Designing Future Campus Expansion and Public Spaces at Universities

The physical layouts of many colleges and universities across North America are undergoing dramatic changes as more and more relationships develop outside of the traditional boundaries of institutions of higher learning. As public-private partnerships are established, additional research parks are being built on or adjacent to campus, and in some cases, empty space is designed into new academic and research buildings to accommodate future spin-off companies and incubating firms.

 

Numerous universities also are trying to productively manage the development of their physical space. The New York Times reported last month in a story titled “Sun Belt Growth Is Playing Out on Campus” that soaring population growth is drastically expanding enrollment and campus size in locations across the country. For example, seven years ago, Arizona State University was at 50,000 students. It is up to 64,000 students today and plans to grow to 90,000 students by 2020. With this in mind, balancing quality with quantity may be a challenge for school administrators.

 

Are there strategies that exist to help universities accommodate these changes?

 

Communities of Opportunity: Smart Growth Strategies for Colleges and Universities, a report released in July by the National Association of College and University Business Officers and Ayers/Saint/Gross, suggests yes. Co-authored with the Environmental Protection Agency and Cunningham Quill Architects, the report provides an overview of “smart growth principles” the authors contend will help institutions to provide a high quality education, serve the needs of the community, and support innovation and research. The report incorporates case studies from campuses across the U.S. and presents four core reasons why facilitating design aspects that encourage social, civic and physical activity by interconnected, compact and mixed-use spaces are important:

• Vibrant places attract and retain the best students, faculty and staff;
• Smart growth developments more efficiently utilize resources and are better investments;
• Working with surrounding communities across traditional campus boundaries may enable mutually beneficial solutions; and,
• Better development patterns improve an institution’s environmental performance.

For many universities, developing the social and economic vitality of the land around the university is just as important as the space within its boundaries. Techniques for improving the sense of place include creating interconnected pedestrian corridors, developing higher-density housing and commercial opportunities for students and employees, efficiently using infill spaces during periods of construction and preserving gathering spaces for the public.

 

Producing and sustaining public places through design is a central part of the mission of the nonprofit Project for Public Spaces (PPS). One of the six important issues and opportunities facing campuses that PPS highlights on its website is the challenge of “creating places, not just facilities.” An article recommends planning spaces that cluster activities together so that a dynamic and busy place exists at different times of the day appealing to a wide variety of people. Combining various elements that would ordinarily be separated creates a busier space than if any one of the uses existed alone. Regarding another of the six issues, the integration of sustainability into campus design, PPS states being green is not only about the building itself, but how it integrates into the community. For example, a truly green building should be organized in such a way that people would usually walk or bike to the structure instead of driving to it.

 

For many universities planning to expand, knowing the structural components of the environment and planning how future developments will fit into already existing space is a crucial step. If public spaces such outdoor parks or auditoriums in adjacent buildings exist nearby, perhaps the best planning strategy is to figure out how to leverage those assets without replicating them.

 

Communities of Opportunity: Smart Growth Strategies for Colleges and Universities can be accessed at: http://www.nacubo.org/x9290.xml

 

The Project for Public Spaces maintains a website for its Campuses program, which contains examples of successful public spaces on campuses, news on development plans, and design best practices: http://www.pps.org/campuses/