could use the building to add to the popular image of the university with new LLC-type dorms. Keith Becker, the manager of the UO Sports Dude blog, would like to see this option become a reality.

University of Oregon students funded the court’s construction.  They created its legacy and fierce reputation. Twenty thousand students currently pay ever-increasing tuition and will be the ones most directly affected by any changes made to the arena. They should be the ones who make the final decision on McArthur Court’s future. It is obvious from our poll results and student interviews that the student body at the University of Oregon cares; they just haven’t been given a chance to be heard. University administration members should open their eyes and ears and realize the students have something to say: REVAMP MAC.

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1.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifton_N._McArthur

2.) http://www.uoregon.edu/~uplan/mac_court/FINALMacCourtReport03_01_09sm.pdf

3.) http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/columns/story?columnist=forde_pat&id=4958649

4.) http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindducksbeat/2010/03/mcarthur_court_memories_best_e.html

5.) http://www.bobdylan.com/#/tour/2002-10-05-macarthur-court

6.) http://maps.google.com/maps/place?hl=en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=san+francisco+music+scene&fb=1&gl=us&hq=music+scene&hnear=san+francisco&cid=310068788521547636

7.) http://revampmac.wordpress.com/2010/04/15/60/

8.) http://www.archive.org/details/gd78-01-22.sbd.popi.4974.sbeok.shnf

By Henry Austin

By Patrick Meyers

By Henry Austin

Almost eighty years ago an ambitious group of University of Oregon students came up with the idea to impose a fee on that year’s tuition to fund the creation of McArthur Court. Named after Clifton McArthur, the university’s first student-body president, the building quickly became an icon of Eugene.   In 1932 the students held a community ceremony to set fire to the mortgage papers and never looked back.  The force behind the basketball arena’s creation was UO students; shouldn’t they be the ones who decide its future?

Southern California native Brandon Holakiewicz has wonderful memories at Ducks basketball games during his three years at the university. He got to see his favorite player OJ Mayo when the USC Trojans came to Eugene and remembers how the student section made the floor rumble and the backboards shake.  “It’s frustrating knowing that the students made Mac Court, and ultimately the UO, well-known across America as an intimidating place, and now we don’t get a say in what will happen to it,” he said.  A board of directors is currently coming up with solutions for the now vacant basketball arena.  All options of redevelopment would directly impact the students, like the proposed extensions of the architecture and journalism schools.

Another renovation option is turning the court into a concert hall.  Howard Griffiths, fifty-seven, has been living in Eugene for twenty years and saw Bob Dylan perform at McArthur twice.  “It’s a great place to hold a show,” said Griffiths. “I got to be right down on the floor and everything sounded great.”  He compared the court’s rustic appeal to the historic Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco, a town internationally recognized for its music scene.  In a recent online poll, forty-nine percent of voters think the court should be turned into a music venue.

Twenty thousand students pay ever-increasing tuition at the University of Oregon. They will be the ones most directly affected by any changes made to the court, so they should be the ones who make the final decision on its future. Like any democracy, there needs to be a campus-wide vote.

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1.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifton_N._McArthur

2.) http://www.uoregon.edu/~uplan/mac_court/FINALMacCourtReport03_01_09sm.pdf

3.) http://www.bobdylan.com/#/tour/2002-10-05-macarthur-court

4.) http://maps.google.com/maps/place?hl=en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=san+francisco+music+scene&fb=1&gl=us&hq=music+scene&hnear=san+francisco&cid=310068788521547636

5.) http://revampmac.wordpress.com/2010/04/15/60/

6.) http://www.uoregon.edu/

Prominent Iphone users would probably not download this application if it were just to take a poll. With this in mind, our group decided to add another aspect to the application–a game. Within the game, you would be able to create mass destruction and chaos by destroying the court in various ways. This adds another level to the application and keeps people interested after they have cast their vote on the poll. Forms of destruction include floods, fires and heat-seeking missiles. The user would have interactive control (touch screen) over the flood levels, missile direction and the heat of the fire. There are also options like King Kong and an alien invasion. To keep users interested, we would periodically add upgrades for other destruction options.

There are several other options besides the poll and game. Users can use the interactive history guide to learn about the court and watch memorable moments on the video feed. These aspects will have upgrades available in reference to Matthew Knight Court. Users will be able to see posted schedules for the court, purchase tickets for games and watch video highlights.

We would accepting advertisements from local businesses to keep the download free to the public. It is unreasonable to think that many people would pay for this limited application. We also understand that once a decision is made about the court, users may want to delete this application. We plan to also add upgrades for the court for whatever option is chosen. If the court becomes a music venue we plan to add a schedule for concerts and a ticket buying option. If dorm expansion is chosen, we will add interactive guides to its look, completion dates and dorm rent prices. If it’s turned into a community gym, we will add schedules for use options and a live video camera so people can see if the court is in use.

By Shayne Johnson

All of the commotion surrounding McArthur Court’s dim future is slowly piling up. Multiple blogs and interviews have shown there is a strong student voice speaking out about the court; it’s time that their voices are heard. While these opinions stack up, administration at the University of Oregon has yet to make a decision that would ultimately pull the plug on the overflowing tub of theories and speculations about what the future will hold. Until the university makes a final decision, the community will keep wondering and waiting for the final verdict. I interviewed one student on his thoughts about the court and how the decision should be made. For the purpose of privacy, the student has asked to remain anonymous.

REVAMP MAC: What do you know about Mac Court and its future on the campus?

STUDENT: Not much. I follow some blogs and I’ve read that they might turn it into a concert hall or maybe dorms or something.

REVAMP MAC: What would you like to see it become? Or would you rather it be kept as the same court and renovated?

STUDENT: Honestly, with the new arena just down the street, I’d like to see some diversity on campus. I think that it would be a perfect spot for a concert hall or something. That way, we wouldn’t have to use the EMU ballroom for everything. If we turned it into a concert venue, it would be easier and safer for students to get to concerts, rather than going all the way to McDonald Theater or WOW Hall.

REVAMP MAC: How do you think the decision should be made? Who should have the final stay?

STUDENT: I know that the decision is probably in the hands of the head honchos of the University, but I think it should be up to the students and the community here in Eugene. I mean, we are the ones who will be using it, who will be paying for it and who will be making memories there. I just don’t see why we shouldn’t have a say. Plus, we could probably find an answer faster.

There you have it: the student voice. I’m sure that this student is not the only one with this opinion. Hopefully, with time and effort, more student opinions will be heard. What will the future of Mac Court be? It’s up to us to decide.

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1.) http://www.dksez.com/?p=796

2.) http://www.dailyemerald.com/opinion/mac-court-unfairly-cast-aside-1.1219269

3.) http://www.mcdonaldtheatre.com/

4.) http://www.mcdonaldtheatre.com/

5.) http://libweb.uoregon.edu/guides/architecture/oregon/mcarthur.html

By Patrick Meyers

McArthur Court is sitting on prime real-estate and the space should be used to better the university and improve student life.  One of the main ideas is to build more dorms.  The dorms are currently overcrowded and there is a long waiting list to even get in.  In an anonymous student blog, one of the top ten reasons that the University of Oregon is undesirable is because of the overcrowded dorms.  It doesn’t seem right when the baseball and basketball teams get brand new facilities, but students who are the foundation of the university are put on the back burner.  If it is a money issue, Phil Knight should consider not only improving athletes lives but also the students who support and cheer them on.  The housing page on the official University of Oregon website says, “their facilities provide not just a place to sleep, but also opportunities for personal and educational growth. Highly trained Residence Life staff and Hall Government officers support this objective by creating engaging activities and programs in each hall or complex.”  Ironically, the Wikipedia page on the definition of dormitory even cites that claim as an example of exceptional dorms.  I don’t doubt at all that this claim is true and the dorms do provide a great experience for students, but some do not get to have this experience because there is not enough room.  Depriving deserving students of this experience lowers the overall quality of life on campus.  This is a problem that can be solved by using Mac Court to make a dormitory.  Music halls and classrooms are great ideas too, but if students have to live three or four miles always from campus, they may not get to enjoy those things.  The main idea that needs to be present in the decision making of Mac Court’s future needs to be “What’s best for the students.”

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1. http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?   DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=22185
2. http://www.enotes.com/university-of-oregon-guide/worst
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Knight
4. http://housing.uoregon.edu/reshalls/
5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dormitory