Cleveland State University Master Plan
Making an Urban University Neighborhood
CUDC Quarterly, 3:1 - Winter, 2003
[Click Here for CSU's website devoted to the new master plan, including an interactive map and other images]
Kent State and Cleveland State universities have partnered over the years on joint initiatives through the Urban University Program, as well as through crossover curricula serving Kent State’s graduate students in urban design and CSU’s graduate students in urban affairs. So, the UDC was happy to accept the challenging assignment of updating the CSU campus master plan. The project team for the master plan update also includes Professor Robert Simons of the Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State and MSI, a Columbus-based landscape architecture firm.
CSU completed a comprehensive master plan in 1995. This plan addresses campus facilities, infrastructure, and anticipated development needs, with a clear focus on the internal workings of the university. The update now underway builds on the previous plan but takes a more outward-looking approach. The CSU administration gave the specific direction that the the UDC find ways to integrate the campus with the surrounding city and to improve the quality of life on campus for students, staff, faculty and visitors.
The master plan process began in April of 2002 with an informal survey of faculty, students and staff. The survey revealed that most find the campus to be adequate but few find it appealing. The majority of current csu students live off campus and have busy lives—jobs, families, and other commitments outside of their academic pursuits. Making the campus layout more convenient, accessible and safe is a priority for this student population. At the same time, there is a growing number of csu students who are seeking a more traditional college experience. For them, the campus is made less attractive by a lack of dining choices, retail activity or any sense of campus life. The master plan seeks to balance the needs of both groups, developing a campus that is functional, lively and user-friendly.
The history of Cleveland State University is clearly evident in its existing configuration. CSU was established in 1964, during an era of unprecedented social unrest and a growing fear of all things urban. The university was founded with the admirable goal of making higher education more accessible to inner-city residents, but the design of the campus reflects a deep mistrust of the surrounding city. The fortress-like presence of csu serves to keep faculty and students in, and the rest of the city out. Later additions to the campus, built in the last 15 years, adopt the architectural style and site planning practices of a contemporary office park, which makes some sense, as these buildings house the professional colleges of the university including Business, Law, and Urban Affairs. The master plan encourages the integration of the old and new parts of campus and attempts to open the gates of the fortress so that the campus population and the general public can interact in communal spaces that are safe and inviting.
The "innerlink" tubes connecting campus buildings are convenient, but they also make CUS insular, keeping the life of the campus away from the streets.
An extreme example of the unwelcoming conditions encountered by campus pedestrians.
A key function of the master plan is to identify sites for anticipated university facilities and opportunities for the university to leverage private sector development to the mutual benefit of the CSU community and the surrounding city. Cleveland State expects to build several facilities in the realtively near future, include a new home for the College of Education, a wellness/recreation center, and a student union. The university also needs additional administration space, and it is considering a faculty club. Finally, there is interest in creating a business incubator site to support the efforts of entrepreneurial faculty and staff.
Early in the master plan process, Professor Simons and his staff conducted a market study to determine what additional private sector development could be supported by the university community. The market study showed that CSU could support nearly 1,000 units of housing, including rental and for-sale housing located on or near the campus. The study also identified demand for a small amount of additional retail, including a drug store and three to five restaurants. Another unmet need is for daycare—a conservative estimate indicated that university students, staff and faculty need daycare facilities to accommodate upwards of 300 children.
In the draft master plan, the university’s academic functions are concentrated between Chester and Euclid Avenues, filling in the larger gaps between existing buildings to create a cohesive campus core. Because so many of CSU’s students are commuters, a vast acreage of surface parking lots has developed north of Chester Avenue. These are replaced in the plan by numerous parking structures at the periphery of the campus. freeing up land for development and providing convenient access to campus facilities through a network of streets, pedestrian passages and green spaces. The structures are distributed around the campus so that students and faculty can park in proximity to their particular destinations, instead of competing for scarce spaces in the existing main parking garage, located at the heart of campus. With reduced demand, one bay could be removed from the main garage to create a central quadrangle. The quadrangle would be a signature space for the university, linking campus facilities and providing an attractive, park-like environment for academic and recreational activities. The quadrangle would have dramatic views of the downtown skyline, reinforcing the link between the university and the city.
The plan identifies ways to improve north/south connections through the campus. East/west connections are already strong. Prospect, Euclid and Chester avenues run through the campus and link it to downtown, the midtown corridor and the suburbs beyond. In contrast, connections to the north and south are very difficult. The Chester Avenue facades of the CSU buildings combine to present a solid wall, facing an equally inhospitable sea of surface parking north of Chester and effectively severing the campus from any relationship with the developing neighborhood to the north. The plan addresses this problem by creating two north/south spines, one at East 19th Street and the other at East 24th Street. The spines are a combination of streets and pedestrian paths that align with the new RTA transit stops to be created as part of the Euclid Corridor project. The 19th Street spine links the Convocation Center, Euclid Avenue and neighboring Playhouse Square to the main part of campus and to the growing residential neighborhood north of campus. The university’s existing athletic fields are relocated to allow for the creation of a residential neighborhood that builds on recent housing development in this area, most notably development of live/work units in the restored Tower Press building on Superior Avenue. The 24th Street spine links student-oriented housing centered around Euclid Avenue and East 24th Street with a new Wellness Center, the university’s art and theater complex, and a residential development between Chester and Payne Avenues.
Green space plays an important role in the life of the university. Currently, open spaces at CSU feature lush vegetation, but berms and planting configurations discourage any kind of use. The park-like spaces tend to be disjointed, with difficult pedestrian access. Though beautiful, the existing landscaping conveys the message that it’s OK to look, but please keep out. In the new master plan, landscaped areas are woven into a network of spaces--some intended simply to soften the edges of existing buildings and others to serve as informal gathering places and outdoor teaching areas. A wide ribbon of landscaping is proposed for the north side of Euclid Avenue to establish an identity for the campus at its front door.
Cleveland State’s commitment to reinvigorating its physical setting will be a powerful stimulus to redevelopment in downtown Cleveland. As implementation of the master plan gets underway, the university will transform the relationship between town and gown with long term benefits for both the CSU community and the surrounding city. --Terry Schwarz
The area north of the campus core is reconfigured into a town-gown transitional zone. This includes some campus support facilities (parking, daycare, playing fields) but is dominated by new housing targeted toward CSU employees as well as downtown professionals. [click image to enlarge]
Looking north up the East 24th Street pedestrian spine. Fenn Tower is reconfigured as student housing, with more student housing and recreation planned nearby. Guidelines for the student housing propose a building type similar to early 20th century apartment buildings in Cleveland and the first suburbs. [click image to enlarge]
