Page 29 - College Planning & Management, March 2019

Facilities CAMPUS SPACES
Bringing Out That Community Feel
A landscape reboot at the University of Windsor makes for a more cohesive, competitive, and inviting campus.
BY DEB WESTMAN
TO MARK THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE University of Windsor, a public comprehensive and research university in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, which abuts the Detroit River across from America’s Motor City, the school engaged +VG Architects to create a campus master plan with a vision of its open space and landscape for the next 50 years. The plan, presented in 2013, aimed to enrich the student and community experi- ence, update the feel of the campus, and make the university more competitive.
The plan reflects some very creative thinking, with suggestions for such major changes as a landscaped pedestrian bridge over railway tracks to link a Human Kinetics and athletics complex with the central campus. Also, the existing residence quad could be consolidated into new buildings to unite residential facilities and create a village atmo-
sphere. This frees up space on campus for an open-air amphitheater attached to the Dramatic Arts building.
The design also includes a new central link that draws a connection from the Leddy Library commons area, north to the riverfront. Distinctive links with a new downtown Windsor campus are also envisioned in order to help unite the two campuses and ease the transition of traffic between each location.
Indeed, with university budgets increasingly relying on international students, who invariably pay much higher tuition fees than Ontario residents, to boost their bottom lines, university authorities are realizing the importance of their campus making a good first impres- sion on potential applicants who are taking their exploratory campus tour.
Progress on the Vision
The first phase of the plan has been completed. +VG revamped an anonymous desert of parking lots facing the backs of buildings and their service entrances into an inviting pedestrian realm with hospi- table, human-scaled spaces that engender a sense of place and arrival.
The campus is transforming into more of a green space by weaving the formerly disconnected open spaces together to make a better, more cohesive campus environ- ment. It was important to create a more student-centered campus environment with places for work, study, and play.
Parking lots were moved from the in- terior of the campus to new parking areas and structures on the perimeter, which makes the central campus more pedes- trian- and student-friendly.
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PHOTO S © MARIO MADAU