Dennis Swinford, director of campus planning, wants to ensure the future modifications and renovations to the University of Massachusetts will help unify the campus community while creating a safer, more sustainable environment.
“We are not just building buildings; we’re building a campus,” he said yesterday at a campus-wide master plan forum.
Swinford hopes the master plan will create a more conducive and functional campus for future students, and help establish UMass Amherst as the state’s flagship university.
“This [plan] will present to our neighbors where we want to go as a campus,” Swinford said. “There are still some holes in the plan, but we’re filling them.”
Swinford said the current draft of the master plan proposes the creation of “complete streets,” or streets with bicycle lanes and sidewalks, all over the University. This would make a safer environment for pedestrians, he said.
The preliminary plan, he said, will establish walkways in major roads, such as Commonwealth Avenue, Massachusetts Avenue and Mullins Way, and will also promote more accommodation for public transportation. For one, Swinford said they plan to convert North Pleasant Street into the “spine of public transportation, and make it more difficult for private vehicles to navigate.”
In addition, the plan will provide more organized and accessible places to park, Swinford said. Parking lots will be replaced by “multi-mobile systems,” which will have bicycle storages, access to buses and car rentals and even coffee shops, he said.
He added that the plan will establish a more biker-friendly campus, starting with the construction of a bike pass in Mullins Way. Bikers will also be closely monitored to ensure a safe environment for them and pedestrians through campaigns such as the police department’s “Stop, Look and Listen” campaign, he said.
“What we want to avoid is a place where bikers think that they can go at top speed,” he said.
The master plan will also push through renovations of old halls and constructions of new academic buildings. Renovations are set to start in Hasbrouck Hall and at the Morrill Science Center in the following years, he said.
On the other hand, Swinford said that more rundown buildings, like Bartlett Hall, will be torn down and rebuilt, noting it is more expensive to renovate than to rebuild those types of buildings.
Swinford also introduced the idea of a “mixed-use environment” that would make the campus open all hours of the day for a variety of activities, and will make classrooms and halls multi-purpose gathering places.
Other plans include a new physical science building, a new home for the School of Education, an academic storage facility and museum and a renovation of South College.
Furthermore, Swinford said the plan will avoid the construction of outlying buildings that are detached from the center of the university. This will uphold the plan’s goal of a safer campus for pedestrians while maintaining the current large open spaces. Sustainability of utilities will also be one of the primary focuses of the master plan, he said.
A power plant that would enhance the university’s electrical and steam system will be built near Marks Meadow School in the next 50 years, Swinford said. Also, he noted that because the Southwest Residential Area only has one steam system, another one will be installed along Massachusetts Avenue in the following years.
The plan also aims to improve the buildings’ cooling system. Instead of separate ones, a series of “little loops” will run through all of the systems for more efficiency, Swinford said.
To prevent flooding especially during wet seasons, a centralized water shed will be built, Swinford said. Also, because the campus pond acts as a great draining facility for Amherst, the University will lower its level for it to be able to store more water, he said.
Furthermore, Swinford said solar panels are being installed near Hadley Farms as part of a university-wide research. Because they prove to be efficient sustainable energy sources, the University will make use of more solar panels to lessen its electrical consumption, he said.
Swinford noted that the University is skeptical about the master plan because of its assumed cost.
“The challenge with this approach is that it requires large investments,” he said.
Swinford still expects a number of changes to the draft as they proceed.
Ardee Napolitano can be reached at [email protected].
