A new music building and a north-south walkway are among the proposed long-term additions to campus that Northwestern President Henry Bienen endorsed Wednesday.
Bienen was responding to the Advisory Committee on University Space Planning’s June report, which outlined several ways the university could expand.
Bienen said the committee’s recommendation for a new construction plan for southeast campus already has been carried out. He also highlighted parts of the report that will receive serious consideration, including improved pedestrian accessibility, parking conditions and overall aesthetics for the Evanston and Chicago campuses.
The plans, which will be released next week, list potential sites along the lakefront for a new music building and possible changes to the parking structure on South Campus.
“We are thinking very seriously about additional parking on campus,” Bienen said in an interview with The Daily on Tuesday. “It probably will entail some underground parking, which is very expensive for us to do, but it makes sense for some places on campus.”
The report looked at ways NU could maximize its “space-constrained” Evanston Campus and allow for new development. Among the ideas suggested is an outdoor commons area at the center of campus. Supporters of the proposal say it would facilitate community and student interaction.
NU faculty, administrators and staff worked with planning firm Sasaki Associates in drafting several possibilities for construction on the southeast portion of the Evanston Campus, according to Eugene Sunshine, senior vice president for business and finance at NU.
Associate Communication Dean James Webster helped advise Sasaki and said one option for parking would be building an entirely new structure with some underground levels to improve the appearance of the Arts Circle, the area near the lake on South Campus including Louis Hall and the Theater and Interpretation Center. The garage currently is on the lakefront, and rebuilding it could allow more pedestrian access the lake, Webster said.
“Ideally, I think everyone agrees it would be good to phase out that parking structure, and at least one plan would have what is now the Arts Circle’s green area actually extend to a much larger green quadrangle all the way down to the lakeshore,” he said.
But the existing garage is still functional and probably will not be replaced within the next 10 years due to construction costs, Sunshine said.
“It becomes prohibitively expensive to tear it down and build something new,” Sunshine said.
After getting community input, administrators will consult with the Board of Trustees’ Education Properties Committee to choose a plan.
In his written response to the report, Bienen agreed with the recommendation for a north-south pathway that would cut through the center of campus. Construction already has begun for the pathway that would run between the Pancoe Life Sciences Pavilion and the University Library.
“I think the current mix of pedestrians, parking, roads and cars on the Evanston Campus is not only aesthetically problematic but creates hazardous conditions in some locations,” Bienen wrote. “Therefore, I agree that we should work to reduce the number of cars on the central campus area, segregate cars and pedestrians more and extend pedestrian walkways.”
The time line for the commons area, also known as a pedestrian mall, depends on how long it takes to build nearby buildings, such as an addition to the Central Utility Plant west of the Lagoon. But Sunshine made a “rough estimate” of four to seven years before a mall would be complete.
The advisory committee also recommended creating a more permanent space planning committee, but Bienen wrote that he thought it would be “more effective” to create specialized committees that examined specific issues. A parking committee will be announced next week and other committees will be formed later, Sunshine said.
“We’ll do it as needed, as issues come up for those portions of the campus that are affected by a project or issue,” Sunshine said.
The report and Bienen’s response can both be found online at www.northwestern.edu/provost/committees/spaceplan.
Reach Tina Peng at [email protected].
