Valley City State University Landscape Plan
From CollabLandWiki
Contents |
Valley City State University Landscape Vision Statement
A welcoming front yard to a friendly city, a landscape that embraces the history and future of the campus, a unique place that blends with the surroundings. These are some traits that the Valley City State University campus should have.
Introduction
A study completed by Time magazine and Princeton Review, The Best Campuses for Year 1997, showed that there is a strong correlation between campus appearance and happy students. According to national surveys, prospective students make up their minds about attending a school within their first 15 minutes. Such studies confirm that campus appearance can result in larger numbers of student applicants, higher retention rates, and ultimately greater alumni donations.
Primary Objectives
Landscape
Neighborhood and Sites
Spirit of Place
- Topography
The topography of Valley City is unique to most of the state of North Dakota. When driving along 94 the sudden change in the terrain is quite noticeable. It gives visitors something new to look at and it announces your arrival into Valley City. This distinctive landscape contributes to the Spirit of Place and may be incorporated into the campus design.
- Small Community
Nature and Culture (Unity from and Order of Diversity)
Ecology
The focus of the design is not to solve ecological problems, meanwhile, the design will not harm the ecological environment.
Environmental Considerations
- Sustainable Materials
- Runoff into Sheyenne River
- Efficient Energy Use
- Air Quality
- Water
- Solid Wastes
Soil
- Soil Survey
- Classification #2 Barnes-Svea-Vuse association: Deep, level to rolling, well drained and moderately well drained, medium textured soils
- Classification #8 Renshaw-Divide-Fordville association: Deep, level to moderately steep, somewhat excessively drained, somwhat poorly drained, and well drained, medium textured soils.
- Classification #9 Buse-Barnes-Nutely-Kloten association: Shallow and deep, level to steep, well drained, fine textured, medium textured and moderately fine textured soils.
- Classification #6 Gardena-Glyndon-Overly association: Deep, level to gently sloping, moderately well drained and somewhat poorly drained, medium textured and moderately fine textured soils.
- Classification #5 Southam-Vallers association: Deep, level, poorly drained and very porrly drained, medium textured and moderately fine textured soils.
- Detailed Classifications
- 9B-Nutley-Clayey 9D-Nutley-Clayey 56-LaDelle-Overflow 83F-Buse-Thin Upland, Loam, Clay Loam
Maintenance
- Trees
- Shrubs and Ground Cover
- Irrigation
- Paving
- Furniture
- Lighting
- Commemorative Elements
- Art
Built Environment
Buildings
The Valley City campus, has a strong small community feeling. The design sites are in close proximity with residential housing and some of the buildings on campus itself.
Actions
- Aesthetics and functionality of campus edges will be enhanced.
- Connections between the Main Campus and other properties will be strengthened.
Roads
Major roads running through the campus consist of Viking Drive, running through the heart of the campus. 4th Avenue SW defines the west edge of the main campus. College Street defines the north end of the main campus.
- Most traffic runs along Viking Drive and College Street.
- Parking along Viking Drive during the day is a popular choice.
Pathways
There are relatively few pathways winding through the campus other than sidewalks along Viking Drive, 4th Avenue SW, College Street, and 2nd Avenue SW. The best opportunities for focal points on the main campus are located on the corner of 2nd Ave SW and Viking Drive, as well as the axis from the administration building to downtown Valley City.
The axis begins with the administration building, continues across the quad, across College Street, over the Cheyenne River, and into the heart of downtown. The opportunity for a focal point along this axis is one that should be taken advantage of.
Lighting
For Valley City to have a safe campus it very important to have attractive but strategic lighting and emergency call boxes. Many of the pathways leading to the campus do not have sufficient lighting like the paths from the athletic center to the main campus. With successful illumination of these pathways students, faculty, and other pedestrians can feel safe walking to and from campus at night. The emergency call boxes are also important because in case of an emergency someone can call for help without having to travel very far. These call boxes don't need to be on every corner but strategically placed throughout the university and surrounding areas.
Actions
- When designing lighting for the VCSU Campus consider the
- Organization
- Patterns
- Consistency
- Levels of illumination
Greenspace
In order for Valley City to look presentable there needs to be something done to the quality of open green space on the campus. Particularily the green space north of the tennis courts. There is a considerable amount of green space here, and when you are entering the campus from the interstate this is one of the first impressions of the college. We need to take full advantage of how a quality open green space could eventually look to Valley City State University's potential visitors.
Actions
- Increase the quality of campus open green space
- Enhance the ecological and aesthetic quality of campus green space
- Outdoor spaces will be designed to facilitate varied activity.
Human Experience
Learning Landscape
The Valley City State University landscape should be able to create an atmosphere in which learning is fundamental. Being that valley city is primarily founded for academic purposes the landscape that surrounds its exsisting structural facilities should complement this purpose bringing out the best in students, staff, and community members that will in one way or the other actually use it. Designing for areas of natural space with this in mind enables frequent and adequate use of the landscape for learning purposes as seen fit. It is possible to design a natural space and cause it to make those who use it carry out particaular functions they otherwise would have not. Removing elements of distraction while still keeping the intergrity and purity of the landscape will cause those who use it to factor in primarily on the reason they need to use the landscape. This in turn justifies the allocation and design of these spaces on site.
Valley City State University has made a name for itself as a 'Laptop University'. Allowing the students to have extended wireless networks to the outdoors would make the landscape more usuable as a learning landscape.
Social Space
The valley city landscape plan should adequately make room for the creation of natural spaces that bring about physical and mental interaction between those who actually use it .Even though users may primarily be students room should be made to incorporate elements of the larger community that surround the campus into its landscape plan .This in turn will bring in community members who will get to know the valley city state university landscape and students alot better.Creating a more social landscape also adequately pulls in prospective students who some day due to the landscape's inviting nature are bound to put valley city in high regards when making choices about college.All together the ability of the university to function properly lies in its ties with the community around it, its student and staff.Strenghtening these ties through the landscape design enhances vallley city state university's reputation and view in the eyes of those who use it and those who hear good things from its users.
Temporal Landscape
Due to the drastic changes in the North dakotan weather the valley city state university landcape plan should take into consideration sustainability and flexibility when designing natural spaces .Elements with regard to seating , monuments ,lighting, pathways , walkways(etc)when being considered for use should be scrutinized adequately.Everything set on the landscape should in some form or the other be able to handle the certain season that come along during the year.If this is achieved maintenance costs will be adequately reduced ,longevity of component parts of the landscape will be increased and preservation of the concepts behind certain areas of the landscape will be attained.
- Seasons
The natural landscape design plan of valley city state university should be able to use the advent of seasonal change to it advantage .Accomodating weather will not only strengthen the landscape's sence of place but will also improve its appeal amongst those who use it .
- Day and Night Experience
The valley city state university landscape plan should play strongly upon the night and day experiences people who use the landscape have.The ability of the landscape to create diffrent feelings at points in the day(notably light and darkness)affects all who come in contact with it leaving some sort of personal print in their minds.With this in mind all parts of the landscape plan should be enhanced through design making all experiences whether night or day pleasurable.
- Memory
positive prints should be left in the mind of the users of valley city state university landscape.Through careful and thoughtful planning of the landscape certain images should be set and certain memories attained.This will enhance the use of the natural landscape at valley city state university.
- Heritage
Landscape plan should pay refrence to heritage when being produced .This can be done by incorporating historical elements behind the campus and community exsistence into the landscape design.
Movement and Wayfinding
Wayfinding concerns how we move through a landscape and the things in that landscape that we use to tell us where we are, where we want to go and how to get there. At VSCU there isn't any form of correlated wayfinding throughout the campus. When you enter the campus west of the river there is no idication that you are even on the campus. By creating a system of gateways or other statments of campus life; we can better define the campus's image and the university's sense of place.
- Actions
- Supply a universally accessible, and recognizably hierarchical system of routes that offer people choice in their movement through the landscape
- Develop a cohesive, comprehensible landscape defined by clear routes, signs and landmarks to facilitate wayfinding
- Create a visitor friendly campus by
- Providing uniform directional signage
- Defining pedestrian and vehicle gateways and entries to campus
- When designing Signage for VCSU consider graphic format, size, and color
Artistic Expression
Stewardship
Procedures
Management Team
Design Categories
Project Approval and Analysis
Guidelines and Standards
- Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
- Building Codes
