UND University Village Development: Finding Community in a Diversely Populated Area
Abstract
Campus planning has become an
increasingly important topic over the past
twenty years in the field of city planning.
With many state’s universities growing at
an alarming rate university officials are
beginning to wonder were to look for
expansion. This thesis project focuses
mainly on how to integrate a new style of
public university that begins to fund itself
through the events that are located on
campus. With this new type of development
there are concerns about losing the idea
of focusing the attention on the student
and turning towards just trying to turn a
profit.
This is the case on the University
of North Dakota Campus. This campus has
recently expanded its boundaries to include
a luxurious new hockey arena that draws in
fans from around the Midwest. With such a
fan draw the University is looking into ways
to incorporate these new visitors into their
campus without disturbing the educational
element of the college.
One way to achieve this goal is to
promote a mixed-use development that
incorporates all the users into the
same site at different times. This type of
high-density development will allow the
University to expand its student base onto
the site and allow for visitors to enjoy
the college atmosphere. This thesis is
focused mainly on how to integrate these
two groups (visitors and students) and the
Universities existing alumni who also have
an interest in the site.
The main idea behind this design is a
form of development called New Urbanism.
This type of development promotes mixed-use
development at a pedestrian scale.
This project will also focus on the ideas
of campus planning and transit orientated
design or TOD.
This thesis project will attempt to
create a new type of campus design which
will further move the University into the
community.