The Three Engineers: Student Center Proposal
The City Center: The Student Center of The City College of New York
Figure #1: Ai generated image through Canva of the outdoor building view.
Date: 4/7/25
The 3 Engineers:
Michael Arizmendi
Matias Reyes
Pedro Cruz-Avalos
Introduction:
A Student Center is a building within a university that is designed for students to gather and socialize on campus. A building necessary for universities like The City College of New York with over 90% of its students being commuters. Unfortunately, the current center is unfit to accommodate the population of about 15,000 students. Which is in the Wingate building that consists of one room, a pool table, and some furniture. Improving the number of floors, activities, and comfortability will attract future and current students to gather in a relaxing and enjoyable space.
To understand the need for this Student Center, a survey was conducted on college students for their thoughts. About 64.9% of students answered that they know of where the center is but only 13.5% of respondents have been there. Plenty of students have added suggestions on what would attract them to the center if it’s added. That included having more spacious areas, table games, enjoyable events and study areas. For the complete data, please refer to the appendix.
Figure #2: A pie chart of respondents who have and haven’t been to the Student Center.
Furthermore, comparing the current center at City College and other universities can help understand the difference in successes. For which centers at Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Southern University, and more succeed for its students. Which offer a variety of food options, lounges, study areas, gaming rooms, and restrooms. Additions that aren’t found at City College’s current Student Center.
Action Plan:
In the planning and construction of the new Student Center, changes have been included to adjust to students’ benefit. Which would need a new location like a parking lot on 16 – 20 Convent Ave, New York, NY in Harlem that consists of 46,608 buildable square feet. On this parking lot there would be a brand-new building with three floors to sufficiently provide the space and activities students want. Which can accomplish the goal of a new Student Center fit for The City College of New York Community.
For the building’s first floor, the idea is to make a roomy but also comfortable area for socializing and dining. Which comes in the form of adding the relax area for students to wait out in with large tables, couches, and ATMs if needed. The cafeteria which is exclusively for City College students allows for students to have tables of their own and no need to worry about crowding from the neighboring highschool students. If there is some crowding, then additional space in the reception can seat pending students until space frees up. Additionally restrooms are located on all floors.
Figure #3: A floor plan design for the first floor through Autocad.
For the second floor, students can find themselves finding the game room and a common study area. The game room would have various table games like billiards, ping pong, air hockey, and other common board games. By suggestion, there would also be a video game station for use with the addition of comfortable furniture to seat students. In the opposite room, there is a common study area with large and medium sized tables for students to gather with friends or classmates.
Figure #4: A floor plan design for the second floor through Autocad.
For the final floor of the City Center, there is an addition of event/organization rooms. Rooms that can be reserved to hold an event of any type and enough room to hold a decent amount of students participating. Which can alternatively serve as a space for clubs during club/organization hours to hold their meetings as well. On the other half the opposite side holds small individual rooms for some students to independently work on their classwork of any kind. Disclaimer, these rooms would be checked to avoid alternative use of the spaces.
Figure #5: A floor plan design for the third floor through Autocad.
This Student Center is estimated to be completed in a span of 25 months that includes the preparation and construction of the City Center.
Figure #6: A gantt chart which displays the timeline for the City Centers start to end.
Cost and Benefits:
Below is the table containing the prospective materials and their general cost per square feet. The total square feet needed for each material is listed as well with the prospective cost for the City Center.
| Materials | Cost | Required Amount in Square Feet | Estimated Cost |
| Concrete | $6 – $9 per square feet | 7,260 | $58,080 |
| Brick | $7 – $12 per square feet | 560,664 | $3,924,648 |
| Glass | $3 – $5 per square feet | 568 | $2,272 |
| Tiles | $9.87 per square feet | 2,117 | $20,894.79 |
| Engineered Hardwood flooring | $6.40 per square feet | 19,981 | $127,878.4 |
| Land Plot | 10,000,000 | 9,303 | $10,000,000 |
Figure #7: A chart of the budget including the materials and contents for the City Center.
Over 90% of City College’s students are commuting to campus everyday for their classes. Sometimes with some having irregular schedules forcing them to sit outside their next class or in the NAC lunchroom. Therefore, the newly improved City Center would serve as a relaxing space for them to wait out and other students alike to utilize in-between classes. Where the current Student Center fails to provide. Encouraging students to stay even long on campus rather than heading straight home after class. Which can be used to study with friends or even use a wide selection of additions like the table games, video games, study area, and cafeteria only for City College Students.
Although the budget of the City Center is high at first sight. Take into consideration that this would be a brand new building and as expected to be costly given New York’s rates. Which is justifiable due this building also being a long term source of income via the cafeteria and ATM withdrawal charges. The materials costs also keep the style of the older buildings on campus like Shepard Hall. Bringing a sense of familiarity of the old college that was lost with the buildings like the NAC and Marshak.
Our Team – The 3 Engineers
The team proposing City College’s new and improved Student Center is The 3 Engineers who members are:
Michael Arizmendi is currently working two different jobs as a part-time front desk receptionist at a medical office while working full-time as a student pursuing mechanical engineering. Michael has worked in several restaurant hosting positions, such as Celestine and Smoky Mountain Brewery. He graduated from the School of Hospitality and Management in New York, New York. Michael attended Clemson University, South Carolina, for his first year of college. Clemson University Life was not the right choice for Michael, so he transferred to his current University, The City College, New York. Michael is a second-semester transfer student at The City College of New York. His career goal is in aerospace engineering; however, he is currently acquiring his mechanical engineering degree to achieve his master’s in aerospace engineering eventually. Of the skills he has acquired over the years, he can proficiently utilize SolidWorks 3d design software, Matlab coding, and Excel. Some of his striking qualities are his resilience, determination, kindness, friendliness, honesty, and approachability. Michaels’s favorable interest is in watching anything space-related, including but not limited to space-x launches.
Matías Reyes is a first-year civil engineering student at The City College of New York. He was raised in Santiago, Chile and attended The High School for Art & Business, New York, NY, and graduated with honors. During his senior year he participated as the vice-president of the 3D-printing club, and during the summer after his graduation, he participated in the Summer Youth Employment Program. In this program he was successful in creating a company that attracted the attention of various other classmates. From these programs, he gained useful experience and skills that vary from managing, creativity, proficiency in both Microsoft Word and Excel, and communication. Some qualities that he presents are reliability, resourcefulness, problem solving, and curiosity.
Pedro Cruz-Avalos is a first-year Mechanical Engineering student at The City College of New York. He was raised in the Bronx and attended Dewitt Clinton High School, graduating with honors. At Dewitt Clinton High, he also worked for 3 years as an intern for their hydroponic farm, a Youth leader for the student success center for post-secondary planning (college onboarding) and interned with a non-profit company called Code Nation as a coder. From these opportunities, he gained useful experience and skills such as managing, inventory, food handling, communication, presenting, data collecting, and coding. Some qualities he has are being bilingual, caring, responsible, punctual, resourceful, and intelligent. When he is presented with an unfamiliar task, he would figure out a way to complete it with his set of skills and qualities.
Conclusion:
The bottom line is that the introduction of a newly constructed Student Center will provide a space for students like they never had. A place actually worthwhile to stop by to gather and socialize as a Student Center is meant to. Changing location from the one room Student Center to the three story City Center. That reflected what students suggested from research to bring a new place for the community. Which if this proposal is accepted can change student life on campus and for the future student that is attracted to it.
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Appendix:
| Northern Carolina University | MIT Stratton Center | Southern University | Student Center at Harvard Griffin | Norfolk University | In common with the Student Centers |
| Food Vendors | Forty Offices | Bookstore | Cafe gato rojo | The office of student activities and Leadership | Food |
| Retail | Lounges | Crosspoint Federal Union | Office of student services | Student government organizations | Lounges |
| Atms | Dining venue | Atms | Water fountain | Clubs and Student organizations | Gaming room |
| Convenience store | Group Study Area | Short term lockers | Restrooms | Computer Lounge | Restrooms |
| Lounges | Wellbeing Lab | Food Services | The commons dining hall | Recreation and Intramural sports | Quiet Study Space |
| Recreational space | Quiet place (cubical form) | Information desk | Quiet study space | bookstore | Study areas |
| Gaming space | Snack kiosk | Long term lockers | Quiet eating space | Student organization resource lab | Pool table |
| Information desk | Makerspace | Television lounge | Common room (social events and lecture) | Game zone | Ping pong table |
| Student dining (meal plan) | Napping station | Game room | Office of residential life (student housing) | Pool table | game station |
| Bookstore | Gaming station | 4 pool tables | Graduate student lounge (a versatile space that is both casual enough and formal enough) | Ping pong tables | Student life office |
| large ballrooms (with divider) | bowling | ping pong table | Dean of students office | Video games | |
| Study rooms | Pool table | Foosball table | Library | Card games | |
| Meeting spaces | Ping pong table | Commuter student association | Conference room | Board games | |
| Multipurpose room | Esports room | Game room | Training zones | ||
| Office of student activities | Fitness center | Flat screen television | |||
| Student clubs/organizations | Greek life council | Ping pong table | |||
| Office of leadership and civic engagement | interfaith office | Comfy couch | |||
| Office of intercultural engagement | Multicultural club/ space | Pool table | |||
| Study areas | Programs council | Puzzles | |||
| Conference rooms | Resource center | Board games | |||
| Alumni room | Student government association | ||||
| Fireplace lounge | Student life office | ||||
| Student center main office | Zen den (chill space) | ||||
| Grandballroom | |||||
| Food court | |||||
| Office of student life | |||||
| Multicultural center |
Figure #8: A chart of contents that other successful Student Centers have.
Figure #9: A pie chart of the respondent who are and aren’t students at The City College of New York
Figure #10: A pie chart of respondents knowledge of what a Student Center is
Figure #11: A bar graph of respondents suggested additions to the proposed Student Center
| Tables | $160 – $210 | 18 | $3,780 |
| Toilets | $185 – $400 | 36 | $10,800 |
| Sinks | $80 – $180 | 38 | $5,320 |
| Stoves | $2,699 – $3,598 | 6 | $18,000 |
| Refrigerator | $2,526 | 2 | $5,052 |
| Individual desk | $136 – $256 | 24 | $4,800 |
| Individual chairs | $60 – $70 | 24 | $1,680 |
| Atms | $2,000 | 2 | $4,000 |
| Pool tables | $570 | 2 | $1,140 |
| Ping pong table | $800 | 1 | $800 |
| Air Hockey | $300 | 2 | $600 |
| Big Couches | $900 | 3 | $2,700 |
| Small couches | $180 – $300 | 7 | $1,750 |
| TV (big flat screen) | $250 | 1 | $250 |
Figure #12: Continued complete costs chart calculated
web.autocad.com/
Software use to create the floor plan
Complete floor plan:https://web.autocad.com/acad/me/sid/shares/drawings9
