Master Plan > Recommendations and Implementation Strategies > Secondary Planning Issues> Site Specific Studies>
Campus Quad
The best traditional campus spaces lend a defining character or sense of place to a university and often are remembered so fondly by alumni, they become akin to places of pilgrimage. Most major institutions of higher learning have taken special care to construct and preserve these places; from The Quad at UVA and Harvard Yard to the Memorial Union Terrace on the UW-Madison campus. The common tie is that all these spaces are outdoors, a natural draw--more memorable than a building or dorm. UW–Green Bay has an opportunity to develop such a feature by creating a campus quad in the heart of the academic core. Currently separated from campus by building and concourse connections, this space has the potential to become the area where students gather during warm weather, where large groups organize, and where prospective students take their first look at the campus.
Recommendations:
- Use existing buildings to defi ne the quad space.
- Create logical pedestrian connections between building entry/exit points across the campus quad and use these as the base layer of any design.
- Consider an addition to the University Union as an opportunity to create a focal point within the campus quad
- Reserve ideal location for food service and a seating area immediately adjacent to the University Union expansion in the campus quad
- Remove concourse link between Student Service and Cofrin Library to create an entry gateway and transition between vehicular entry and pedestrian spaces.
- Use pedestrian-scale lighting that enhances the experience of the space rather than serving a purely utilitarian purpose
- Construct a loggia feature to replace existing con-course link from University Union to Cofrin Library
- Make it permeable for vehicular and pedestrian access into both areas of the quad
- Use loggia to create a pedestrian connection at the plaza (rooftop terrace) level between University Union and Cofrin Library
- Design loggia to be enclosed during winter months for comfortable concourse circulation
Implementation:
- Construct University Union addition to create lantern-like beacon focal point
- Site food service addition at grade level immediately adjacent to proposed quad to create indoor-outdoor eating and vending dynamic
- Remove concourse segment
- Construct exterior quadrangle project in sequence of phases
Campus Quad
The position of a pedestrian quad at the center of the campus becomes a symbolic and functional focal point of campus life.
Campus Quad Detail
A design for the campus quad should form strong connections to the proposed campus entry. The space is a pedestrian core at the heart of the campus that welcomes visitors and creates dynamic interior/exterior movement and interaction. It is the traditional iconic quad of most universities and a design element missing at UW–Green Bay.