By Kurt Aldag

“When we think of UNH, three images come to mind,” says Doug Bencks, university architect and director of Campus Planning. “One is the small New England liberal arts college with its Georgian Revival architecture and walkways. Another is that of the small New England village mixing history and modern conveniences in a well-kept environment. And the third is the native landscape of the ravine, rolling hills, and trees. These are the things everyone loves. When we do new buildings or change the layout of the campus, we are not imitating these things, but the changes have a connection in the materials we use and the look and feel of the University and town environment.”

Upon moving from Hanover to Durham in 1893 through a generous bequest from a wealthy farmer named Benjamin Thompson, the original campus consisted of only four buildings. Today, UNH consists of more than 2,400 acres—an 1,100-acre main campus with more than 100 buildings for academic studies, research, and on-campus living, adjacent to the village of Durham—and more than 1,300 acres of farmlands and woodlands in the outlying areas of Durham, Madbury, and Lee for animal sciences, studies of natural resources, and recreation.
The University System of New Hampshire (USNH) requires that each of the institutions in the system produce and periodically update a long-range comprehensive plan to guide it’s physical development for 20 or more years at a time.

The Campus Master Plan (http://www.unh.edu/cmp) addresses all aspects of the institution including physical plant, real estate, changes in academic programs, and administrative structure. UNH, USNH’s largest institution in terms of both student enrollment and campus acreage, produced the university’s current Campus Master Plan (CMP) in 1994, after three years of meetings and discussions about the principles that would guide the plan.

Since then, UNH has undertaken an ambitious program of upgrading older buildings, including dramatic renovations of Murkland and Pettee halls, and building new ones, such as the stunning new Dimond Library and the inviting new Holloway Commons dining hall. With state, federal, and tuition income, the university has invested more than $250 million in these and other projects, taking giant strides toward attracting a diverse student population from across the nation and around the world.

The Campus Master Plan: Back to the future
A new Academic Plan (http://www.academicplan.unh.edu) emphasizing integration of student educational, recreational, and living opportunities as well as the ever-evolving demands for building renovations, recreational and transportation upgrades, triggered a fresh review of the 1994 CMP in 2002. Working with planning consultants Ayers Saint Gross (buildings), Howard-Stein Hudson (transportation), and Saucier and Flyn (landscape) Bencks and his update team developed a wide-ranging plan to re-configure land and building uses, including demolition, renovation, and new construction projects to better meet the needs of the University in the future. Eighteen months later, including nine months of workshops, public presentations, and interviews with more than 200 townsfolk, faculty, and students, an updated CMP outlining major new renovations, new buildings, transportation and landscape upgrades, was presented and approved by the USNH Board of Trustees in October 2004.
“ As we look out to the future, can we see 20 years from now?” asks Bencks, a large multi-colored map spread across the table before him. “Probably not, but we do know several critical things that we will need to address. This,” he adds, pointing to the map, “is the roadmap for when we need new housing, new research, or when we get a new donor for a performing arts center or funding for an academic building from the state. This map shows where and how we can develop.”

For planning purposes, the campus is divided into three “precincts,” based on function and location: 1) the core campus of academic buildings, 2) the ring campus of student life, housing and the town gown, which surrounds the core campus, and 3) the outer campus of open land in Durham, Lee, and Madbury. More than 11,000 undergraduates and 2,500 graduate students, along with hundreds of faculty, staff, and service providers use the UNH campus in some way every day, whether it is living on campus, accessing academic and research buildings, recreational activities and athletic training, using the University’s communications systems, transportation and parking, or making deliveries.

The campus (http://www.unh.edu/welcome/campusmap.html) is designed so that students and faculty may walk from any point in the core campus of academic buildings, such as Nesmith Hall at the northeastern end, to any other point in the core campus, such as Hetzel Hall on the western end or Babcock Hall to the south, in less than ten minutes. At the same time, on-campus residents in the ring precinct can reach the core campus by foot in ten minutes or less.

Guided by the fundamental philosophy of integrating the essential quality of life, architectural, and academic functions, Bencks and his update team identified the need for several renovations and a major expansion of University facilities in the core campus. As a result, DeMerrit, James, Parsons, Nesmith, New Hampshire, and Hamilton Smith halls are all identified to receive major overhauls in the coming years to better accommodate the University’s changing needs and enhance the reputation of UNH regionally and nationally. Meanwhile, financing was secured from the state to begin building the new Kingsbury Hall. As Bencks points out, new buildings will be functionally modern in design and may be built with bricks and granite, and have sloped roofs and mullioned windows to maintain the traditional character and style of the older buildings in an integrated campus environment.

While virtually 100 percent of all incoming freshmen and nearly 70 percent of all sophomores live on-campus, only about 50 percent of the entire undergraduate population currently resides on campus. In order to foster greater participation and interconnectedness between student and academic life, as called for in the new Academic Plan, the updated CMP allows the University to build additional residential housing, offering campus housing for at least 60 percent of all students, totaling an additional 1,700 beds. The new living facilities will feature more apartment and suite-style, as well as single rooms, to provide living spaces that will appeal to upper division students.

Commensurate with UNH’s growth as a top-tier research university, the CMP provides a blueprint for new research buildings in the academic core precinct as well. Three new research facilities are foreseen in the plan and several other research additions have place holders in the plan for the future. Adding research buildings along with new housing in the ring precinct is expected to make possible new opportunities for undergraduate participation in exciting new areas of science and technology.

Mastering the Environment: Ecosystems, walkways, and underpasses
The rolling hills, open space, and dramatic ravine that define the unique look and feel of the UNH landscape will be enhanced and extended into every area of the University, making the natural beauty and ecosystems of the landscape signatures of the University’s leadership in a wide range of environmental and animal sciences. Most visible among the many landscape alterations are turning College Road into College Way, and turning Conant Courtyard, which currently features a service parking area, into an “outdoor living room” emphasizing pedestrian-friendly activities and greater social interaction.

Designs are also underway to accentuate key vehicular and pedestrian gateways to the core and ring precincts to provide better orientation and convey a sense of arrival or transition.

Other improvements include spaces for impromptu recreational activities near residential housing, planting small garden areas, and generally extending and strengthening the natural areas that exemplify the beauty of the core campus. Recreational opportunities will be increased as well by developing new fields for intramural sports and outdoor activities on the outer campus.

“We know how important independence is for students,” Bencks says, discussing one of the biggest challenges the University faces—transportation. “We need to insure that students feel they have their independence without having to rely on an automobile or a personal vehicle.”

In addition to closing College Road, the CMP will take traffic off of Main Street by creating alternative roads to the south and north sides of campus and moving several small parking areas currently in the core campus to the edges of campus at A and B-Lots. The idea is to make Main Street less of an all-purpose thoroughfare, eliminating traffic jams in town every time classes change, and increasing pedestrian safety at crosswalks, while leaving the road open for visitors with one visitor parking lot on the core campus by New Hampshire Hall and C-Lot. The planners also envision two underpasses to the railroad tracks that cut north and south through the campus—one already in design on the south side of campus joining Morse and Gregg halls, and the other on the north side of the tracks between the Whittemore Center and A-Lot.

Funding sources for some projects are clearly identified and a few are already in place. The state provides funds for renovations of teaching facilities, such as Kingsbury Hall. The university receives federal money for new research facilities, and student room fees must pay for housing improvements and expansions. In total, the estimated value of the Campus Master Plan, if fully implemented in today’s dollars, would equal $1 billion.

“Given our resources, we will not complete the entire Campus Master Plan in 20 years,” says Bencks, “but here’s everything that we can see today as being a realistic need for the University as we look out to the future.”