November 11, 2008
  Building Bridges Between Campus and Community
New complex at Princeton blurs line between town and gown

by Heather Livingston
Contributing Editor

How do you . . . use architecture and urban planning to close the divide between a university campus and its neighbors?

Summary: Princeton University is using a redesign of its western entrance to better unite the school with its community. The project will include a large performing arts complex and improved and relocated transit facilities. Both projects will anchor the gateway and draw the public into campus life.

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Steven Holl: Architecture Spoken, by Steven Holl (Rizzoli, 2007)

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See what Princeton University envisions in its campus master plan.

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Princeton University is redesigning its western campus entrance by creating a new arts and transit complex that will serve both university and town. The arts facility is being designed by Steven Holl Architects (SHA), with the urban planning and circulation studies conducted by Beyer Blinder Belle Architects and Planners. Unveiled to the public on September 17, Holl’s conceptual design features a three-sided complex that will house the Lewis Center for the Arts, performance and teaching spaces for the Theater and Dance program, the Department of Music, and the Society of Fellows in the Creative and Performing Arts.

Arts spaces that connect and flow unimpeded
Encompassing approximately 130,000 square feet, Holl’s three adjoining contemporary buildings will share a common reception area and house an art gallery, a black box theater, a dance studio, and a music rehearsal room. They also will provide faculty and administrative offices, smaller acting and dance studios, music practice rooms, a 200-seat arced corner lecture hall, a box office, and a café. Although materials for the complex have not yet been selected, Holl is intending a transparency or “porosity” that will invite views into the arts activities, further enhancing the town-gown connection. “You will feel like you're almost inside when you're outside and you're passing through,” Holl says.

On the selection of SHA to design the arts facilities, University Architect Ron McCoy, FAIA, said: “We were looking for an architecture firm that had experience with the arts and could create an iconic building and also an entrance to the campus from the west side, which is one of the main points of arrival for vehicles and for the Dinky [train line]. This is a project that is going to require a lot of patience and time from the architecture firm because we have lots of discussions to have with the community and a long process of permitting.”

Drawing the community into the campus
McCoy explains that the long permitting process is the result of relocating a Dinky transit station, designing to fit with the campus master plan, and working with the community to ensure buy-in from residents and businesses. The planned transit plaza would be relocated about 460 feet from its current site, which will draw commuters and visitors into the campus and encourage interaction among students, faculty, and town residents.

The new transit plaza will feature amenities such as a Wawa convenience store, a newsstand, bicycle storage facilities, and heated and air-conditioned waiting area and restrooms in the Dinky station. The redesigned transit center would accommodate enhanced services for the university shuttle, a community jitney, and, potentially, bus rapid transit. A relocated commuter lot south of the station also is included in the plan, as are long-term and short-term parking spaces, enhanced wayfinding, and extensive landscaping.

The creation of an arts and transit neighborhood that more fully integrates campus and community is part of the 10-year campus plan unveiled at the beginning of this year. Other arts facilities proposed for the area are an experimental media studio and new contemporary galleries for the Princeton University Art Museum. In the coming months, the university will be working with the regional planning board and municipal officials on planning issues and the potential rezoning of the area, which lies in both Princeton borough and township.

Miles to go
Princeton officials are quick to point out that the arts complex still is in conceptual design and could change quite a lot before the planned groundbreaking in 2012 or 2013. “What we did was push ahead a concept design, and then we will turn that back to a bit of a simmer while we develop all of the enabling infrastructure and urban design components. Then the design will really ramp up,” McCoy says. “It’s a clear vision and a program with enough to illustrate what its assets will be, but the design will evolve quite a lot.”

Still, the community already is excited about the project’s potential. “We have a lot of buy-in from different parts of the community,” McCoy believes. “I think a lot of it is from theater goers because the arts and transit project will infuse that portion of the campus with an energy that will be an important catalyst, and it will provide a much better ridership experience for people who are taking the Dinky in and out of town.”

As for Holl, he says that he looks forward to working with all parties in the design process to see his vision come to fruition. “I'm very confident that we can make something that's really inspirational,” he says. “It will be fresh and new.”

  

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Although Princeton does not plan to pursue LEED® certification for the arts and transit complex, McCoy says that it will be designed to 50 percent of ASHRAE Standard 90.1 and will likely be the equivalent of LEED Silver. Green features planned at present are green roofs, storm-water management, gray-water recycling, geothermal heating and cooling, and plentiful daylighting that includes placing skylights at the bottom of a reflecting pool to light the interior forum below.

Photos
1. Image courtesy Princeton University. This neighborhood design schematic plan shows the arts complex in relation to the transit plaza to the south and the new Dinky station and Wawa convenience store proposed nearby.

2. Image courtesy Steven Holl Architects. The buildings form a new plaza of public space. This connection to Princeton architecture then will be developed with visual interconnection from the passerby to the arts activity through transparency. The central concept of the arts plaza is a catalyst with visual connection that will yield a more open architecture.

3. Image courtesy Princeton University. This model shows the proposed three-sided arts complex on the left and Forbes College on the right looking south down Alexander Street. The large pool with skylights in the center of the buildings is shown, while the green roofs are not in this model. The traffic circle leading to a reconfigured University Place is mirrored by the arced-corner lecture hall.

4. Image courtesy Steven Holl Architects. Three arts buildings form a plaza at the upper level and an internal forum on the lower level. Each building contains spaces for performing and visual arts open to all. The natural grade of the site is used to promote public access and visibility of these spaces from University Place, Alexander Street, and the transit plaza.