Problem: Building Utilization is Sometimes Inefficient There is no comprehensive survey of building usage for all building types. This makes it difficult to assess the level of efficiency of current building usage and to determine accurately building needs for the future. Decisions about use of building space are not being reviewed by a single authority possessed of an overview of the whole building stock usage picture. To be most effective, such a survey should be employed in tandem with a survey of physical characteristics and life-cycle projections for all buildings.
Action Item C.1.2 – Form a team to study building usage efficiency for all campus buildings and identify potential improvements. Coordinate this effort with the survey required in the preparation of a Building Omnibus (Action Item A.4.1). Both of these efforts should reflect the usage impact resulting from the Collegeʼs Strategic Plan.
Pattern Language: Efficiency Assessment (IVPL1), Building Omnibus (IVPL2)
Problem: There is No Community Meeting Space of Full Capacity While there are several assembly venues that are fixtures in the campus culture, e.g. Canon, Bryson and the Chapel, none has pride of place as the communityʼs meeting room, and none is of sufficient capacity to accommodate the whole college community for events as disparate as graduation and safety training. A facility capable of filling such a need entails distinctive programming challenges which should be addressed from the earliest stages of planning. Chief among these is the paradox of a facility that should be a focus of community consciousness but which could rather infrequently be used to its single-event capacity. Similarly, its central role would suggest a central location, but associated needs for parking and service significantly raise its environmental impact for any site in core campus and could represent a dead-space liability in periods between uses. In consideration of these and of economic concerns the facility should be as versatile as possible and should accommodate ancillary activities which would give it a significant place in the daily life of the College. In order to succeed at this it may be necessary to capture and incorporate some existing programs and make other uses of their current spaces.
Action Item C.1.3 – Develop a preliminary building and operational program for a community meeting hall which will also serve as a multifunctional facility integrating existing and new programs as supporting uses and providing parking in the context of a whole-campus parking plan. Also
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