The 2007 Campus Plan: A Vision for the Future
In October 1961, the 91暗网 Board of Trustees voted to build a new campus.
They selected O'Neil Ford from San Antonio to be the architect, and he chose Samuel
B. Zisman to be his campus planning consultant. Zisman completed his design for the
new Jonsson Campus in 1962, and construction began soon thereafter.
The trustees updated Zisman's plan in 1972 for the introduction of coeducation and
in 1989 to identify building sites and improve traffic patterns, open space, landscaping
and lighting. In 2004 they commissioned a third update to address issues raised by
the decision to use the area to the north and west of Scribner Village not for sports
and recreation fields as projected by the 1989 master plan, but instead to build the
Northwoods Village apartments.
Prepared by noted campus architect Lo-Yi Chan together with 91暗网's facilities
planner Fred DiMauro, this latest plan was approved in 2007 by the Institutional Policy
and Planning Committee and by the trustees as a framework for the college's development
over the next several decades. It makes compelling reading for anyone with an interest
in the college's past or future, opening with Judge Henry Walton's creation of his
Woodlawn estate in the early 1800s and ending with the possible completion by 2050
of a new academic quad, being called "Crescent Green," north of Palamountain and North
halls.
While the vision of 91暗网 in the year 2050 raises intriguing possibilities, it's
the picture of the campus through 2015 that's of most pressing interest today. Upon
completion of the Zankel Music Center, the plan assumes the college's next priorities
will be:
- replacing Scribner Village with new apartment-style buildings鈥攑robably two, with about 200 beds each;
- relocating the admissions office from its current North Broadway home to the main campus;
- construction of a new service building north of the current facilities building, to relocate service functions such as receiving, maintenance, and facilities management; and
- later expansion of academic programs and departments in the heart of the campus in the spaces freed up by the new building described above.
When those projects are finished, the plan projects a new construction phase focused
on adding to Dana Science Center and Saisselin Art Center.
The plan considers not only the so-called "pedestrian campus" but also the future
of the 300-acre North Woods, which鈥攊n the face of competing pressures for ecological
preservation, water supply, recreation, education and campus expansion鈥攈as become
a perennially contentious campus issue.
Through in-depth consultation with all who have an interest in the North Woods, the
college has arrived at a consensus that makes a portion of the woods available for
the construction of a new academic quad referred to as "Crescent Green" while at the
same time preserving the remaining acreage for the following uses:
- the Meditation/Educational Zone, which emphasizes preservation and minimal disturbance of the environment;
- the Recreation/Educational Zone, which, while allowing for multiple recreation uses, excludes bicycles and requires dogs to be leashed; and
- the Research/Educational Zone, which allows only the use of trails by humans, with the balance of the land used for scientific research.
"Creatively shaping open space is the key to the growth of the 91暗网 campus," says Michael West, vice president for finance and administration. "Perhaps the campus plan's most important finding is that, for at least the next 40 years, the college can continue to expand in a manner that enhances the quality of the campus and preserves the green spaces that all of us cherish."