From Focus EMU, April
8, 2003
When Eastern Michigan University completes its
campus master plan, it won't resemble a priority list of what
buildings to construct or renovate, and when. Rather, the plan
will look at the best way to optimize use of campus property in
areas that extend beyond just bricks and mortar.
The campus master plan project will focus on the
physical components of the main, west and transition areas of
campus. This will include buildings, traffic circulation areas
(vehicular, bicycle, pedestrian), green space, parking, landscape
treatments and building assessments in addition to defining long-term
goals and objectives.
"The plan will not establish capital priorities.
What it will do is designate the type of activity that could be
placed in certain geographic areas of campus," said Pat Doyle,
EMU vice president for business and finance. The plan may make
some recommendations that activities now located in certain places
on campus may be better when the time comes to replace or renovate
someplace else.
For example, Doyle said most of EMU's academic
buildings are currently located within 5-10 minutes walking distance
of each other.
"Should we remain committed to this concept?
If so, where could future academic buildings go? What would have
to be relocated elsewhere to make room?" Doyle said. If such
a master plan were available five years ago, Doyle noted the University
may have come to the conclusion, much earlier, to locate a new
student union on the site where Pine Grove Apartments now exist.
A new student union is expected to open on that centrally-located
site in 2005.
Campus planners for the master plan project include
four local planning and design firms.
They are Pollack Design Associates, The Campus Studio, Quinn Evans/Architects
and Midwestern Consulting LLC. The campus master plan, scheduled
to be completed in January 2004, will look 20-25 years into the
future. The plan has three categories of expected outcomes:
Campus quality. The plan should
provide students with an exceptional learning environment; enhance
the sense of University community; and achieve a unified campus.
Effective use of assets. The
plan should assure the optimal land use of limited University
property; define optimum capacity and utilization; identify opportunities
for accommodating growth and renewal; and define patterns in the
transition zone between the main and west areas of campus.
Adjacent community. The University
will be a good neighbor to those who border campus without compromising
the University's mission.
"The plan will attempt to identify the ways
in which the physical layout of the campus can support the University's
six key strategic directions,"
Doyle said.
"The master plan will test the validity of
our commitment to a pedestrian-oriented campus where parking is
on the exterior. It will test and validate our commitment to athletics
being consolidated on the west campus," Doyle said.
"Campus and community participation are considered
critical components of the process," Doyle said. Focus group
meetings to discuss and garner input about the master plan began
March 20 and involved student leaders, the President's Cabinet,
institutional research, directors/associate directors, physical
plant staff and Ypsilanti officials.
The most recent meeting at the Convocation Center
April 2, was for community and neighborhood groups. Many west
campus-area residents said they wanted to feel more a part of
campus, but said they were not interested in a plan that involved
the University acquiring more property to extend EMU's physical
boundaries.
Consultants presented the results of an inventory
analysis of the campus master plan April 16 in the Hoyt Conference
Center. Download a copy of their
presentation here.
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