Major new-building construction can be seen across campus. Pictured: Wolfe Center for the Arts, which will serve as an ideal place for students and faculty to learn and work on theatrical, dance, musical, film and digital arts productions. The new Center will also offer the community an exceptional venue for a wide range of performances.
Master Development Plan to transform campus
Sweeping renovation of “traditional core academic buildings” — along with new construction and introduction of “interconnected green spaces”—will highlight a 15-year, $120-200 million effort to create a state-of-the-art, “next generation” learning environment with a much closer connection to the city of Bowling Green. It’s official: The long-anticipated BGSU Master Campus Development Plan is now poised on the runway and ready for takeoff. About one year in the making, the ambitious architectural and landscaping Master Plan calls for some of the most dramatic and aesthetically pleasing changes in the 100-year history of the university. Those changes include a wholesale transformation of four traditional buildings that form the “academic core” of the campus (Moseley, Hanna, University and South halls), along with construction of the soaring new Wolfe Center for the Arts, Stroh Center sports and convocation complex, and new residence and dining halls. The upgrades and new buildings promise to significantly enhance learning, teaching and student life at BGSU during the years ahead. Based on what University officials describe as “a toughminded prioritization” of building projects in a recessionstressed era of uncertain state support for higher education, the 15-year Master Plan was designed to enhance BGSU’s 8 BGSU Magazine
teaching mission. The plan emphasizes both building renovations and new construction to achieve the maximum impact in the most cost-effective manner possible. “The great thing about the Master Plan is that it balances the needs of everybody,” said BGSU Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Ken Borland. “Under the approach we’re taking, undergraduate and graduate students will benefit greatly, but so will the teaching faculty. And while the plan calls for new construction, it also will provide major renovations for many traditional buildings at the heart of the original campus.” “Our goal is to preserve the best of the past–while also introducing the new, flexible ‘teaching platforms’ and multi-use spaces that are critical to our academic future,” added BGSU Associate Vice President Steven P. Krakoff in the Office of Capital Planning & Design. “To achieve that goal, we came up with a creative, cost-conscious mix that gives us the best improvement we can get for the money.”