Why are all the buildings on campus so short and stumpy? The exception would be the hospital, but even that's only a few stories high, with the tall spire like things probably being just for maintenance.

The buildings in Arts Quad have like 7 floors, how tall do you want buildings to be?

This is just my thoughts. The taller the building is the more expensive it is to build. With most of the money used to expand the university coming from donations the school cant just build a skyscrapers but only what they have a budget for. I would think the school would want more space by building up because they are out of space to build out.

There are probably also zoning laws and the such that restrict the height of buildings because the school is situated in a primarily residential area.

Personally, I've seen universities with big tall buildings and it's not attractive whatsoever. I like McMaster's setting, its got some quaint buildings, and some modern buildings + all that lovely greenery. Maybe they haven't built humongous buildings to keep some sort of motif going on, who knows.

You also have to remember Mac is built on a swamp pretty much, therefore the foundations of the buildings can only support so much mass.

Brandon is the tallest building with 11 floors. I've never really seen any university with much higher than that.

people prefer to climb less stairs, and i would imagine that elevators would be chaotic, not to mention expensive.

I don't see any point of building unsustainable expensive skyscrapers in a university. If that is your main criteria of choosing a university, then you must be joking.

And also, don't be fooled by their appearance. There's more to the buildings at Mac than meets the eye.

I also imagine it's hard to stick large classrooms in tall buildings. You can't put in the tiered seating.

Originally Posted by mumbojumbo

I don't see any point of building unsustainable expensive skyscrapers in a university. If that is your main criteria of choosing a university, then you must be joking.

And also, don't be fooled by their appearance. There's more to the buildings at Mac than meets the eye.

Everybody knows the quality of a university is proportional to the height of its buildings.

When you look at the top of the hospital, you will see a floor of stair cases that leads to nowhere. These were not put in for aesthetic purposes but at the time of the design/building mac was thinking ahead for possibilities to expand the hospital another floor. After the stair cases were put in, they realized it was cheaper to build out instead of up.

Originally Posted by dvy88

people prefer to climb less stairs, and i would imagine that elevators would be chaotic, not to mention expensive.

Imagine how Brandon Hall Kids feel..an 11 storey building with one elevator..not to mention 3 elevators were already hella slow to begin with

Originally Posted by MacEng

When you look at the top of the hospital, you will see a floor of stair cases that leads to nowhere. These were not put in for aesthetic purposes but at the time of the design/building mac was thinking ahead for possibilities to expand the hospital another floor. After the stair cases were put in, they realized it was cheaper to build out instead of up.

Apparently that building can't structurally withstand any more floors without putting the rest of the building. At least that's what I've been told for years. It looks structurally sound to me but I wouldn't be a good judge!

Originally Posted by wintermelon

Everybody knows the quality of a university is proportional to the height of its buildings.

I think a good example of that is York University. All their buildings are relatively tall, and their quality is .. not as strong as before. =P

But obviously, yeah, a university's setting totally doesn't dictate its quality.

Mac's campus is pretty awesome.
I visited Waterloo and Guelph last month and boy was it depressing there.