What was once a temporary dance studio, the office for international student services and the alumni engagement center has once again found a new purpose.
The ‘Green Building,’ also known as 101 Wood Street, now acts as the home of the newly formed Center for Civic Engagement on the first floor and the new location for the Center for Experiential Narrative Technology (CENT) on the second floor.
Floors three and four are unchanged, with the office of graduate and online admissions still residing on the third floor and the school of continuing and professional studies staying on the fourth floor.
Originally, the Green Building was going to be the new home of the university’s welcome center. However, those plans have been put on hold for the foreseeable future due to a lack of funding, according to vice president of enrollment Marlin Collingwood. Instead, the welcome center area will use the second floor of Thayer Hall, which is currently still under construction.
Heather Starr-Fiedler, managing director of the Center for Civic Engagement, said the space will be used to bring students to the table to meet with community leaders in the Downtown area to create change. During the grand opening, Starr-Fiedler had visitors answer questions on what they would like to see Downtown and offered a space to paint small tiles.
According to Chris Gaul, co-founder of CENT and Esports coach, the move to the Green Building started because the university wanted CENT’s old location in Thayer Hall, but also wanted the newly formed arm of the university to have more space and spread its wings. Gaul said he couldn’t be happier with the new space.
“We’ve decorated it in our vision, and we really think it allows us to accomplish a lot of the goals that we’ve set out for ourselves in the short term,” Gaul said. “The space is perfect for us right now especially with our current size, what we’re trying to accomplish with working in team projects or introducing students to industry style work, where they would be given a task by the superiors or the company and sort of work together to deliver something at the end.”
The Center for Civic Engagement, which President Chris Brussalis calls the front door of Point Park University, has space for games, community meetings and a relaxation area. The spot to relax has yoga mats, chairs and a space to take a “sound bath” with musical instruments.
CENT’s floor holds space for several computer labs, which Gaul said are used for students to work on class projects. Each lab has high-end computers like what’s available in the Esports lounge in the Student Center.
Additionally, CENT’s floor has a lounge area, a traditional classroom, and a kitchenette with plenty of food.
Donald Marinelli, founder and director of CENT, said the new space is wonderful and will suit his students, who he calls “CENTurions,” better than the old space in Thayer Hall and is a good place to be.
“The idea is students shouldn’t live here, but it would be a lot better of a space than, say, B3,” Marinelli said.
CENT’s first classes started this semester after moving into the Green Building. Gaul said the CENT101 class, which counts as a Discover Technology university core credit, starts with finding compelling narratives and how to turn it into an immersive experience with the tools available to students in the class.
According to Gaul, the main project for CENT students in the current class section is to create an original board game with its own virtual experience to go with it. The class has 16 people in it with three groups.
Eventually, Gaul said he hopes the space becomes more accessible to the campus community, although he said student projects need to be protected, and people can’t use CENT’s computers constantly. Still, Gaul said it’s important for others to see what goes on in the center and the work its students do.
The Green Building does not have any more construction projects planned yet. However, the elevator does not let non-CENT students and those who work in the building use it. It is unknown whether this will be changed or if this is by design.
Additionally, the building is not open 24/7.
