6. Built Systems 55

CAMPUS MASTER PLAN BUILT SYSTEMS 54 55 1 CAMPUS MASTER PLAN BUILT SYSTEMS 54 6. built systems 55 CAMPUS SPATIAL STRUCTURE Districts An urban or campus district may be described by three The spatial, or civic, structure of a campus is its most formal characteristics: a clear center, consistent fabric, and a important and memorable characteristic. There are clear edge. In practice, all three may not be present. A clear two general campus spatial types in America: romantic, center is most important; a clear edge less so. picturesque ones, like the University of California at Berkeley; and ones based on quadrangles, like the University The town of Middlebury, like many Vermont and New of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Picturesque campuses are England towns, is organized this way: it has a central characterized by rolling landscape, meandering paths, and green, surrounded by civic buildings, and streets radiating 2 lack of classically defined spaces. Quadrangular campuses outwards organizing the private houses and buildings. It are characterized by an organized hierarchy of streets, does not have a clear edge. paths, courts, and quadrangles. The historic core of Middlebury College is similar. It has Middlebury College is “picturesque” in a postcard sense, a clear center, the Main Quad; a consistent, recognizable but it is not, nor can it ever be, a picturesque campus in building fabric of heritage architecture; but no clear the Berkeley tradition. Rather, it is a unique version of a edge (or entry). Until the late 1940s this was sufficient; quadrangle campus. It is unique because it is less dense, and Middlebury could be a “one-quad campus.” There are has larger spaces than most campuses. It also relates to the many regional examples of one-quad campuses: e.g., Union north-south Vermont landscape of ridges and valleys; and College, Bowdoin College, and Dartmouth College. it has an openness to the surrounding landscape. Despite 3 the rural setting of the College and the Town, however, The issue is how these campuses grow beyond their original neither is rural in character. Nor does either have a rural quadrangle. Dartmouth College shares its green with the landscape; both College and Town have, or should have, town, and as the College grew, it grew along a network urban landscapes. of streets that add to that organization. Other colleges expanded by adding more quadrangles and courts to Campuses, like towns, are not just random groups of extend the public realm. buildings sprinkled in the landscape; they are spatial organizations that form communities, or neighborhoods. When the Middlebury College campus grew, however, it In order to achieve this, spaces need legible identities added neither streets nor quadrangles. Lack of an adequate 4 and relationships to each other, and there needs to be plan facilitated suburban sprawl to the north and south. a sufficient variety of spaces. Middlebury College has a Now the campus is composed of three separate districts: magnificent setting, but the campus spatial structure has the South Campus (arts and athletics), the Central Campus, FIGURE 1 several major problems. As the campus has expanded over and the North Campus. Plan of the existing campus two state roads, the original spatial structure of the central civic structure campus has gotten lost. The existing civic structure needs Two of these districts (the North and South Campuses) lack to be renovated, enhanced, extended, and connected. sufficient identity and are suburban in character. They are FIGURE 2 not organized by streets, nor do they have legible spaces. In Existing plan of the Central Campus other words, they have no center, no consistent fabric, and showing the defined Main Quad Major problems of the campus spatial structure no edge. (The random landscaping does not help establish 1. The three campus districts are incomplete and disconnected a legible structure either.) FIGURE 3 2. The campus spaces are too big and ill-defined Further, the three districts are disconnected from each Existing plan of the South Campus 3. There is an insufficient number and variety of spaces showing no defined space other, as they are separated by state highways. This 4. The major streets are not civic streets contributes to the sense of greater distance than is actually 5. There is an insufficient number of pedestrian streets the case, and blurs the already difficult issue of legible sense FIGURE 4 6. The path system is irrational of arrival and campus entrance. Existing plan of the North Campus showing no defined space 7. Landscape elements do not support the spatial structure CAMPUS MASTER PLAN BUILT SYSTEMS 56 57 Quadrangles Quadrangles are large public spaces defined by buildings and landscape. They are usually pastoral in nature, with no decisive function, and a seemingly inseparable relationship between the space and the buildings that define them. Most of America’s memorable campuses are organized around the idea of the quadrangle. The Middlebury College campus has only one quadrangle, the Main Quad. For a campus its size, it should have three or four. UVA Lawn Harvard Yard UNC Polk Place 200′ x 630′ 240′ x 650′ 270′ x 780′ Size matters. Quadrangles that are too large lose their human dimension. Inappropriate landscaping can exacer- bate this condition by blurring the spatial reading of the quad, or by lack of an idea about the space. Normative quadrangles are about 200–300′ wide by 600–800′ long. The Lawn at UVA, the Yard at Harvard, and Polk Place at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill are typical examples. These have many trees, but the buildings are visible between and under the trees. They have a reassuring human dimension that connects us to the environment. Large quadrangles may be 400′ wide by 1,000′ long. The Arts Quad at Cornell University is a good example. Despite its large size relative to the height of its buildings, it is still a perceptible human-scaled space because it has fewer Cornell Arts Quad Dartmouth College Green Middlebury College Main Quad trees. Other large quadrangles, such as those at Ball State 400′ x 1,020′ ca. 400′ x 600′ ca. 700′ x 700′ University, the University of Georgia, and McCorkle at UNC Chapel Hill, are filled with trees, and are more like parks than quadrangles. The Green at Dartmouth is a very large space, but it has few trees, and is bounded by a street, with buildings set back, so that the large space is articulated into smaller parts. The Main Quad at Middlebury College is also a very large quadrangle, and its lack of articulation contributes to its vastness. But, although some of the buildings are small and widely spaced, the topography and very large buildings at the top of the hill make the space legible and human-scaled. On the other hand, the landscaping of the Main Quad is contradictory; it obscures the space and has a deleterious effect. The North Campus at Middlebury has no legible space. Despite spectacular views out to the surrounding landscape, Middlebury College North Campus it is a vast undifferentiated no-man’s land that becomes truly 1 CAMPUS MASTER PLAN BUILT SYSTEMS 56 57 formidable in the winter. “Battell Beach” has a vague identity University are beautiful examples of tree-lined walks. Tree- FIGURE 1 due primarily to the slope on the west, and its lack of trees lined walks give structure and shade, and are important for Comparative plans of and walks, but it is inadequate to organize the whole area. the major pedestrian routes through the campus. There are campus quadrangles no real campus walks at Middlebury College. In fact, the Courts pedestrian experience seems not to have been considered at all A court is a relatively enclosed private or semi-private open in the design of the campus. space within a building, or a semi-private or public open space within a group of buildings. Courts may be purely Paths private or purely public, but they are usually limited in size These are relatively narrow pedestrian connectors through and legible in form. Their character and uses are directly campus spaces. Some may be reinforced by trees, others related to the functional uses that surround them. Ross not. They may be of different widths based on traffic and Commons has the only legible courtyard on campus. Forest service use. Generally speaking, paths should be orthogonal potentially has another, as does the future Axinn Center at and diagonal within quadrangles and courts. Building Starr Library. The CFA has a partially defined court. Courts entrances should connect to this system. Meandering are ideal elements for the Commons system, and should be curvilinear paths are appropriate for parks and other the core of each Commons. picturesque spaces, but not quadrangles. Parks The campus path system at Middlebury College is disjoint- A park is a large tract of land that often includes lawn, grass- ed and ad hoc. It should be hierarchical and rationalized. land, and woodlands, and is used for ornament and recre- ation. Parks are usually larger, more naturalistic, and have Landscape fewer geometric boundaries than quadrangles. The recently Space and character are the essence of campus design. Build- redesigned Library Park is a beautiful example at Middle- ings generally give the primary definition to campus open bury College. There could, and should, be more, however. space. Trees generally give secondary, or complementary, definition to the spaces. When buildings are small and widely Streets spaced, as they are at Middlebury College, however, trees In our time this term has come to imply vehicles, movement, must play a greater role in the form and character of the and asphalt or concrete paving.

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