Groves of academe - Edward Cullinan Architects' master plan for the University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Architectural Review, The, June, 1996 by Catherine Slessor

Edward Collinan Architect's master plan for the University of North Carolina at Charlotte shows how a modern campus can nearly double its present size and provide a flexible, enlightened model for city development.

Since its inception almost 50 years ago, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte has grown from a provincial college of 300 students to a major metropolitan institution with a student body of 15 000. During the same period, the city of Charlotte has experienced an equally rapid growth in its population; its southern temperate climate and well connected location in the Piedmont region of North Carolina have made it attractive to business, banking and manufacturing industry. After New York and Los Angeles, Charlotte is the largest banking centre in the USA.

Located eight miles from the city centre, to the northeast of the creeping metropolis, the University has ambitious plans to expand its campus over a notional 10 year period. This would increase the current student capacity of 15 000 to 25 000. Soon after his appointment in 1989, Chancellor James Woodward set in motion the development of a master plan for the Charlotte campus. To this end he established a task force consisting of representatives from various groups and disciplines with an interest in the future of the campus. The task force drew up two sets of qualitative and quantitative criteria, intended to form a consistent and essential framework for the master plan. At the end of 1993, six multi-disciplinary design teams (including the heavyweight American firms of Cesar Pelli, Hanna Ollin and RTKL) were shortlisted by the University to present responses to the master plan framework. In the end, Edward Cullinan Architects, in association with the Charlotte firm of Lee Nichols Hepler, were awarded the commission.

The design team set about fleshing out its initial proposals, mindful that the master plan must deal with the University as a whole, a complex synergy of history, mission, location, milestones, quirks, traditions and special academic textures. Yet the peculiar nature of a university cannot be grasped by simply tallying up its colleges, departments and services. A successful master plan has a clear sense of the place, the institution, its people and their aspirations. Clearly this requires a broad vision, but must not neglect what already exists.

Cullinan's master plan for the development of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte demonstrates how a modern campus can grow with great flexibility to nearly double its present size, and, in the context of the expanding city, also act as an enlightened model for urban development. The dispersed nature of Charlotte's recent expansion has increased the use of private transport; the new components of the University, however, will be no more than 10 minutes' walk from its centre, contained in a network of protected quadrangles, arcades and shaded paths. This denser, more compact and traditionally urban form also provides an example of the way in which it might be possible to develop the city. Moreover, the proposed new recreational and cultural facilities (for both students and non-students) will strengthen the links between the University and the wider community.

The essence of Cullinan's master plan is a dense, primary academic core. The existing grid of the campus will be extended along two major new pedestrian axes and linked, humanely scaled quadrangles will grow along these axes. The model is the traditional Oxbridge/Harvard college form, which intimately meshes academic accretions with the wider city. The integrated teaching and administrative buildings that make up the quadrangles have large overhanging roofs, with arcaded walkways creating sheltered, exterior rooms, for informal en route interaction. The quads extend from the base of the existing Student Activity Center, so that the latter becomes a focal point at the end of a vista, as opposed to a large, invasive object. Where the topography permits, up to three storeys of parking will be contained under the new buildings and quadrangles, with access from a new loop road encircling the core. The aim is to minimise the presence of cars from the pedestrianised, collegiate domain.

The creation of a dense urban core encourages the preservation of large areas of existing natural landscape. This will be balanced by a formal landscape of playing fields, quads and park-like spaces. The existing Atkins Library, the heart of the University, would be extended in two stages and its institutional significance emphasised by an axis extending from the campus perimeter to a new library entrance.

The planning framework also called for a new conference and community centre, to house a range of social and civic functions. Cullinan's proposals integrate these facilities with a new campus gateway on Highway 29, at the north-east edge of the University. Linked to new public transport nodes, the conference centre would be the fast in a series of buildings for research institutes and other agencies, creating a major public place and giving the highway a powerful, large-scale urban edge.