View Single Post
  #89  
Old Posted Jun 8, 2009, 11:53 PM
Dom"n"Converse's Avatar
Dom"n"Converse Dom"n"Converse is offline
Hmmm....
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: San Antonio
Posts: 159
From the San Antonio Express-News
June 8, 2009
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/loc...ster_plan.html

By Melissa Ludwig - Express-News Bye-bye concrete jungle. Hello quadrangles and green spaces.

That's the major theme in a new master plan unveiled Monday by the University of Texas at San Antonio, which includes the Main Campus, Downtown Campus, the Institute of Texan Cultures and a planned athletics complex at UTSA Park West. The master plan aims to help UTSA morph from a commuter campus into a traditional urban university complete with bell towers and quadrangles, and connected by tree-lined walkways and a more logical system of roads.

Though the plan calls for land acquisition, new buildings and commercial developments to support 40,000 students, officials say it's a flexible blueprint; as of yet, no money or concrete plans are attached to most goals.

“This has been a long time coming,” said Pam Bacon, associate vice president of administration. “It's really the beginning of a journey... that will be carried out over decades.”

Designed by Barnes Gromatzky Kosarek Architects and Michael Dennis & Associates, the plan addresses complaints that UTSA doesn't look or feel like a “real university,” and that it's hard to navigate by car and on foot.

At the Main Campus, planners call for grassy quadrangles and bell towers visible from the two main entrances off Loop 1604 and UTSA Boulevard. To instill a sense of direction, the towers would line up with the main artery of campus, and roadways and signage would be redesigned to aid circulation.

Designed in the early 1970s, the Sombrilla Plaza and core campus provided a good “starter kit,” planners said, but later additions did little to connect the campus. Peppering the campus with more public spaces would complement the buildings and help glue everything together, said Michael Dennis.

“Those are the most memorable parts of campuses,” Dennis said of public spaces. “You can't just plop down buildings and parking lots. You have to have relationships between buildings and landscapes.”

Surface parking lots could be converted to garages, opening up land for green spaces, and the undeveloped eastern chunk of the campus could be a preserve with nature trails. Recreational playing fields could be redefined as an important part of campus, and linked to woods at Maverick Creek.

At the site of University Oaks Apartments, which UTSA leases to a private company, planners envision a “Collegetown” similar to Guadalupe Street, or “the drag” across from UT Austin. When the lease runs out, UTSA could partner with a developer to tear down the old complex and make way for a newer mix of housing and retail.

Athletics venues would move to UTSA Park West, a 125-acre tract of land near Hausman Road that will house an $84 million athletics complex. Eventually, UTSA may want to snap up another few acres and build a football stadium for its fledgling NCAA football program, planners said.

Downtown, planners envision a campus that is more connected to its urban environment.

The footprint shows UTSA expanding across Frio Street, taking over a city-owned service center and improving Frio so that it feels like driving through a campus, not behind one. The parking lot at Cattleman Square could be ideal for housing, and UTSA could nurture more student-friendly development around the campus.

Improvements to the Institute of Texan Cultures museum will be done hand-in-hand with the city's plans for redeveloping HemisFair Park, officials said.

UTSA has grown so quickly that space is at a premium. The university could freeze enrollment at 30,000 and it would still take nearly 20 years to catch up, planners said.

Enrollment may level off naturally as the university raises standards in hopes of becoming a national research university, said vice provost Julius Gribou.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/slidesho...ster_plan.html



Reply With Quote