火博体育大学 launches campus master planning process
Calling Skidmore’s campus master planning process a “deeply collaborative community partnership,” President Marc Conner provided an overview of his vision for the plan and process, and introduced the firm that will gather input from all members of the Skidmore community, guide the College through the planning process over the next 14 months, and draft the eventual 校园总体规划 by the end of next year.
Nearly 200 Skidmore community members attended the informational kickoff event on 4月5日星期一. Conner introduced Kevin Petersen of Ayers Saint Gross, the internationally recognized design firm selected to lead Skidmore’s efforts to craft a new comprehensive 校园总体规划.
“The product that we arrive at, to me, is less important than 我们遵循的过程 to get there and the principles that inform that process: our commitment to sustainability, our commitment to diversity, inclusivity and equity, our commitment to access for all,” said Conner, who called for broad participation by all 教师, staff and students. “This is our opportunity to foreground those principles in the present and future 我们校园的形状.”
The planning process is a chance to assess the present state of Skidmore’s campus and to plan for the future, Conner said. Skidmore's campus was largely designed and built in the 1960s, and two subsequent campus master plans were prepared in 1989 and in 2007.
The president noted that several buildings constructed in recent decades, including the Center for Integrated Sciences, Sussman Village, Valentine Boathouse, and Zankel Music Center, offer important experiences to members of the Skidmore community and ultimately are “concepts as much as they are buildings.类似的方法将起到指导作用 the campus master planning process moving forward.
A task force comprising members of the entire Skidmore community will help Ayers Saint Gross reach out to all stakeholders. The group is co-chaired by Associate Dean of the Faculty Pat Fehling and Director of 设施 Dan Rodecker and includes staff representative Amy Tweedy; 教师 representatives Mark Youndt and Erica Wojcik; Vice President for Strategic Planning and Institutional Diversity Joshua Woodfork; 可持续性 Coordinator Jen Natyzak; Assistant Vice President for 学生事务 Gail Cummings-Danson; and student representative Maria Bideiwy ’24.
Petersen, a principal of Ayers Saint Gross, provided an overview of the process, which he described as collaborative and designed to reach broad consensus. 这个计划将 展望未来10-20年.
From now until September, the firm will seek to gather as much information as possible through listening sessions, focus groups, and open forums as part of an observation 和评估阶段的过程. During the fall semester, team members will present a concept plan and seek feedback as they refine possible scenarios. 明年年初， the firm will draft a final plan intended for Board of Trustees approval in May 2022.
Petersen said the 校园总体规划 aims to align the physical campus with the College’s 总体战略目标.
“We want to create a set of principles that we can get a majority of people to support 并买进，”彼得森说. “If we can generate broad principles that everyone agrees to and supports, that really allows us to focus projects that support those principles,“ 他说. “We don’t want to hide from any issue in this observation and assessment 阶段. If there’s a hot-button issue related to the physical development of campus, 我们想听. We want to make sure that we’re thinking of it as an issue and how we can address it as part of the Master Plan.”
He noted his firm brought extensive experience to this project: 火博体育 80% of the firm’s work comes from higher education, and it has already prepared more than 250 master 计划项目. Ayers Saint Gross has conducted planning work for dozens of liberal arts colleges as well as institutions whose campuses date to the 1960s and 1970s like “火博体育，”彼得森说.
更多信息，包括一个完整的 记录 of the April 5 meeting, is available on Skidmore’s 校园总体规划网站.