East Campus Plans Presented
May 5th, 2007 | by Rob Goodspeed | Published in East Campus, On Campus Development | 4 Comments
The last of a series of three preliminary public information meetings for the East Campus project will be held Monday, May 7 at 7:00 p.m. at Ritchie Coliseum
The audiences at two public meetings held Thursday and Friday gasped as Foulger Pratt/Argo Investments presented their preliminary concept plans for the East Campus Redevelopment Project in a dramatic and detailed presentation which featured a 3-D flyover of the possible project and digital illustrations of the proposed plans. At two well-attended meetings, students, faculty, staff, and community members watched the development team’s detailed presentation explaining their ideas for a project that would contain in its first phase a hotel, gym, 96,000 square feet of office, 384,000 square feet of retail, and over 1,000 housing units.
The faculty presentation was delayed for thirty minutes while fire crews searched for the source of the smell of smoldering rubber that filled Tydings briefly. Once the meeting began, attendees representing a variety of university departments glimpsed at lists of potential retail tenants, and queried the company’s principals on issues as varied as green architecture (they are looking into details), bike facilities (it will definitely include them) and the project’s relationship to Old Town (there will be housing as a buffer. The project proposal re-introduces a street grid lined with street-level retail focused around an urban plaza located behind the power plant. They also include a 10 story office building on the corner of Rossborough Dr. and Route 1 as well as a monumental 10 story hotel on the corner of Route 1 and Paint Branch Parkway (as pictured previously). The proposed designs envision architecture that would contrast with the homogeneity of the campus’s Georgian architecture.
Vice President for Administrative Affairs Doug Duncan also announced a public input committee would be created to involve the community in the project on an ongoing basis. We expect this committee will contain several student members in addition to the wide variety of other stakeholders.
We encourage interested community members to attend the final meeting Monday.
May 5th, 2007 at 9:20 pm (#)
Why are there separate meetings for students,faculty, etc?
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May 5th, 2007 at 10:26 pm (#)
I dont think they were officially designated that way by the administration or the developer. I know Friday’s mtg had students, faculty, staff, alumni, residents – it ran the full spectrum. No one is at the door checking id’s. I think it was more related to location.
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May 6th, 2007 at 5:45 pm (#)
They were intentionally seperate although anyone was welcome to attend any session. The first two were basically the same presentation. I think the different times has to do with difference in availability. Also, the city residents on Monday will have a much greater degree of concern than the folks at the last two meetings.
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May 7th, 2007 at 9:30 am (#)
Is the presentation posted online?
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