As developed by Oslund and Associates of Minneapolis, Minnesota
Presented by Joseph R. Favour and David Motzenbecker of Oslund and Associates.
- Round
1
Tuesday, August 7 - Round
2
Thursday, August 23 - Round
3 - Revision
Thursday, September 20 - Round
4 - Final Revision
Tuesday, October 23 - Master
Plan Update
(PowerPoint Presentation)
Thursday, November 8
Send feedback regarding Master Plan 2001 concepts to:
- Joe Favour: jfavour@oaala.com
- David Motzenbecker: dmotzenbecker@oaala.com
Note: most links are to full browser size diagrams in the .jpg or .gif format
Goals & Recommendations
These pages revisit the goals and recommendations of the 1996 Master Plan. They also address proposed changes to these goals & recommendations (noted in red).
Analysis
Assets & Liabilities: This analysis diagram shows what we feel are the campus’ aesthetic assets and liabilities. The assets are colored in green, liabilities in red.
Circulation: This analysis diagram focuses on pedestrian and vehicular circulation on campus. Red arrows are vehicular circulation, blue are pedestrian. This diagram also shows how both circulation types interact and where there may be potential conflicts.
Districts: This analysis divides the current campus into various districts of similar uses. It allows one to see clearly what uses reside in what areas of campus. This type of analysis also helps to determine where future development will occur, and what type it may be.
Edges/Gateways: This diagram highlights the campus edges – where they occur and their hierarchy. Within the edges are found multiple gateway points that allow access to campus. These also have been represented in a hierarchical manner.
Expansion/Unification: This analysis shows the areas thought to be most appropriate to be expanded into and tied into the central campus, over time.
Oasis of Technology: This diagram helps to make clear the notion that the heart of campus has acted, currently and historically, as an oasis of sorts.
Open Space: This is a typical analysis that is done to focus the observers on what pieces of campus are purely open, either currently existing as recreation space or open grass fields.
Utilities: This plan has been made to show where the current utilities are located.
Diagrams
These diagrams are provided so that observers can get a sense of the basic moves that underlie each of the proposed concepts. Through the use of simple lines, arrows and shapes one can begin to see how each plan acts to shape the campus in a different manner.
Existing Campus Plan: This plan simply shows the campus as it currently exists in August of 2001.
1996 Master Plan: This plan is a result of the last required revisitation of the University of Minnesota Campus Master Plans.
Virtual Tour of Existing Campus Plan
Master Plan Concepts
The following concepts are to be seen as visionary exercises – methods in which the envelope is stretched. These are moments in which all ideals are considered. The final resulting plan will be an integrated combination of these ideas and the reality of what can truly be done.
Round 1 - The Binary River
(presented
08-07-2001)
The
main organizational thought behind this scheme was that of movement -
movement of the river, movement of technology, movement of people.
Aerial photographs of Crookston reveal the beautiful form of the river as it carves its way through the landscape, tying far-flung places together. Our thought was to abstract the idea of the river into a central road that acts to tie the various parts of campus together. The curvilinear form would stretch west to meet the Natural History plots, moving through campus to its east edge, where the road would end in a circle that looks out over the agricultural plots.
Movement of technology takes place via binary code. Ones and Zeros are the only pieces that make up the binary code – ones, being linear in nature, were perfect to act as passageways of pedestrian and vehicular movement on campus. Again, we abstracted this idea into linear tree-lined avenues of passage. We’ve added buildings and created new glass links between buildings.
Round
1 - The
Hi-Tech/Ag Core
(presented
08-07-2001)
The critical piece of this concept is the central
core that acts to stitch the campus together, both north to south and east
to west. This core would
consist of adjacent rows of glass greenhouses, interspersed with showcase
gardens. This space would be
where all the programs would showcase their highlights - a perfect way to
introduce new/prospective students to campus.
This plan completes the loop road and adds a south mall, as well as various buildings and glass links.
Round
1 - The
Oval
(presented
08-07-2001)
This concept plays off the analysis that the core of campus acts
as an “oasis.” An oval road that draws the entire campus together from north
to south, east to west rings this oasis.
All core academic and residential functions are located within the
oval; all agricultural research, outreach and sports are located to the
outside of the oval. This
scheme allows the Mall to remain a sort of “sacred, pure” pedestrian
space while pushing the main vehicular circulation outward.
This scheme allows prospective students ease in navigating the
entire campus for an overview.
Glass links are present in this scheme as well.
(presented 08-23-2001)
The
idea of the “Oval” can bee seen here in a modified form from the
original concept. The oval
concept has been integrated into the existing mall road, closing the mall
loop – an often mentioned desire on campus.
The gentle curve of the south loop allows a central place to add a
campus gateway road and entrance. This
will eliminate the feeling that entering from the south is akin to
“coming in the back door.” A
new entry garden can be located at the apex of this entry road, acting to
create continuity with the main entrance and the three other proposed
entry gardens.
The
observance of “activity” on campus, the ability to see “technology
at work,” was the driving idea behind establishing a precedent of
creating new building links out of glass.
Glass links allow not only spaces for movement, but places for
gathering that may occur inside or outside.
The choice of transparent material for the links is drawn from the
idea that the driving medium of technology is binary code, a medium that
is invisible (transparent) to the naked eye, yet whose activity produces
vibrant and vital results. By
building glass links surrounded by flowering trees (indicated in pink) the
campus begins to adhere to a “design language” that adds continuity
and community.
The
new Student Center (D) is a continuation of the “transparency” theme
into a full-size building. Again, by allowing those outside to observe the activity and
life that occurs on the inside, the vitality of the campus is enhanced.
Glass buildings are especially effective at night and in the winter
months, as the warm glow from inside lights up and vivifies the adjacent
landscape. Green space
surrounds the new Student Center, with pathways connecting it north to an
interpretational space surrounding the relocated Hafslo Church, as well as
the expanded Business Incubator. The
new Student Center remains in the same location as Bed hall.
This allows the building to act as a magnet, drawing attention and
activity to it via its uniqueness.
The
main entrance, being one of the prominently favored places on campus, was
only slightly altered. The
need for a visible and easily accessible Visitor/Information Center was
taken into account. The
resulting design idea was incorporated into a new glass Visitor’s Center
(G) attached to a new brick Administration building.
A small “visitors only” parking area has been placed directly
across from the new building, allowing visitors easy access to needed
information. Entry gardens
remain (indicated in purple), yet become coordinated with four newly
proposed entry gardens (also indicated in purple).
An abstraction of the Red Lake River as it flows through Crookston was the
idea behind a road that would help to tie together the disparate parts of
the campus, such as the Red River Valley Natural History Area, the main
campus, and the NWROC. After
responding to comments from those who use campus on a daily basis, the
road has evolved into a walking path.
This path would still connect the aforementioned spaces in a
beautiful and beneficial way. The
path would be beneficial to campus in that it would allow visitors,
prospective students, and researchers a way to see the variety of
offerings that UMC has to offer. Interpretive
elements; incorporating campus history, depths of glacial Lake Agassiz,
and natural history, can be placed along this path.
This path also allows current students, faculty, and staff a way to
access the beautiful Red River Valley Natural History Area, which
currently is quite difficult to access.
In addition, this walkway can become a beautiful, meaningful place
to experience the campus during warmer months.
Binary
code is again prevalent in the creation of pedestrian movement corridors
that act to bridge key campus spaces from north to south.
Vertical bands of tree-lined walks, reminiscent of the “1’s”
in binary code, are physical manifestations of these “invisible”
corridors of movement.
These pathways will improve the connections between the North
Campus, as well as between the Main Campus and the sports facilities to
the south.
(presented 09-20-2001)
After reviewing comments made during the last two sessions, in addition to comments provided by the Master Plan committee, we have adapted the previous designs into a final, singular design for the Crookston campus.
This design, as in previous versions, extends the Mall loop road to the south. This move allows for ease of circulation throughout the campus interior. The road extension provides access to the new residence halls, tennis courts and a new entry road.
We have responded to the comments regarding the Main Entry road confusion, particularly that of entering the new parking lot. We have addressed this issue by moving the parking lot entry road north. Access to this parking lot will now be off of the Mall road, rather than the entry. The access road will pass underneath the new link between a new Administration building and Kiehle Hall.
The band of trees that seemed to separate the North and South portions of campus has been removed and an area of Arboretum-like showcase gardens has been placed near the road. This is intended to act as a draw between the different portions of campus.
Also, the placement of the newly located Physical Plant buildings has been reevaluated. The new placement is much closer to County 215 than previously. The parking lots have also been revised.
This revised version seems to be an excellent combination of ideals and realistic projections on what can be accomplished at the University of Minnesota, Crookston.
(Made available 10-23-2001)
Final
Comprehensive Booklet
Presented as an Adobe PDF file
You will need Adobe
Acrobat Reader to view and print
Final
Large Maps 11x17"
These maps are for reference in
conjunction with the final comprehensive booklet
Presented as an Adobe PDF file
You will need Adobe
Acrobat Reader to view and print
Ideas
- Ideas Diagram (Round 1)
- Ideas Diagram (Round 2)
Glass Links: The idea behind the glass links/buildings is to “reveal” technology at work. See-through spaces allow the observer outside to see activity taking place inside, whether that activity is research, students surfing the net on laptops or lectures by professors.
These spaces also act to give life to campus in the evenings and during the winter, as they are lit from within, providing a warm glow apparent from the outside to anyone passing by.
Binary Walls: These walls would act as sculpture, wayfinding and historical markers. They are glass walls etched, with historical information and the description of whatever building they sit in front of, in binary code. This information would be repeated in English at another inconspicuous place on the wall.
The Slide: It seems that historically, students constructed a toboggan run in the center of the mall every winter…what a great activity to reinstate or recall in some form.
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