Voice of Wisdom


HUFS and my alma mater, the University of Windsor, share some core characteristics: an urge to rise in their respective rankings, a desire to be a comprehensive university (meaning having medical and engineering departments), and managing property with an inner city campus. How Windsor managed its surrounding neighborhood has good lessons that HUFS could profit from.

When I arrived here in 2009 the buildings did not have the attractive facades they do now. Obama Hall was in early construction or even planning stages. The campus was sort of cozy, but more tired looking than anything. Now we have a campus that is aesthetically appealing and universally agreed upon as cozy. People like our campus.

That people would like more of our campus and advocating ‘campus creep’ (a slow expansion) is modelled after my alma mater. Going back at least 30 years, every time a property adjacent the campus went up for sale, the university bought it. Various offices and departments took over these former family homes. Campus Police, Graduate Student associations, and the like used the houses as office space. After owning everything on one block the university negotiated with the city to close the street and add parks and walkways. In this new annexation the building that the university is proudest of is its medical school, part of their long-term goal for being considered a comprehensive university.

The truism of property value is that it’s all about location, location, and location. With this in mind, there is one particular area that could be utilized by HUFS in various ways, the area colored in blue on the map.

HUFS already owns and operates a number of residences in the vicinity, so growth is current at HUFS, with a spread and sprawl design ethos. The opposite of spread and sprawl is targeting the best location (i.e. the closest).

The buildings in the block colored blue are more than a generation old, ready for redevelopment, and ideal for HUFS’ Seoul campus growth. A research assistant and I investigated property values of that block and found that each of these buildings cost around 1,000,000,000 (1 million dollars), give or take. The footprints range from 25 pyung to 40 pyung.

Combining them, like plots 1 and 2 are in the map, can provide space for substantial buildings. For prestige and because of the high density of Imun-dong, I suggest that the buildings be 10 to 20 stories tall, with as much underground parking as is feasible. This would not be unlike the 13-storey building presently under construction at the location of the former Kookmin Bank adjacent the south-west corner of campus (it’s going to be a kositel btw).

Building B is a rendition of mixed residences for students and professors, not unlike how Globee Dorm operates (with “Residences” replacing and hopefully vanquishing the current habit of using ‘dormitory’; at a language university we should know that ‘dormitory’ is uncomplimentary for a place where people and families live). Note the open area on the second floor, a social space for students with the advantage of being able to lock it at a curfew time so noise complaints, like those at Globee Dorm, can be reduced.

New housing, particularly for international students, is already being built regularly by HUFS and the high quality of the facilities is a draw for students when they’re choosing a school abroad (I did when I studied in Australia, making sure campus residences were comfortable). Noted with a lack objectivity, new and larger apartments for professors would be warmly welcomed, and furthermore could be a draw for attracting notable international professors.

HUFS’s principal strength is, of course, its language programs. To augment the aspirant medical facilities in Yongin, a school dedicated to medical language translation, teaching, and research could globalize HUFS even more. English for Medical Purposes (EMP) is dramatically increasing in importance around the world. The Department of International Medical Communications at Tokyo Medical University is at the front of EMP in Asia, but it seems logical that a language university like HUFS would ultimately have a similar such department to support and contribute to a medical school.
A School of Dentistry is included simply because many universities who build hospitals start the process by building smaller, self-contained medical departments.

President Kim In-chul calls for HUFS to have an outward looking paradigm for innovation and growth. These the buildings are presented so as to be part of the discourse of HUFS development. It would be wonderful to see in The Argus other design and architectural ideas from my students, colleagues, and friends at HUFS. Surely others could do better than this modest day dream. Making day dreams and making even grand plans not hard. Making a “100 year” roadmap is wise for the university to do. Getting money to turn fanciful day dreams into bricks and mortar is a much taller order.


Prof. Gavin Farrell Dept. of English Linguistics

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