Here at Temple University we centralized computer labs. We used to have countless small labs in each School or College scattered across our campuses. We opened a 700 computer lab with all software and access for all majors and shutdown nearly all of those smaller labs.
http://www.temple.edu/cs/techcenter/ There are certain specialty rooms (recording booths or the video production room), but the bulk of the lab enables all majors to come and work together. Last I heard a statistic it was pumping through ~8,000 students a day. We do network maintenance at midnight and the lab is still packed at that hour. It's as much a social gathering place as a place of study with several break out rooms for collaboration. I think it's pretty awesome. By all measures here, it has been wildly successful. Adam
