By B.L. Wilson
Visualize a diagonal pathway running south from Washington Circle past the George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health and medical buildings nearby through the Foggy Bottom campus connected by open spaces, alley ways, small parks, public squares, even lobbies and hallways of buildings with Kogan Plaza at its center. You have a framework for a GW campus that works it works its way to the National Mall
Mike Aziz, Cooper Robertson’s director of urban design, a member of the architecture and design firm partnering with the university on the Strategic Campus and Facilities Master Plan for improving the campus, said this is one of many options to consider during a presentation on ideas for a future George Washington University campus that was conducted online Friday afternoon for faculty and staff.
In opening remarks, Brian Snyder, GW’s director of facilities resources and planning, said that even during this period of virtual learning and teleworking, “the future of our campuses remains a university priority… and the plan will articulate the vision and guiding principles for GW’s physical development planning and establish standards for unified campus identity.”
This workshop occurred during the fourth phase of the planning process, the presentation of a preferred plan draft following 11 other workshops, seven walking tours and more than 100 consultations with faculty, staff, students and university leadership to see how closely the proposed plan meets the leadership’s stated mission to become a preeminent global research university.
“This is probably the first time in a long time the university is taking a comprehensive approach to the entire campus,” said Brian Shea, a Cooper Robertson director, “and not just Foggy Bottom but Mount Vernon as well.”
He laid out 10 guiding principles that inform the designs that were presented, including the view that the university should expand and deepen its connection to Washington, D.C.:
- Strengthen its sense of place with a cohesive and inspired campus that expresses the unique character of Foggy Bottom.
- Develop a dynamic public realm with memorable places, campus spots and iconic buildings.
- Reinforce the diagonal walk through the campus that is seen as a distinctive character of the university.
- Reinvent Kogan Plaza and H Street as the heart of the campus.
- Create buildings that strengthen the student-life experience.
- Connect better the student recreation and athletic experience.
- Create areas that relate to each other but accommodate other uses, such as student housing and recreation.
- Develop a bold new STEM and medical research area in the northwest part of the campus.
- Upgrade academic and teaching environments.
Sustainability, resilience, equity and inclusion would underline the principles.
In an interactive poll, workshop participants chose strengthening the university’s sense of place and upgrading classrooms and educational facilities as priorities, similar to what undergraduate and graduate students chose during their workshops last week. Focusing on Kogan Plaza and H Street as the public space of campus life also scored highly among the groups.
“It’s a blending of physical and programmatic goals for the university, which leads to a campus framework, said Mr. Shea. “It allows you to develop over time very organized and comprehensive public open spaces, public environments that reinforce the nature and character and creates a greater sense of place,” he said.
He said the company looked at a number of approaches taken by other universities such as integrating the campus into the city’s grid or creating a superblock and settled on a hybrid plan that would connect sections of the GW campus to a superblock around Kogan Plaza and H Street that would ideally be traffic free from 21st to 22nd Street or have greatly enhanced traffic calming measures.
The sections would involve the creation of precincts or zones organized around specific academic and social functions that also accommodate building and renovation projects already being considered, such as an extensive renovation of Gelman Library that could be designed to engage more with Kogan Plaza, opening it up more, making the stairs more universally accessible and adding green elements. The plan would make it a priority to repurpose the Marvin Center, relocating student services and instead turning it into a world-class event center.
During a Q & A, faculty and staff asked how realistic it would be to close off H Street. Others asked about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on campus capital projects, including the imagined diagonal walkway from Washington Circle through the campus.
“The diagonal is not something that would be built over night but over time through a series of discrete projects,” such as H Street and Potomac Alley, Mr. Aziz said. “There are things that can be done immediately to improve the campus that may not be terribly expensive and would be easy to implement.”
Incremental improvements, Mr. Aziz said, would make it more pedestrian friendly with landscaping, incorporating the city’s planned bike lanes and potentially new intersection designs. Parallel parking along H Street has already been removed and the university is working with the city to create smaller “parklets” spaces
The campus master plan project continues through the summer and culminates with a presentation to the Board of Trustees and then work in summer/fall to incorporate suggestions into a final master plan as well as create supporting documents for architectural, landscape and streetscape guidelines.
Mount Vernon campus workshop
A community planning workshop also was held May 1 for the Mount Vernon campus and presented conceptual ideas on what Mr. Aziz said were ways to “leave the campus the same, but better” by improving existing facilities but not fundamentally changing the unique dynamics and strong sense of community or the “relaxed and familial feel” of the “Vern experience.”
Similar to Foggy Bottom, seven guiding principles were created to help frame the master plan proposals for this campus with many focusing on enhancing the open feel and walkability of this campus as well as improving outdoor amenities.
Suggestions to improve open-spaces, pathways, wooded-areas and pedestrian-accessibility, included:
- Creating a centralized shuttle turnaround and drop-off near the Clock Tower to reduce vehicular traffic on the existing “east” quad.
- Creating a new “west” quad leading from the Clock Tower to West Hall to provide new outdoor spaces and replace the current staircase that inhibits accessibility.
- Integrating outdoor seating into the hillside lawn on the east side of the soccer field to enhance the viewing experience.
- Upgrading existing wooded areas on the western edge of campus to allow more use of the outdoor space.
- Working with topography throughout the campus and creating new pathways and “destination points” that encourage pedestrians to engage with the new and redesigned open spaces.
In addition to the many exterior enhancements, Mr. Aziz said existing buildings were flagged for varying levels of improvement over time and several new building projects were proposed. One proposal is to replace the “hillside residence halls” with a new university training and academic center to host multiple training programs and specialty academic uses that take advantage of the Mount Vernon campus location and setting.
The draft master plan also proposes replacing the existing tennis courts and outdoor pool with a new aquatics and athletics center that includes an Olympic-sized indoor pool with seating/concessions for up to 1,000 spectators, athletic team and coaching facilities, a new wellness center and rooftop playing fields for athletics training and student recreation.