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Posted 12-10-99
Case Western Reserve University has selected Ayers/Saint/Gross, a Baltimore architectural and planning firm, to help develop the University's new master plan.
Representatives of the firm, and another that was under consideration, met with senior CWRU administrators in August and September to begin forming a proposal for the new master planning process.
The firms gave formal presentations last month to the Board of Trustees' Facilities and Grounds Committee, which unanimously supported the selection of Ayers/Saint/Gross for this project.
"I was especially pleased with their approach to campus planning, which they view as a strategic exercise," said President David Auston. "I look forward to the results of their work."
Kenneth Kutina, vice president for institutional planning, is working with the firm to formalize a contract and address the timing, scope, processes, and technical concerns related to developing the new master plan.
"It's a very exciting process, and I think it is enormously important to the future of the University," Kutina said.
Planners will consult all key University constituencies for input while developing the new plan, Kutina said. The process also will involve neighboring institutions, and will coordinate with the planning activities which University Circle Inc. is pursuing.
Detailed planning will begin in early 2000, after the contract is in place, according to Kutina. The process should conclude in early 2001 with the presentation of a new master planning document to the Board of Trustees for review and approval.
The master plan will examine issues such as improving safe and pedestrian-friendly links across campus; identifying opportunities to acquire new land for expansion space, and developing priorities and strategies to guide this growth; creating "college town" activities (run either by the University or private companies); considering sites for new academic, student life, and support service facilities, including parking garages; and developing guidelines for future buildings and landscaping.
The firm suggested the design and landscaping guidelines. Many institutions use these guidelines to help identify preferred materials, building heights, and lighting schemes, Kutina said. They offer "some basic guidelines which would help ensure compatibility in new buildings and renovations."
Such guidelines "would be useful to have as we mature as a unified University," he added.
Ayers/Saint/Gross has worked on a variety of student facilities -- from athletics to residence halls -- at other colleges and universities. This experience will be helpful as the firm becomes involved with CWRU's discussions about enhancements to, or a replacement of, the Thwing Student Center.
"We're asking them to look at the student center and focus on that early on as a priority," Auston said.
Among issues to be addressed include the types and amounts of spaces that should be available in a student center here, where an expansion or new facility could be located, and how the new facility will relate to "the existing surroundings and the rest of campus," Kutina said.
CWRU adopted its last master plan in 1988. This document has played an important role in the University's physical development since then, through such ways as the constructing numerous new buildings, developing a pedestrian "spine" on campus (with the Turning Point sculpture at the Heart of the Campus as its midpoint), and increasing green spaces.
"I think the University has matured a great deal in the last 10-15 years, in terms of our programs, research, student body, and future opportunities," Kutina said. "We need that to reflect in the new master plan."
During this important and complex process, CWRU will be in experienced hands with Ayers/Saint/Gross.
The firm is "clearly one of the best-known firms nationally in campus master planning," Kutina said. "They only do college and University work."
This tight focus can be helpful because "we're different in general from commercial or industrial or housing developers," he added. "There's a different culture in the architecture for colleges and universities."
The 50-member firm has worked with more than 30 colleges and universities nationally through its three divisions -- campus planning, academic buildings, and student life facilities.
Among these institutions are Emory University, the University of Virginia, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and George Washington University.
The firm recently signed on to help Carnegie Mellon and Johns Hopkins Universities develop master plans, Kutina said.
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