Breaking new ground
Fatemah Farag looks on as a new campus is born
For over 80 years, the American University in Cairo's (AUC) main campus has been a landmark in Tahrir Square. For some, the buildings and prominent AUC logo have symbolised a beacon of enlightenment and a standard for liberal arts education in the Middle East. For others, it has stood out as a symbol of Western influence and for many more a bridge between East and West.
Despite the nostalgia that the downtown campus conjures, the time has come to break new ground and accept the realities of an increasingly dense and congested city centre. Yesterday, Mrs Suzanne Mubarak officially inaugurated the site of AUC's new campus in New Cairo some 40 kilometres east of the university's present location. The ceremony, attended by Prime Minister Atef Ebeid, among other top officials, and the interim president of AUC Thomas Bartlette, is also the kick-off of the official campaign to raise money for the new campus. In fact, only a few days ago, Saudi billionaire Walid Bin Talal donated LE50 million for the establishment of a new School of Humanities and the American Studies Centre.
AUC currently owns 96,000 square metres of space on 7.3 acres in downtown Cairo, space that is supplemented by rented offices in buildings adjacent to the campus. It is a campus whose development reflects a singular history. In 1914, the search for a campus site took planners to an area near the Giza Pyramids. That was before a particular piece of property in the centre of town caught their eye.
The current main campus was originally a palace built by Khedive Ismail. In the late 1890s it was bought by a Greek, Nestor Gianaclis, who converted the building into a tobacco factory. A subsequent re-modeling effort not only won the palace honourable mention at the Chicago World Fair in 1896 but also set the property on the road to its conversion into the Egyptian University in 1908.
In 1919, it became official AUC property. And then came the expansions: Oriental Hall in 1932, the modern Science Building in 1966 and the Greek Campus. Noteworthy at this point is the fact that Bartlette, who served as president in 1963, is also the man responsible for the acquisition of the Greek Campus, the launching of a process that finally, in 1974, culminated in the Ministry of Education recognising AUC's degree and the first president to make a serious effort to attract Egyptians to fill important faculty and administrative positions.
What the new campus may lack in history it makes up for in sheer size and planned amenities. It will comprise 1,055,000 square metres -- acquired from the Ministry of Housing in September 1997 -- of which 180,000 will be built in accordance to a design aimed at accommodating a full-time student enrollment of 5,500. The infrastructure of the new campus has been designed to adapt to the expected increase of 1,500 students.
It is a carefully designed plan described by the university as a "model of green architecture... [that will] conserve environmental and financial resources... [and] is equipped with the most advanced systems for water-saving and energy efficiency to set a standard for development in New Cairo".
To accomplish the feat, architect Hussein El- Sharqawi was appointed as vice-president for the new campus development. Also in 1998, an international design competition was held and out of 53 firms, six were chosen to compete for the vote of a seven-member jury led by the current head of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina and then vice-president of the World Bank Ismail Serageddin. The architect eventually chosen was Sasaki/CDC, a joint venture of Sasaki Associates Inc, in Waterdown, Massachusetts, and Abdelhalim-CDC (Community Design Collaborative, Cairo).
The new campus is expected to cost $300 million, an amount AUC officials are keen to point out is not only aimed at construction but also expanding the quality of education. Part of the money is aimed at subsidising professorships and scholarships.
The campus is expected to become operational in September 2007.
