Penn State McKeesport’s new student union, 2004

The Pennsylvania State College first began offering training and continuing education courses in the Mon Valley in 1934. In 1948, PSC's McKeesport Center opened in Dravosburg to provide courses to veterans who were seeking higher education under the GI Bill. In 1956, local realtor William Buck donated 10 acres of land near Renzie Park to Penn State University and the first building of the new Penn State McKeesport Campus opened in February 1957.

Growth continued apace; in 1961, the Buck Union Building opened as the first multi-purpose community center for the campus of mainly commuter students. But by the late 1990s — with more students electing to live on the McKeesport Campus and an increasing number of four-year programs available there — university officials began planning the “BUB’s” 25,000-square-foot replacement.

The new $5.5 million facility, completed in October 2003, houses student and alumni programs and community events and was designed by WTW Architects of Pittsburgh, which also designed the Living/Learning Center at Pitt’s Johnstown Campus and redesigned the Hetzel Union Building at Penn State’s University Park Campus. We went out on a cold January day to snap these shots of the new (as-yet unnamed) student union, and used one of them as the main page splash image for winter 2004.