Campus master plans incorporate a number of common challenges: circulation and parking for multiple vehicles, distinction between common or public spaces and private or residential ones, gateway identity, efficient grounds management, and clear way-finding for visitors and those more familiar with the site. Conway students have carried out a variety of design projects for schools, museums, and other institutions with complex campuses, including the following:

Willie Ross School for the Deaf Campus Master Plan

Located in the exurban community of Longmeadow, MA, the Willie Ross School recently acquired an adjacent 3/4-acre parcel which nearly doubles the amount of open space available for the students. The existing campus is a corner lot — flat, highly manicured, and fully developed with a great deal of impervious surface. The new parcel is steeply sloping, wild and unruly with a substantial tree canopy throughout. The challenges for the project were to unify the two parcels, improving barrier-free access between the spaces, providing outdoor classrooms and opportunities for environmental education and active play, while protecting the safety and security of youth ages 3 to 22.

Springfield Museums: Landscape Master Plan and Open Air Museum

The second of two student projects for the Springfield Museums focused on the open space framed by the five separate museums (of art, history, and science) and incorporating the Dr. Seuss Memorial Sculpture Garden. This “sixth museum” will extend educational opportunities throughout the grounds, making thematic connections among the various museums, providing display and performance space, and reducing impervious surfaces. At the same time, the plan improves security through increased community use, makes the site more coherent through circulation and planting plans, and in a larger goal, contributes to the revitalization of the City of Springfield. This project builds on the earlier Landscape Master Plan.

Springfield Museums Landscape Master Plan

Open Air Museum @ Springfield Museums

The National Graduate School of Quality Management: Center and Institute for Sustainability

A landscape plan for campus expansion at The National Graduate School of Quality Management (NGS/U), a distance-learning institution based in Falmouth, Massachusetts. The expanded campus will be developed as a new Center and Institute for Sustainability, as well as provide a residence for the school’s president. The site itself is seen as a learning laboratory, and thus the resulting plan must illustrate environmental stewardship, demonstrate environmental technologies, employ sustainable land use practices, and enhance a connection with the natural systems on site while correcting flooding, providing additional parking, and maintaining a residential character to the property.