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Physically translating the Strategic Plan and supporting liberal arts education for the 21st century

Connecticut College Campus Master Plan

Client
Connecticut College
Location
New London, CT
Size
750 acres
Services
Planning and Urban Design
Additional Services
Architecture
Landscape Architecture
Status
Completed 2018

Connecticut College (Conn) was founded in 1911 as a women’s college rooted in the liberal arts tradition. Over the past one hundred and seven years, Conn has become a co-educational institution, and enrollment has grown to a student population of nearly two thousand students per year. Conn offers 41 majors and has established a reputation for excellence in academics, the performing arts, and athletics.

In 2017, Conn engaged Sasaki to complete their 2018 Connecticut College Campus Master Plan. Building upon the recently completed strategic plan, Building on Strength, and new Connections curriculum, the campus master plan for Connecticut College provides a strategic roadmap for investment in both the near and long term.

This document serves as a conceptual design framework that outlines development opportunities over a twenty-year horizon. It establishes an armature for development, defining the physical structure for circulation, open space, and development opportunities within which academic and campus life can flourish. Having a flexible physical planning framework in place enables the College to seize opportunities for growth and development as they emerge, while incrementally realizing the collective vision for the future of the College.

Spread over 750 acres, a key goal of the plan is the cultivation of a close-knit sense of place embodied within the liberal arts experience. Through the creation of a pedestrian spine, strategic placement of active uses, and rationalization of programmatic functions and departments, this intimate environment emerges. Currently split by a state highway, the plan also provides strategies to enhance connectivity, reinforce its identity as an arboretum, and celebrate its presence along the waterfront.

Themes of diversity, accessibility and inclusion, optimization of resources, and celebrating the institutions’ unique assets and strengths underpin this effort. The plan has developed from robust stakeholder engagement, online outreach, and close-knit communication with a core team, Steering Committee, and broader community engagement.

For more information contact Caitlyn Clauson.

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