Published.

A few weeks back, Midwestern State's campus newspaper, The Wichitan, reported on the presentation of a master plan for the University to students and faculty. The article caught my attention as an architecture student.  All of a sudden, I had the overwhelming urge to write an opinion piece about the architectural language of Midwestern and in particular, I focused on the proprosal for a new student centre. The parallel with the new Learning Centre at the University of South Australia, as well as a Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology building which I'd studied in early 2013, was too much an opportunity to miss. 

Here is the full text version of my article (before editing).

My Vision for Midwestern State’s Student Facility

Last week saw architects and planners present their Master Plan for Midwestern State University to faculty members and students. As with any master plan, the intention was to create an overall vision for the next fifty years that would determine the development of the university and its infrastructure. A suggestion that caught the attention of many students, including my own, was the proposition of a new student centre.

The current Clark Student Centre (CSC) was originally built in 1951 and has been remodelled several times – most recently in 1997. The objective of these efforts was to create more open space however, today, the CSC still resembles a labyrinth of never-ending corridors. Natural light only serves to supplement artificial lighting, making the whole building a frankly unpleasant space to be in.

In addition, there are many spaces that are rarely used. While during the lunch hour the food court seating bustles, the Comanche Suite is devoid of any visitors until a member of faculty decides to host a function there. It’s not that a function room is not an absolute necessity for a student centre, but in contemporary civic architecture, especially within the realm of higher education, flexibility is a high priority. In the CSC, there are few spaces that could be deemed flexible.

Finally, the CSC is anti-technology. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a student centre with reliable Wi-Fi and good cell phone reception? The students of MSU deserve a student centre from the 21st century, and I would like to offer my vision for MSU’s Student Centre of the future.

There has been a global trend forming recently with state-of-the-art facilities for university students being built the world over. Here at MSU, with so much global precedence from which to draw ideas, we are actually in a good position to bring the best of contemporary student spaces to this university.

The concepts driving student centre design trends can be summarised in three key words – flexibility, collaboration and technology. Open plan areas for social learning are encouraged while, the latest technology is installed in innovative ways requiring immense planning at the very beginning of the design process.

Perhaps one of the most impressive examples of this is the Swanston Academic Building at the Royal Institute of Technology, Melbourne, Australia. Described by its architect as a “catalyst to accelerate the cross-pollination of new ideas” the design hopes to inspire students in shared learning spaces fitted with the very latest technology. Most relevant are the sleek, colorful finishes of the internal spaces which disguise the complex network of intelligent, green systems. It’s these systems that control the everyday functions of the building, and allow the students to ‘plug in’ wherever they are. The building’s design also allows for easy navigation among the most utilized spaces with close attention being given to programming and circulation needs.

A Midwestern State version of this building does not have to abandon the traditional arches or brick that are an iconic part of our architectural language. However, I would argue, it’s time to abandon the dated design concepts that for so long have dictated how students relate to these spaces. Instead of creating traditional study rooms, create flexible spaces that inspire learning. Instead installing power points on the wall because that’s where they’ve always been, install them in the arm of the chair or in the floor because that’s where they are actually convenient. And finally, instead of having students walk through a maze of corridors and dark rooms, create open space that is flooded with natural light and invites students to stay, socialize and learn.

This is my vision for MSU’s new student center. A building of the future, for the students of the future that is designed to inspire.

Happy Anniversary to Me and My Legs

Merry Christmas, all. Yes, it’s the Holidays as they call it here, and you are probably all but over the merriment. But, if you will, please indulge me as I have one more anniversary to celebrate. This month is my one year anniversary. No, I haven’t been hiding a secret love affair, but in December 2012 I did start something new. I became a cyclist. Today, as I finish my breakfast in Springtown, Texas, I thought it might finally be time to get started on my third entry into this blog.

December 25^th 2012, I was back home in Australia, sharing Christmas lunch with my Dad’s family when I overheard my Nana telling a guest, “Maddie’s going to the Olympics”. I was mortified. Seemingly, all my efforts at modesty were lost on my grandmother. What I had done, was give track cycling a try. Apparently, I had quite a knack for it.

So while I certainly haven’t made the Australian Olympic Team just yet, the sport of cycling has given me some amazing opportunities – ones that continue to surprise me each and every day. One year ago, I would never have dreamt that I would be racing my Olympic hero Anna Meares in a Kierin.

Let’s be honest, she and all the other elite cyclists beat me decisively but – whatever!

Going on, I could never have imagined I would be accepting a scholarship to a US College to race bikes, this time last year. Never.

And, is it too far of a stretch to say that spending Christmas with my college roommate’s family here in Springtown is attributed to beginning cycling? In fact, if you look at it that way, everything I have done since arriving in the US in August would never have happened if I had not decided to walk into the Adelaide Superdrome late last year. What a life changing decision that turned out to be.

To take it one final step further, it also took the belief of one man to put me on this path. One man who believed in the raw talent he saw that Sunday afternoon. I know for a fact that I am just the most recent in a long list of grateful beneficiaries whose lives have changed because of this person’s generosity and passion for cycling. All the thanks in the world wouldn’t be enough, but I will say it just the same. Thank you. You know who you are.

So, that being said, where am I one year on? What does my new life look like? How does it compare to the old?

My new life in the US currently, revolves around two things. When I am not sleeping or eating, it seems I am dedicating my life to one or the other. 

Firstly, there’s the culture absorption that must be done. Yes, I am still very much a tourist here in Texas.

I might not be in a major capital city with world-renowned tourist destinations, but as the locals here believe, Texas might as w­­ell be its own country. Whether it’s another night at the local country bar for some two-stepping or Two-for-One Taco Tuesdays with the cycling team, there’s always something to do that makes me feel like I am one step closer to discovering the heartbeat of this place. It’s not my top priority and can sometimes be the worst distraction, but there’s nothing I love more than quenching my touristic thirst with what my new college friends deem to be a “must-do” or a “must-see” activity for Miss Australia.

When I’m not being distracted, however, there is a more important past-time that I spend my time on. It’s what brought me half way across the world, after all. Cycling or more specifically – the training – is what my daily schedule revolves around. If I don’t plan it this way, it doesn’t get done and that is not an option.

If you have never been around cycling, it can come as a surprise as to how much one must train. When I was playing netball, I certainly didn’t have a monthly schedule with only a handful of days off. Maybe I would’ve been a better netballer if I had, but today, once the temperature increases a couple more degrees, I will be back out on the bike. Just like yesterday, and just like the day before that.

You see, now that I am in the US collegiate system for cycling, I cannot simply be a specialist at any one discipline. The track cycling season is now long completed and come February, it will be all about road racing. 

Unfortunately, for me, this type of cycling isn’t what I was made for. My big powerful legs aren’t as useful over 100kms as they are over 500m. While my teammates and other competitors have had many more years to put the “miles in the legs”, I have only had the last couple of months to begin riding the long distances.

This makes the upcoming races more intimidating than ever and it’s why, every day on the bike is my lifeline. By February, it will be the miles I do now that will make the difference between finishing or quitting, between getting dropped or staying with the pack, or between crossing the finish line with arms raised in glory or just crossing it. 

Actually, that reminds me, I still haven’t perfected that skill just yet. It might be time to start practicing my glory pose for the cameras. Hunching over the bars sucking in air is for amateurs.

As I train, I feel like I am racing those races now. Every day, with every push and pull of the pedal. The hard work begins now, not at the start line. It should be motivation enough, and it is most of the time. Some days I will be aiming to get in two hours but stay out for three. Those are the days when you feel your legs could roll over forever. But then there are days when every extra minute I stay on the bike is a battle. I fight myself – my legs, my back, my arms, my mind – just to stay out for an hour. I start asking whether 55 mins counts as an hour. Does it? Am I cheating myself? Will it be the difference?

Right now, the cold weather is another deterrent. It had to come up at some point. If you were anything like I was, you would think that – as hot as it gets here in Texas (and it gets freakin’ hot!) – it could not possibly get cold, not this cold. It was only a month ago that we were rushing to Walmart to get last minute supplies in readiness for the imminent snow. No, it’s not possible to ride a bike on ice. That week, all training was taken indoors. The gym for weight training and the rollers (a treadmill for a bike) to keep the miles ticking over.

In between times, with no classes, we spent our time sliding around in the parking lot (on foot if you were wondering) or hanging out in the dorms. Snow days certainly have their perks, but we were tempting fate with a few close calls with concussions and broken wrists.
 

Another hurdle in my introduction to road cycling has been the boredom. Sometimes I think that my inability to keep my mind occupied for hours on end is even more of a reason than my unsuitable physiology to never become a road cyclist. The final minutes of a road race can be the most exciting moments in a cyclist’s life but while training, I have found the time spent in my own head has been unbelievably tough – especially on the rollers. Three hours on a bike is a long time with no company other than your thoughts. That’s where a team or a bunch of people to ride with comes in very handy, or when you’re on the rollers, a movie or two can be a saving distraction. Even so, there comes a point when no conversation, no interesting scenery, not even Mel Gibson’s behind is enough to distract from the saddle sore that is flaring up on your own behind with every minute in that same position over your handle bars. On those days, I long for the velodrome and for some short sprint efforts behind the motorbike. 

However, I do manage to get up and get on my bike. One day at a time. Just like all my teammates. Why? Because, while cycling can seem like a lonely sport, I have found a place in the world where I’m not just riding for myself. I have a team, and a college that is relying on me to put in the hours. Plus, riding 50kms, 80kms or 100kms is an accomplishment that is tangible. The reality is – it feels good.

As it approaches 10 degrees outside (better than the sub-freezing temperatures of this morning), it’s time for this blog entry to end. It’s time to go ride bikes.

Until next time, Merry Christmas to you all again and best wishes for the New Year.

Hotter N Hell: Cycling through a Texan Summer

College homework postcrastination means another blog entry... finally.

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This blog post has been a long time coming. So much has happenend in the last couple of weeks, it's hard to know where to start. It would've been easier if I had blogged again sooner, so the punishment is all mine.

Moving on - today, I'd like to focus on the cycling side of things. I mean it is why I'm here after all.

For those of you who've had enough cycling talk from me over the last nine months, I'll try and keep it interesting.
 

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 My first time on a bike in the US was at Thermal Thursdays, a local criterium competition. Starting in intermediate grade with the other women and the intermediate men, I got a crash course in cornering. It might've been a better idea to put the girl who'd never raced road into the beginners race but I didn't crash and even worked out how to use the SRAM components and reversed brakes (Oh!). Yep, they do it differently here.

My second time on a bike was a coffee ride. For me, that meant dealing with US traffic for the first time. Four way stop signs (first in, first served) and yields were all new. Oh, and don't forget being on the wrong side of the road. Who knew that my neck wasn't as flexible checking for traffic over my left shoulder in comparison to my right!

Once, I got used to all of this though, I started to realise what an amazing opportunity John Murray (the bestest Aussie coach) and I had stumbled on.

I want to tell you what it feels like to be on the MSU Cycling Team.

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Arriving in the US on this cycling scholarship, it was hard to know what to expect. Despite only having been cycling for such a short period of time, I decided there must be no excuses and in many ways that's how I've approached the first few weeks on the Midwestern State Cycling Team. Sure, when they ask me if I know "such and such" (an apparently very famous cyclist) I run to my "I just started cycling" excuse, but for the most part I try to approach it with a "why the hell not" type attitude. Cycling has been so good to me since I started, and I trust in that. 

There's a woman on the team here, Angela, who is also new to the team. Over my first couple of weeks we have become quite close. Whilst on the team's recent trip to Frisco, Texas to train on the velodrome, I tried my best to explain to her this feeling that had suddenly come over me as we drove through the outlying Dallas area.


It's an emotion that has seemed to creep up on me every now and then, and is the weirdest combination of disbelief, contentness and pride. Randomly, something will remind me of where I am and why I am here. I remember how lucky I am to have had this opportunity come out of seemingly nowhere. I sat in that car with my new US friends, sneaking a smile on my face.

This team means having people to go out on a ride with and grab coffee with, but it also means travelling across the US in a bus to train and compete. It means having people to rely on and it means being relied on to do your part. Such a responsibility has filled me with such an intense drive to achieve.

Will I get the best out of myself in the US? I can't see how I won't.

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 Another way to explain to you all this feeling is to describe another moment that happened not too long after the recent Hotter N Hell 100 race.

The biggest participation ride in the US, there's also men's and women's road races over the three days of competition. Most of you will've kept up with my results on facebook, but in case you missed it, I was proud to report a 2nd in the Pro Cat 4. women's 1ookm road race and a 1st in the same category for the Criterium the next day. Over the weekend, Angela and I were unexpectedly able to share over $100 in prize money. Not bad, thank you - although I'm sure the boys would laugh.

 
What I want to tell you about though was the finish line. Over the load-speaker, everytime I came through to win a Prime or eventually the overall race on the Sunday (the criterium), I was announced as Maddie Steele, from the local MSU team. The cheer from the Wichita Falls crowd always escalated.

It didn't matter to them where I was from - I was accepted as a local. University faculty who had come out to watch the weekend's racing came over to congratulate me. Even random members of the community came up to me too. It's a nice feeling to make people proud when you are an outsider. (Sneaking another smile but I guess I better keep winning!)

But I think the pinnacle of this feeling happened at Convocation, an assembly back at MSU for all the freshmen of 2013 (plus the new randoms like me). As hundreds of students were ushered through the door, a senior faculty member (and avid cyclist) came up to me after hearing of the weekend's results. He gave me the biggest, proudest hug ever.

It was pretty cool. Thanks Dr Farrell!

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Next on the agenda is the relatively short track season. This weekend is the conference championships back in Frisco, Texas. We then have one more chance to train at this track the following weekend before heading on a week-long trip to Colorado Springs, Colorado for the National Collegiate Track Championships.

Shout out to the kind family who will take us in for the three weekends in Frisco. What an amazing thing to do for a bunch of college kids!

I'm nervous about the next month, but again there can't be any excuses. I'm going to take this opportunity with both hands and do with it all I can. After all, now I not only have those back in Australia riding with me, but the community of Wichita Falls and MSU.

Wish me luck!