Spotlight On Design and Community

An institutionally centered approach to campus planning and design is becoming increasingly phased out as higher education evolves toward a more student-centered pedagogy. Shifting the focus of campus planning and design to the student not only improves academic outcomes for individual students but also creates a sense of community and human connection

University and college campuses have traditionally reflected the departmental separation and discipline-specific model of academic scholarship. This institutionally centered approach to campus planning and design is becoming increasingly phased out as higher education evolves toward a more student-centered pedagogy. Shifting the focus of campus planning and design to the student not only improves academic outcomes for individual students but also creates a sense of community and human connection. Stephen Coulston, AIA, principal in the Austin, TX, office of Perkins+Will, spoke with College Planning & Management to explain why community connections are so important and how the design and planning of campus can facilitate community-building.

Q. Why is it important for university and college to foster better community connections?
The line separating society and academia is increasingly blurred. As consumers, current and future students expect both city and university to be as accessible and searchable as Google, provide rapid delivery on expectations like Amazon, and offer the service ambiance of Starbucks. University-community engagement must respond to our societal issues of the day.

As Bruce Katz and Jeremy Nowak pointed out in The New Localism: How Cities Can Thrive in the Age of Populism, most collegiate institutions have some version of their mission and purpose grounded in learning, service, and research, yet find themselves struggling with issues ranging from operational funding to college debt. Meanwhile, cities are taking up the gauntlet and looking to partner in new ways to problem-solve and better their decision-making policies. Together, universities and their communities are uniquely poised to tackle the most serious issues of the day: equity, opportunity, sustainability, resiliency, etc.—each of which can have related implications on the built environment.

Q. How can the design and planning of a university campus facilitate community-building?
In the 2011 CityLab article, “Why Cities Matter,” Richard Florida states that nearly 85 percent of Americans live in metro areas, which produce 90 percent of the U.S.'s total economic output and 85 percent of its jobs. And in a 2016 CityLab article, “The Reality of America’s College Towns,” he notes that more than 50 percent of colleges and universities are in urban areas and 90 percent of students attend institutions in cities. This means that cities are home to both the largest student pools of tomorrow and alumni whose power of jobs creation, tax base, and philanthropy have a reciprocal university upside.

By reimagining how they invest their resources and take a more community-minded approach, universities can have a big local impact. One example is the University of Florida (UF) Innovation Square’s Infinity Hall, an entrepreneurial living-learning community and the first residential public-private partnership of its kind for the institution. In addition to providing residential quarters, it has over 20,000 square feet of innovation and collaboration spaces for UF’s entrepreneurial students and university program partners. This building is part of a larger urban redevelopment project that transforms 12 underutilized blocks in Gainesville, FL, into a walkable urban research district that capitalizes on the entrepreneurial energy of UF. This successful project is the result of an intense collaboration between the university, Gainesville Community Redevelopment Agency, Shands Healthcare, the City of Gainesville, and private development groups.

Q. In what ways has traditional campus design and planning inadvertently discouraged community-building?
Campuses tend to be insular in nature, and small decisions add up. New security fences or even historic stone walls can serve as barriers that communicate an unwelcoming message to the surrounding community. Public buildings such as fine arts centers, performance halls, and events centers located within the impermeable campus core discourage community access. Communities can also create barriers to campus accessibility. A major roadway arterial prioritizing fast, high-volume traffic movement over safe, pedestrian accessibility does not incentivize positive connections. 

A good example of how this divide was overcome is at Texas State University in San Marcos, where the once insular Fine Arts programs were housed in the campus core, and a perimeter wall and surface parking lots separated the campus from its historic downtown. As a solution, the university constructed a highly visible new Fine Arts center at the campus edge, removing both wall and surface lot barriers. In addition, a new adjacent parking structure allows visitors to park near local restaurants before enjoying a performance. These small details helped to create a more integrated community that could benefit from one another.

Featured

  • Springfield Breaks Ground on $53.7M Pipkin Middle School Rebuild

    Construction is underway on a new, state-of-the-art Pipkin Middle School in Springfield, Mo., a major step in Springfield Public Schools’ (SPS) long-term facility improvement plan, according to local news. The $53.7-million project officially broke ground in early June, following years of planning and community input aimed at modernizing aging infrastructure and addressing student capacity concerns.

  • ProTeam Launches GoFit 6 HEPA Backpack Vacuum

    Technology leader Emerson recently introduced the new ProTeam GoFit 6 HEPA backpack vacuum, according to a news release. The vacuum was designed to capture 99.97% of particulates down to 0.3 microns—including atmospheric hazards like lead dust, mold spores, and other particulates—through an advanced filtration system.

  • California High School Starts Construction on New CTE Building

    Analy High School, part of the West Sonoma County Union High School District (WSCUHSD) in Sebastopol, Calif., recently broke ground on a new Career Technical Education (CTE) Building, according to a news release. The 15,000-square-foot facility will offer specialized facilities for students in engineering, welding, culinary arts, agricultural sciences, and design thinking.

  • modern college building with circuit and brain motifs

    Anthropic Introduces Claude for Education

    Anthropic has launched a version of its Claude AI assistant tailored for higher education institutions. Claude for Education "gives academic institutions secure, reliable AI access for their entire community," the company said, to enable colleges and universities to develop and implement AI-enabled approaches across teaching, learning, and administration.

Digital Edition