Forum reaffirms Commons' future

Author: Brian Fung

College officials granted the public a brief first glimpse of Middlebury's new Master Plan at an open forum last Thursday. The plan revealed includes an ambitious list of proposals - everything from the closure of Old Chapel road to the future demolition of Battell Hall.

Led by a presentation from landscape analysts Michael Dennis and Jose Almiñana, the forum showcased a number of potential paths for development of the College's Commons and fine arts program, as well as automobile and pedestrian accessibility over the next 50 years.

Acknowledging the dramatic restructuring effort that would be required to achieve its goals, Dennis, of the Boston-based planning firm Michael Dennis & Associates, stressed that the process would be both exhaustive and resource-consuming but would eventually pay off.

"Plans that call for 'five new buildings in the next five years' are generally obsolete after the first two," said Dennis. "But we think we have a plan that's functional and unique."



Fostering Community



The new Master Plan, which is slated for final evaluation and approval by the Board of Trustees next August, aims to extend the Commons to the entire campus by making each Commons more geographically contiguous. Dennis cited Ross and Atwater Commons as models for an ideal Commons-based College, while denying concerns that such a move would divide the student body.

"The Commons nurtures college life in smaller communities," said Dennis.

Dennis and Almiñana, a consultant from Philadelphia landscape architecture firm Andropogon Associates, began by working on housing and public space simultaneously, focusing on the improvement of senior housing, drawing student residence facilities in town closer to campus and arranging the campus into general neighborhoods.

The key to a more viable Commons system, according to Dennis, lies in a clearer definition of "an identifiable exterior space." Dennis cited cases from a number of other institutions that effectively use what space is available to them. Historic Harvard Yard and numerous quads at Princeton University, though small, form courtyards that cultivate a sense of identity. By contrast, Brainerd and Wonnacott Commons are particularly spread out with little in the way of similar public spaces. As such, the two Commons would see the most change under a restructured campus.

The tentative version of the Master Plan set forth last Thursday calls for the construction of new buildings adjacent to Ross Commons, as well as buildings in the area west of Stewart and Hepburn halls, near the Center For the Arts (CFA) and surrounding Battell Beach.

Under the new plan, Brainerd Commons would remain in the southern portion of campus, new Wonnacott Commons dormitories would run parallel to College Street and Cook Commons would revolve around Battell Beach. In the future, Cook Commons could gain a dining hall of its own, leaving a renovated Proctor Hall for use primarily by Wonnacott and Brainerd Commons.

The planning committee also announced the possibility of vacating Voter and Starr Halls, as well as demolishing Battell Hall entirely. Furthermore, the museum in the CFA may be decanted into a new building adjacent to the main library, allowing Wright Memorial Theatre to be moved directly into the CFA itself. Though still in their infancy, these ideas could be included in the final draft of the Plan.

According to Dennis, the notion of preserving and fostering community takes priority in a place where familiarity is both a traditional and fundamental part of a college's character. Consequently, he and Almiñana have paid close attention not only to the way in which such community is represented in college life from a social perspective, but also to its manifestations in the landscape itself.

"The idea is to make buildings that work with each other," said Dennis, "not buildings that are socially and urbanistically undigestible." In addition, according to Associate Vice President for Facilities Susan Personette, the planning committee made efforts to ensure the preservation of the College's distinctive vistas and open lines of sight, while critically evaluating potential areas of expansion.

Almiñana also spoke about the College's efforts to craft a more environmentally-conscious landscape. Almiñana said that he supported the notion of better-arranged, protected quads, likening them to natural ecotones, or the area in which two different ecosystems overlap. According to Almiñana, in addition to displaying biodiversity, ecotones also provide shelter and habitats.

"There is the potential for the greatest amount of interaction, the greatest amount of transformation, in ecotones," he said, further elaborating on the metaphorical parallel between nature and the College environment.

There are currently no plans to add land to the College's property. Maps shown during the presentation compared the College to Texas A&M University, whose campus is roughly of equal size but whose student population is more than 18 times as large. According to Dennis, any new construction that takes place within the next 50 years would be done on existing soil, meaning a denser campus with buildings more closely clustered together.

"Our policy is that you already have way more real estate than you need," he said. "You all got to stop sprawling."



Everyone gets a say



The foundations of the new Master Plan emerged out of surveys and interviews conducted by the College to determine student and faculty opinions regarding the state of campus facilities. Dennis expressed surprise at the findings.

"People wanted public space first, housing second and dining a distant last," he said. "We had to coax people to talk about dining."

Also being deliberated is the proposal to abolish automobile traffic from Old Chapel Road. The suggestion is being floated as one way to create a more pedestrian-friendly campus. Personette quickly addressed concerns that such a move would eliminate a vital north-south conduit through the College.

"We know how controversial an idea it would be to close Old Chapel Road," she said. "We're thinking of Old Chapel Road as a pedestrian-friendly road. It wouldn't be entirely closed to campus vehicles, but cars would have a secondary role."

In the event that Old Chapel Road is indeed converted into what Personette called "Old Chapel Walk," no new alternate road is planned to replace it.

"A connection appears to be readily achievable on Hepburn and Hillcrest Roads," said Personette.

The news has sparked concerns over what some students perceive to be an already frustrating parking environment. Despite complaints of inadequate parking facilities on campus, the construction of additional parking lots appears unlikely.

Personette defended the current system. "We would all like to be able to park next to where we work or study," she said, "but sometimes we have to make tradeoffs."

The planning committee's comments regarding transportation policy coincided with the presentation of results from a recent student-led survey that gathered information about transportation behavior on campus.

"We designed our research as a service learning project," said Kelly Blynn '07, one of the students responsible for conducting the survey. "[We] hoped our results would be useful to someone. Luckily, with the Master Planning process going on right now, they are."

Blynn and three other geography majors launched an online survey several weeks ago to assess student support for a more pedestrian-friendly campus. The survey received a total of 736 student responses.

Efforts to promote walking are often frustrated by the need to travel extreme distances, the study showed. The three longest routes as perceived by students
include the journey from Atwater Dining Hall to the athletic complex on the southern reaches of campus, as well as the trip from McCardell Bicentennial Hall to Hepburn Hall and the Center for the Arts.

In addition, the study probed student opinions on a range of issues under consideration by the Master Planning committee. An overwhelming amount of students were opposed to closing Old Chapel Road, with only a quarter of all respondents answering in favor of the move.

"You close the road, you lose a lot of on-campus, daytime parking," said Dave Barker '06.5, another member of the survey team. "It's certain that the Master Planners want to make this a Walk, and students are obviously against its conversion. Planners and the College should get more input and proceed with caution."

Meanwhile, as many as 20 percent of respondents claimed that they had never heard of Addison County Transit Resources (ACTR), which offers local public transportation for a small fee. Others wanted both the ACTR service as well as the popular Midd Rides shuttle program to be expanded. With Midd Rides once again accepting telephone requests for van transport, new attention has been given to extending its hours of operation and diversifying its predetermined routes.

"Driving and Midd Rides are almost equal [in popularity] in the winter," said Barker, whose study also investigated the further development of shuttle services in the hope of decreasing student vehicle use.

Some surveyed students outlined various additional routes they deemed ideal for a future Midd Rides expansion. The top three proposed shuttle routes all corresponded with students' longest walking trips, with all of them beginning adjacent to the athletic facilities and ending near Bicentennial Hall or Atwater Commons.

The College's pace of expansion has increased gradually and consistently over its 206-year history. With generous growth estimates predicting an increase in developed space of just under a million square feet in 50 years, attempts to foresee the College's path to come are now looking further than ever into the future. Along with improving the pedestrian experience on campus and completing the Commons-based housing system, master planners are also committing greater resources to achieve carbon-neutrality. Almiñana did not deny the enormity of the task at hand.

"This could be the most significant 50 years of the history of the planet," said Almiñana. "And we're in a position to make a difference, fortunately enough."