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College Employees Value Campus Environment, 'Chronicle' Survey Finds
When a Chronicle survey asked college employees what they value about their jobs, they put the physical environment in which they work at the top of the list. (Chronicle photograph of Washington & Lee U.)
Rise in Tornadoes, Floods Poses Risk to Colleges
What if the sort of extreme weather that has left the University of Iowa inundated in floodwaters is not a freak event? What if it is a sign of things to come? (Photograph by AP Images)
Art & Architecture Renovations Near Completion at Yale U.
Paul Rudolph's 1963 Brutalist icon is getting a makeover, plus an addition by Charles Gwathmey.
Guest Blogger: Marc Mayerson
Like swashbuckling movie heroes, facilities planners take on herculean tasks.
Other News
Campus Planners Discuss Challenges in Attaining Sustainability
Analyzing How Students Choose Colleges Is Key Topic at Meeting of Planners
Specialized Developers Helping More Colleges to Meet Housing Needs
New campus buildings
Multimedia
A Green Building as a Billboard for Science
(A 2006 Chronicle video)
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About Buildings & Grounds
Buildings & Grounds is written by Scott Carlson (left) and Lawrence Biemiller (right). Scott Carlson writes about architecture, facilties, energy, and sustainability, among other topics. Lawrence Biemiller writes about architecture and facilities and contributes to Notes from Academe. What's happening on your campus? Let us know.
Guest Blogger: Stewardship of Campus Identity—Who Decides and How?
Princeton University’s Blair Hall (Chronicle photograph)
Traditionally, the distinguishing factor of a campus is a strong, cohesive collection of buildings and spaces that have developed over time, and that often share some unifying theme or concept. The University of Virginia takes its cues from the Jefferson buildings lining the Lawn, for instance, while Princeton University is known for Collegiate Gothic courtyards and Harvard University for the Yard. Each of these places conveys a certain type of meaning that faculty and staff members and students see when choosing a university. People resonate with certain campus environments.
 Mark McVay |
An architect adding to one of these environments needs to tap into the meaning and history of its buildings and spaces. But the architect often confronts a difficult question: Who owns the idea of what the campus means? Who speaks for the whole university?
At many institutions, campus decisions are made through committees that seek to build consensus within the community. Such committees provides mutual accountability and a system of checks and balances, which are all good to have. As an architect, however, my engagement with these committees is often indirect. The path to real-time dialogue with a committee about a proposed building, space, or image is serpentine—if it exists at all. Without the possibility of open, candid dialogue, the process is inefficient at best, and disastrous at worse.
Some institutions rely—often successfully—on a strong spokesperson who serves as a liaison to architects and who makes effective decisions based on the visions of the university. This leader must possess the courage and confidence to persuade the committees to make decisions that promote the culture of the university. When this model is used, the process is streamlined, the dialogue immediate and productive, and buildings take shape more quickly. In a shorter time you can not only see what a new building will look like but also work with the architect to refine it and make it a better fit for the campus.
The decision-by-large-committee model, on the other hand, prolongs the process. That can do more than just cost time and money—it can lessen the new building’s cohesiveness with the rest of the campus. Yes, sometimes a slow process can let an architect, or an institution, find a new revelation. But a slow process is rarely more effective than the direct-decision-maker model.
What should a university aim for? One way or the other, it should seek to empower design teams with as much information and discussion as possible about images, symbols, and the other subtleties of the campus. This allows design teams to be much more effective partners—and, in turn, allows them to do the best possible job of promoting the university’s uniqueness. —Mark McVay
Mark McVay, one of this month’s guest bloggers, is design director in the Los Angeles office of the architecture firm SmithGroup. You can read his previous post here.
Harvard University’s Yard (Wikipedia image)
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