Campus Spatial Diagram and Conceptual Preliminary Master Plan
Campus Spatial Diagram
The Campus Spatial Diagram was developed during the Conceptual Preliminary Master Plan stage of the master planning process. It illustrates the fundamental principles of the Preliminary Master Plan. The Campus Spatial Diagram allows planners to consider relationships without focusing on specific details or the exact location of elements. The diagram is a tool used to gain consensus on the overall direction of the Master Plan and articulate the relationships between component parts of campus.
The Campus Spatial Diagram illustrates the following conceptual assumptions that in turn, addressed the primary planning issues identified in the Plan.
Circulation and Wayfinding:
- An Outer Loop Road serves as the primary commuter transportation system
- The Outer Loop Road is a medium-speed roadway with a rural character
- An Inner Loop Road serves as the primary vehicular transportation system for visitor, emergency, and service traffic
- The Inner Loop Road is low-speed and has an urban, pedestrian-oriented scale
- The academic core is contained within the Inner Loop Road
Parking:
- Parking is located between the Outer and Inner Loop Roads
- Only visitor and accessible parking penetrate the Inner Loop Road
- Parking is also hierarchical by location, with housing parking being the furthest out, then commuter parking, and event parking closest to the Inner Loop Road
Utilities and Infrastructure:
- Overall infrastructure of campus is hierarchical
- Utility corridors and infrastructure capabilities are explored at the site design level
Context and Community:
- Visitors have precedence over every-day campus users in terms of circulation and parking
- Arboretum and golf course are maintained as campus assets open to the community
Building Opportunities:
- Academic buildings are contained within the Inner Loop Road
- Housing occurs in the campus mid-zone
- Recreation facilities expansion would occur in campus mid-zone
Arboretum:
- Arboretum is maintained and preserved outside of the Outer Loop Road
- Green swaths of arboretum-like landscape are introduced to the core of campus along major ingress/egress points
Campus Entry:
- Arrival sequence for campus users is drive (Outer Loop Road), park (campus mid-zone), walk (campus core)
- Arrival sequence for visitors is drive (Outer and Inner Loop Road), park (visitor parking in Inner Loop), walk (specific building/destination)
Sustainability:
- Open space, habitats, and site ecology are created and protected to extend naturalized green space into the heart of campus
- Multimodal pedestrian transportation and alternatives to vehicular travel encouraged
Pedestrian and Site Specific Studies:
- Inner Loop Road is pedestrian oriented with slow vehicular speeds
- Campus core is fundamentally a pedestrian space
- Concourse connection is maintained in campus core only
- Campus quad is an interactive, traditional campus space
Campus Spatial Diagram
This diagram facilitated comments and feedback about the general layout and interconnectedness of individual elements on the UW–Green Bay Campus.
Conceptual Preliminary Master Plan
The Conceptual Preliminary Master Plan was guided by detailed feedback from the conceptual alternatives stage in the master planning process. The challenge was to use feedback generated from presentation of three conceptual alternatives and effectively synthesize that input into one cohesive plan. The resulting Conceptual Preliminary Master Plan was reviewed by the Master Plan Steering Committee and presented to the campus through a series of workshops on campus in October, 2004.
These assumptions target all key aspects of the primary planning issues as outlined in the Conceptual Preliminary Plan.
Circulation and Wayfinding:
- The main entrance maintained and enhanced
- Nicolet Entrance changed to test the concept of a roundabout intersection for traffic control and de-emphasized as an entrance to campus
- The Inner Loop Road forms a circle encompassing the campus core and academic buildings
- Inner-loop concept includes Kress Events Center with academic core and routes road to east
- Inner loop concepts excludes Kress Events Center from the academic core and routes road to west
- A series of arteries penetrate into the campus core to provide direct access to buildings or parking for visitors, service, and emergency vehicles
- Perpendicular roadway intersections introduced for safety and navigational purposes
Parking:
- Parking expanded adjacent to existing parking lots whenever, wherever possible
- Buffer strips introduction in parking lots for storm water infiltration
- No parking streets depicted in this plan per feedback from campus during earlier conceptual alternatives presentation
Utilities and Infrastructure:
- Buildings sited along existing utility corridor or adjacent to buildings already connected to the utility system.
Context and Community:
- Pedestrian and vehicular access to potential future development of Schott Property accommodated
- Proposed housing village expansion occurs where it will energize the surrounding neighborhoods for potential commercial development
Building Opportunities:
- Academic building expansion situated for solar access and connected to the concourse
- Housing expansion occurs adjacent to existing housing village
- Non-traditional student housing pod addition on southwest corner of campus
- Addition of lantern-like features to buildings for wayfinding at night
- Preliminary footprint for Kress Events Center from Venture Architects is depicted
Arboretum:
- Arboretum maintained and preserved outside the Outer Loop Road
- Arboretum gateway maintained and preserved
- Green swaths of arboretum-like landscape introduced to the core of campus
- Green belt preserved between existing housing village and academic core
Campus Entry:
- Entry accommodates visitor parking
- Concourse connection between Cofrin Library and Student Services removed
- Campus quad and entry drive become one space
Sustainability:
- Density of academic buildings increased within campus core
- Distances for utility and other infrastructure connections minimized
- New buildings sited to maximize solar efficiency
- Proposed academic buildings expansion accommodated by adding on to existing facilities
- Density of housing village increased with proposed dorms
- Open space, habitats, and site ecology created and protected and extended into heart of campus as naturalized green space
- Buffer strips proposed for parking lots
- Urban heat island effect of asphalt paving reduced
- Site-specific parking lot storm water recharge areas created
- Campus-wide, large-scale designated storm water recharge areas
- Multimodal pedestrian transportation and alternatives to vehicular travel explored
Pedestrian and Site Specific Studies:
- Multimodal circulation system exists within campus
- Athletics and recreation facilities expansion
- Creation of “access plazas” in housing pods for un-programmed, green, inter-active spaces and vehicular traffic for emergency/service/move-in only
Much of the discussion and feedback during the conceptual preliminary Master Plan stage centered on the removal of a section of the concourse to open up the campus quad as the final destination of the arrival sequence. Comments both supporting and opposing the removal were heard. Participants were encouraged to visit the site and imagine the difference in character and human scale the pro-posed change would create.
A second discussion centered on alignment of the Inner Loop Road to the east or west of the Kress Events Center. The fundamental decision referred back to the Campus Spatial Diagram and it was decided that as a non-academic building, the sports complex could be located outside of the academic core and not be connected by the concourse system.
Feedback from this stage included a general acceptance of the other primary planning elements and relationships contained within the evolving Master Plan.
Conceptual Master Plan
Based on comments and feedback from participants regarding the three conceptual alternatives, a single concept was developed. This concept support the idea of the Inner Load Road and explores elements from all three alternatives. Click image for a more detailed version.