
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 18, 1994                   TAG: 9405180055
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

CAMPUS MASTER PLAN COULD INCLUDE MANY CHANGES

Streets lined with native oaks and maples, bike paths that everyone knows and understands. Even an arc-like reading room bridging The Mall as a stylish addition to Newman Library - these are some of the changes that could come to Virginia Tech under a master plan being prepared.

Boston-based campus planners Sasaki & Assoc. have been working for weeks on Tech's state-mandated 10-year master plan, with final plans likely to be completed by July. In public meetings and smaller briefings, they've unveiled the latest draft plans with the help of the university architect's office.

In a briefing Friday for the Board of Visitors buildings and grounds committee - wherein only member Cecil Maxson showed up - conversation centered on improving traffic flow, as well as the more symbolic aspects of the plan.

For instance, given Tech's status as a land-grant university, Sasaki consultant Perry Chapman, talked about how native trees could tie the campus to the surrounding countryside, leaving no seam. And as a practical matter, trees eventually would reduce the time and money put into mowing.

Buildings noted on the plan include an estimated $150 million already on a university wish list, but the master plan seeks to ensure an overall continuity - whatever buildings actually are built - over time. A series of quadrants and courtyards, for example, ought to remain the "core campus" pattern, Chapman said.

On the wish list is a library addition-reading room, which is being proposed as an archway addition that stretches across The Mall. On the other side, someday, might be another building that frames that end of the road.

But also, master planners say, the addition, probably a few hundred feet from the War Memorial, would serve to frame the memorial and give the campus another focal point.

Upstairs, studying students could look out to the memorial and Burruss Hall beyond.

Campus buildings may have a strong exterior appearance, but, inside there are "very few truly memorable spaces. This could be one of those things you remember 20 years from now," said Peter Karp, university architect.

Other proposals for the master plan include:

Perhaps a living/activity space on the right side of the mall, across from the library.

Three parking garages, totaling more than 1,100 spaces.

"Even through default, we will have to make some decisions about parking,'' said Ray Smoot, Tech's vice president for finance, citing a shuttle-and-parking-lot system as the alternative.

One proposed garage would go across from Squires Student Center, on the site of an existing parking lot. A university offices building might go on the same lot.

by CNB