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Over the last year, Case’s team of planners set out to
discover how our campus buildings and landscape can better express
and serve the University’s mission. In the spirit of our
ambitious vision, we challenged ourselves to take imaginative
steps. We established a series of principles to guide the master
planning recommendations.
 These planning principles are simple
and bold. They follow directly from a thorough analysis of the
University’s goals and aspirations along with its built
environment. The principles acknowledge the strengths of our
campus – most notably, its location within University
Circle, where many of Cleveland’s world-class cultural
and non-profit institutions exist on or near our campus, creating a uniquely dynamic and
diverse urban district. The planning principles also address
its challenges: the absence of a symbolic core; the disconnected
physical relationship between the University and its neighboring
community; the need for new and improved research facilities;
the shortage of memorable, inspiring, and comfortable outdoor
spaces; the spatial limitations of a dense urban setting; and
most importantly, the lack of spatial continuity or a sense
of the pieces forming a cohesive whole. This Master Plan proposes
to address these deficiencies, enhance our nationally recognized
strengths, and create a campus experience that reflects the
University’s academic excellence.
Envisioning the future of our campus demands
realism about what Case’s campus is today – an urban
campus that has grown incrementally, still coping with the physical
remnants of our predecessor institutions’ physical divisions
and with Euclid Avenue as a greater divide. The resulting quirkiness
of the campus must be addressed as a strength to be built upon
and not to be wished away.
Case is distinctly forward thinking in
its aspirations and educational mission. Our campus should reflect
and celebrate this – and in doing so, we will attract the
independent thinkers who are the true strength of Case.
The Master Plan provides a framework for
development of the entire campus environment which is flexible
enough to evolve over time, but specific in its overarching goals.
Implementation of the plan is presented as a series of alternatives
or projects which individually advance the strategic goals of
the University, and contribute to the realization of the planning
principles. These projects are described by precinct within the
Master Plan Projects section.The Master Plan is intended to serve
as a foundation for all future campus planning initiatives, but
does not depend on the completion of any single initiative.
 Vital steps toward realization of the Master
Plan are already well under way. The recent opening of the Peter
B. Lewis Building is the perfect symbol of a bold new university
dedicated to working across boundaries. Builders have completed
the first phase of the North Residential Village, and students
now have a clear vista from the Case Quad to Severance Hall and
beyond – a view that previously was blocked by the Baker
Building. Realization of the Master Plan, however, will require
sustained commitment to many decisions and projects, over years
or even decades, and through evolving circumstances. As research
and academic programs evolve, continued prioritization of Master
Plan initiatives and identification of funding sources must take
place within the framework established herein. It will be critically
important that future generations understand the core concepts
of this Master Plan and remain committed to improving the campus
environment as an expression of the University’s presence
within the community.
Historically, a symbolic fence divided
the Case Institute of Technology and Western Reserve University.
Since 1967, the original institutions have merged seamlessly into
one, yet the campus fabric is still physically divided. At a time
when the University’s President has put forth the charge
for Case to embrace connections – connecting varied academic
disciplines; connecting a diverse population of students, staff,
and faculty; connecting the university to its neighbors –
we also have the opportunity to connect the physical fabric of
the campus.
We at Case aspire to transform and redefine
the twenty-first-century research university. The goal of this
Master Plan is to guide the creation of a physical environment
that integrally supports this aspiration. |
