The Boston Society of Architects recently bestowed a 2008 Honor Award for Campus Planning Design on the design and planning team for the Middlebury College Campus Masterplan, led by architects Michael Dennis & Associates, for which HSH provided the transportation planning, circulation, and parking elements.  The Masterplan, which will guide the College’s growth over the next 50 years, aims to strengthen and interconnect the campus’s open spaces, with particular emphasis on sustainability and reducing the College community’s carbon footprint. 

HSH’s staff for the project, including Principal in Charge Jane Howard and Project Manager Elizabeth Peart, worked closely with the northern Vermont college and the design team over several years to develop travel demand measures to reduce auto travel to and from the campus, and evaluated several proposed campus shuttle routes.  Following on its earlier study of access and parking issues at several key buildings on campus, HSH provided circulation and parking planning to be incorporated into the Masterplan.  HSH conducted a campus-wide parking inventory and utilization study of 2,300 spaces in 38 lots and inventoried bike facilities and pedestrian/vehicular conflict points throughout the campus.  The firm also:

• evaluated the College’s parking characteristics, including a comparison to peer colleges; 
• assessed the campus parking policies for students and faculty/staff; 
• recommended changes to current parking policies; and 
• evaluated parking impacts due to the proposed conversion of a primary campus street into a pedestrian thoroughfare. 

In addition, HSH studied employee commuter patterns and estimated annual vehicle miles traveled by faculty/staff.  The firm also assessed the facilities department parking activity, examined loading/delivery issues, and recommended vehicular circulation changes, including placement of three roundabouts at gateway intersections.

In describing the award-winning projects, the Campus Planning Design Jury cited them as “…truly outstanding examples of thoughtfully analyzed, conceived, and convincingly presented campus plans.”

HSH’s transportation planners and traffic engineers are well-known for their expertise and extensive experience in campus planning for colleges, universities, and schools throughout the East Coast.  The firm has provided assistance with master plans, parking plans, campus circulation and access, civil and traffic engineering, and roadway design for more than 70 campuses.  Currently, HSH is overseeing the bid and construction process for its design of a campus loop roadway at Quinsigamond Community College in Worcester, Massachusetts.

For more information on the transportation aspects of the Middlebury College Campus Masterplan or on HSH’s other campus-related work, please contact Jane Howard at jhoward@hshassoc.com or Elizabeth Peart at epeart@hshassoc.com.  For further information on the Boston Society of Architects and all of the 2008 award winners, visit www.architects.org/awards.