Workplay was a complete failure.

Workplay was the contest to design something for North Campus to foster community amongst North Campus-ers. I mentioned it in this post. One of the goals was to make North Campus a place that people would want to spend time on even when they weren't in class or studying, like on the weekends. I didn't submit an entry like I planned, but now wished I had. Forget the $10,000, I just wanted to make North Campus a better place. Unfortunately, I lacked the team members and artistic/graphic design skills to make a proposal.

All of the designs were complete gimmicks. Most of them were for building things like an Arch, or LED screen in the ground. Others were for student lounges, and hang out areas. These all would be cool things to have on North Campus, but they wouldn't bring people to North Campus. It was like, I felt that the Wave Field could have been one of the submissions. Yeah, its cool, but its not going to bring together North Campus.

"Hey, this weekend we should hang out at the Recess Room on North."
"Great idea, then we can go see the Arch"
"Sweet"

People aren't going to go to North Campus to check out a glorified bus stop. (An actual proposal).

The winners were two designs, both by faculty that were alright but still missed the point. One was for renewable energy shit. It had a few wind turbines that will look more ridiculous than that column in front of the art building. They wanted to put LED's in the brush around North Campus and do some other stuff that didn't really matter. The only part of their design that had any merit, was an amphitheater. This was in a few other designs as well, and was the only part of their design that I liked. I feel that an amphitheater could actually bring people to north campus, and their often is live music on North, during SpringFest and at other times. In my opinion though, it was one of the uglier amphitheaters that was submitted. The other winner was a design for a interactive like playground thing. It had a reflecting pool that could become a skate rink in the winter and a bunch of shit on it. I guess each year people are supposed to redesign and add to the amount of shit on it. I think it also runs on wind power. While it will be a cool thing for North Campus, again, will people go up there on the weekends to use it? I doubt it.

So after bashing all these designs I bet your wondering what my idea was for the NC. If there is one thing I have learned at Michigan it is that college kids go absolute apeshit for frisbee. I think it would be really cool if Michigan put in a 9 hole frisbee golf course on the land between Pierpont and the music school. I can guarantee you that kids would come to NC to throw disc. I know kids that drive to Canton to play, they would surely endure a few minute bus ride to play. Also, it would finally be something for kids living in Bursley and Baits to do. There is more then enough room for a course just west of Bonisteel near the entrance to NC. It would also be very inexpensive to install, and free to students. The University has tennis courts, swimming pools, ice rinks and a golf course, why not a frisbee golf course. It would also fulfill the requirement that designs go towards involving the tree-like feel of NC. Even though I didn't submit it as a formal proposal I still think that it would be something that would only make the University, and North Campus a better place.