However, the building, designed by Polshek Partnership Architects, did not open without criticism. According to The Williams Record, 71 percent of the student body rated their opinion of the plans for the building "negative or neutral" in 2003, pre-groundbreaking. When The Record asked acclaimed architecture historian and professor Michael Lewis for his opinion of the Paresky Center, he called it a glorified billboard. "It's a rather crude and simplistic depiction of the act of welcoming and entering," Lewis said of the building. "It's done with this graphic exaggeration you might associate with a billboard. The portico thrusts out more deeply than it needs to. There's more glass than really belongs there. It's a very self-centered object, saying 'Look at me.'" Yet, Professor Lewis's colleague in the art history department, E.J. Johnson, begged to differ. "The architects were very careful to make it fit in with what was already there."
Nevertheless, Lewis criticized the need for the center in the first place, explaining that Williams needs more classroom space and a new library more urgently than a new student center and that he views the center simply as a means "to draw attention to Williams on the part of prospective freshmen." He argued that Williams does not need the extra publicity that comes with the slick modern building. "I think our brand doesn't require flashy advertising. Our brand isn't a nervous thing like Abercrombie and Fitch. We're more like Brooks Brothers. Those who know, know."
On the other hand, Johnson asserted, "The old Baxter [student center] was a terrible building […] The two lounges were anonymous passageway spaces that nobody ever sat in. Most of the building was taken up with backstage stuff, so there wasn't much usable space. The only thing that brought it to life in its last years was Grab 'n' Go. But nobody stayed. They grabbed and went."
In light of the on-campus debate over the center, The Record's editorial stood in favor of the new center the week before it opened. "This unifying force is exactly what campus needs right now," the editors wrote. "Cluster housing has created discrete residential communities. The resulting intra-cluster unity is ideal; the lack of inter-cluster unity is not. Paresky should be the perfect antidote to such fragmentation-there really is nothing like a communal spot on campus to bring us back together."
After the center opened, the top news story heralded, "Paresky gets two thumbs up." Students seem thrilled with the new building that they described as an uncanny mix between a modern structure and a ski lodge. The Record quoted Williams junior Adam Janes as explaining, "I wasn't that impressed with the exterior but really like the inside."
"The combination between modern architecture and that of a lodge is strange, but I really like it," said sophomore Eve Streicker. "It's very creative." Leroy Lindsay, a senior, acknowledged the unifying force of the new center. "You can obviously see campus morale is up. Not having a center for so long affected social life on campus. I have seen more people from my class and the classes below me than I ever have [elsewhere]." First-year Claire Schwartz told The Amherst Student, "It's really great to have a heart of campus where I can see upperclassmen friends (as opposed to my all-freshman dorm). It's everything in one: the food is incredible, there are social spaces, social study spaces and quiet study spaces, offices, etc." Let's just say the Purple Cows are happy to have their student center back, even if the exterior is considered garish by some.