The newly refurbished Compton Union Building opened its doors to the public Monday, so yesterday I stopped in to take a look. I should first say that it is quite nice, and I was instantly reminded how central the CUB is to student life. And I was also impressed by The Bookie, which is extraordinarily well-done even if I’m not totally over my initial skepticism of the move.

Beyond that, though, it was clear the “on time” part of the mantra is best interpreted broadly (I imagine the “on budget” part is the same way). Maybe it was the evidence of ongoing construction, or the fact that only one food vendor is even marginally operational, or the worker people who gave me weird looks every time I walked anywhere other than the sleek main corridor.

I half-wanted someone to question my picture-taking so I could say, “This place was rebuilt with my money and I’ve been waiting two long, fragmented years of my college experience to see it reopen, so I think at the very least I have a right to take pictures.” Which isn’t an exactly true statement in any aspect, but it still would have been a good point.

No one questioned me, though, so here are a bunch of pictures. I should also mention that none of it really surprised me, but that’s because I’ve been inside the CUB a few times in the past year on various tours.

Actually what got me off to an antagonistic entrance were my dashed hopes of entering from the stadium side via skybridge. They said it might be open by today. Right before I got there a family had climbed all those stairs only to discover the bridge wasn’t open. As I approached they yelled down at me: “Don’t do it! Don’t do it!”

Oooh, did we just find ourselves in a snazzy Target ad? Nope, it’s a little lounge thing in the main corridor not far from the main entrance. I forgot to try out the chairs. I also forgot to take a picture of Clevenger lounge, which looks like an updated version of its old self and reminded me of freshman year lunch hours spent eavesdropping on people while pretending to listen to my iPod.

This was the old cafeteria place that apparently now opens up onto the mall. It looks nice but I think there are far fewer chairs than there used to be. The mall looked really bare without the little trees that used to be there, but it will probably fill up with people and groups trying to raise awareness about issues.

Here is where food will supposedly be on sale soon. Carlita’s, the university-run Mexican joint, is sort of open. You can see the Subway logo on the wall where they will be taking over a space originally designated for Pita Pit.

Okay, so it was hard to take decent photos in this new, bright CUB full of windows and fluorescent lights. Here’s the view from the balcony, peering into The Bookie near the Starbucks corner. There were a lot of people in there for 3 p.m. on a Wednesday with nothing happening on campus. If you lean over that railing you look down a floor to a study area with access to Terrell library.

Here is where Jamba Juice is not going to be.

Something was already happening in the ballroom, so I couldn’t go inside. But it looks pretty classy.

Down the stairs to Butch’s Den, the basement is far more inviting than it was when I first ventured down for the fitness buffet my freshman year. The stairs are probably my favorite change out of everything in the building.

On the other extreme, here is the hallway for the student government and Campus Involvement offices. The number of boxes strewn everywhere indicates that a lot of groups are in the process of moving in. The lack of people would explain why it’s a slow process.

One interesting aspect of the building is the typography. Here’s a wall across from the Bookie entrance with the fight song lyrics all over. I do think it’s a nice aesthetic touch, not to mention useful for freshman learning the lyrics and recruitment brochure photo-ops. I’m still not totally sure how I feel about the standard signage typography (see in the very top picture and the ballroom photo). A good combination of sans and serif? I generally think they’re awkward together in that way, but I haven’t developed strong feelings one way or the other yet for this instance. I think it’s interesting that they asked for student feedback about paint colors, wood paneling, carpet patterns and floor tiles, but not fonts. I know, because I attended every forum. I was the most informed non-Evergreener on campus at the time of the vote.

Whole lot goin’ on here. It’s one of the “flexible” rooms, specifically the junior ballroom. I guess you don’t get much more flexible than a bare room with a glass wall.

Here’s one of the standard meeting rooms. More specifically, it’s the meeting room I was in once to watch editor elections the time Jacob won. I remember he was wearing green and Garrett was wearing blue and I remarked about this to Andy, who I’d never talked to before, on the way out. I don’t remember what the room looked like, but it was darker because there were heavy curtains.

To finish things up, here is a rainbow. If nothing else the old CUB didn’t generate rainbows on its walls and floors. This is near Jamba Juice that capitalization-phobic smoothie place and the tunnel to the library, which is wonderful.