CONTEXT

Texas A&M seeks an advanced physical environment that stimulates intellectual growth, creative activity, and cross-discipline cooperation and scholarly exchange.

Elements to be addressed and Values within each element:

• Academic community of scholars and learners
  
  • Vision 2020 Imperatives, especially
    
    • Elevate Faculty
      
    • Enhance Graduate Education
      
    • Enhance the Undergraduate Experience
      
    • Enrich the Campus
      
  • Strategic Planning Themes
    
    • Technology
      
    • Internationalization
      
    • Diversity
  • Environment conducive to scholarly interaction; sense of community and communal spirit for faculty, students and staff; human needs for interaction
    
  • Focus on student learning outcomes and how students will learn in the future
    
  • Interdisciplinary education and research - linkage for disciplines that work together but are currently physically separated
    
  • Research focus for undergraduate students
• Projected growth and resultant expansion needs
  
  • Student population
    
  • Faculty and staff population
    
  • New or expanded programs
    
  • Increase in required research space
    
  • Additional, enlarged and renovated space needs
• Student activity on campus
  
  • Focuses on community/family
    
  • Pedestrian-friendly campus
    
  • Buildings close enough - limit excessive walking distances between functions
    
  • Convenient on-campus transit system
    
  • On-campus living for 25% of students; off-campus living for 75% of students
    
  • An on-campus living environment that enhances community/fosters learning communities.
    
  • Convenient and appealing on-campus dining
    
  • Enhanced campus student life; sufficient space for student life, i.e., involvement, leadership, learning
    
  • Student activity on campus in evenings and on weekends
    
  • Sufficient number of outdoor play areas, recreational and sports areas for both informal and organized sports.
• Traditions - retain distinctiveness of Texas A&M
• Campus access and circulation
  
  • Main gateways to campus for various constituencies
    
  • Recommendations of campus access plan, addressing, among other things,
    
    • Effective wayfinding system
      
    • Appealing and efficient pedestrian pathways; pedestrian-friendly campus
      
    • Adequate bike paths and running trails
      
    • Efficient transit system
      
    • Traffic and parking issues
      
• Campus aesthetics
  
  • Defined visual character of campus
    
  • Architectural standards and guidelines for new construction and renovations, providing consistent and compatible architecture
    
  • Integration of existing buildings
    
  • Appearance of a campus, not an urban downtown area
    
  • Rich campus aesthetic that provides for both unity and convenience, that accommodates future growth and expansion
    
  • Appealing open spaces, green space
• Historic preservation and deferred maintenance
  
  • Preservation of historically significant facilities
    
  • Demolition of economically infeasible and historically insignificant facilities
    
  • Investment in deferred maintenance backlog
• Infrastructure
  
  • Efficient
    
  • Reliable
• Campus security
  
  • Lighting
    
  • Limited access for undesirable activities
• Relationship to local community
  
  • Smooth access and egress
    
  • Transit connections
    
  • Acceptable parking opportunities
    
  • Convenient student housing
    
  • Desirable and accessible community services and amenities