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In its first year as a program for all incoming students,
SAGES is acquiring a suitably prominent home on the Case campus.
Having begun as a renovation of the undergraduate curriculum,
SAGES (the Seminar Approach to General Education and
Scholarship) has now inspired an equally ambitious renovation of
quad-level Crawford Hall. The results will be on view in
September with the opening of SAGES Central—a mix of
educational, administrative, and social spaces, all constructed
around the new SAGES Café.
“This project creates a novel, highly
visible center for intellectual and social activity at the heart
of the Case campus,” said Vera Tobin, faculty and program
development assistant in Arts and Sciences, who is overseeing
the café’s operations.
The transformation of quad-level Crawford
into SAGES Central began in March 2005. Previously, the original
marble-and-glass lobby had been partitioned into a variety of
unrelated offices, with no connection to the large patio
encircling the building. No one tarried, or had reason to tarry,
in the stark space before the elevators. But now, said Arts and
Sciences Dean Mark Turner, “First-floor Crawford puts SAGES on
stage: you will be able to look into it from any point and see
our signature undergraduate program in operation. Here are
students in the glasswalled seminar room; there are students and
professors conversing at the café; around the corner are the
SAGES Fellows conferring with students about their work.”
 Ken Klika, director of facilities management for Arts and Sciences,
has his own metaphor for SAGES Central. “To me,” he said, “the
space now looks like a lighthouse, a beacon. And it fits the
vision we had from the beginning: that the space would be
visible from many different directions, that it would be open,
that it would be inviting, that it would be a place where you
would want to do some scholarly work or just chit-chat with
faculty and students.”
Klika, who oversaw the renovation from
its inception, said that the café is his favorite part. “But I’m
tickled with all of the space, at how it all turned out. And I
think it will look even better once we get the glass doors in on
the sides and remodel the vestibule. The glass windows were the
natural elements that the building already had; now we can let
the campus look inside and see SAGES.”
The café will be open day
and night, serving Peet’s coffee and tea (“SAGES deserves no
less,” said Turner) as well as sandwiches and salads. In
addition, the baristas at the café will become a first point of
contact with SAGES, providing basic information for students,
visiting scholars, and donors.
Klika describes himself as a
“faithful servant” of the university’s collective vision for
SAGES. But Turner views his contribution differently. “Ken
accepted the challenge of creating a home for SAGES that
integrated its intellectual, cultural, and social aspirations,”
he said. “His genius has been to give SAGES a habitation that
represents and serves its mission.”
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