Officials creating GW’s campus plan updated the community on their status via online workshops late last month with proposed changes like the return of a dining hall to campus.

The Strategic Campus and Facilities Master Plan Committee held six workshops for undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and staff April 29 to May 2 to gather feedback about campus updates, like adding a dining hall on the Foggy Bottom Campus and restructuring the Mount Vernon Campus quad. University spokeswoman Crystal Nosal said similar themes stretched across all seminars like increasing “meaningful” gathering spaces, improving pedestrian pathways and enhancing buildings’ accessibility and sustainability.

“The plan will articulate the vision and guiding principles for GW’s physical development planning and establish standards for a unified campus identity that creates a sense of place and belonging on GW campuses, that align with the University’s values and further the leadership’s stated mission to become a preeminent global research university,” she said in an email.

Nosal said Cooper Robertson – the architecture and planning firm partnering with the University to construct the plan – hosted workshops in February to learn about the campus’s features before proposing facility updates. The late April virtual workshops gathered roughly 30 students for each of the two undergraduate workshops, about 40 students for the graduate student workshop and about 10 students for the Mount Vernon Campus workshop, she said.

She said undergraduates focused on the configuration of residence halls on campus, but graduate students requested information about the increase of parking and dining resources available for students.

“While the workshops for specific audiences about the Foggy Bottom Campus were similar in the content shared, it was the feedback from the different constituencies attending each workshop that provided a diversity of perspectives on the proposals,” Nosal said.

Officials announced the potential to draft the University’s new campus plan more than 20 years ago to reconfigure the mapping of campus and traffic flow. Officials said in the recent workshops the plan now includes updated meeting spaces on the Foggy Bottom and Mount Vernon campuses, highlighting pedestrian access on campus and accessibility of facilities, particularly on the Vern.

Increasing pedestrian mobility

Brian Shea, an urban design director with Cooper Robertson, said in the virtual workshops the committee intends to “reinvent” Kogan Plaza and H Street as the center of campus with less traffic and more green spaces. He said the group is proposing to remove the curb from H Street to Kogan Plaza to increase campus accessibility and pedestrian walkways.

Shea said the committee has proposed installing a walking path called “The Diagonal” that runs from the northwest to the southeastern side of campus – starting at the Milken Institute School of Public Health to the Elliott School of International Affairs. He said the path will serve as a “public spine” to link open spaces and buildings to accommodate student walking routes.

“You have this extraordinary network of smaller, intimate, more open spaces on this diagonal move along the campus, which is very different and very unique, and it’s quite interesting to think about that as the opportunity for an organizing framework for the entire school,” Shea said.

Reconfiguring Marvin Center and STEM district

Mike Aziz, the director of urban design for Cooper Robertson, said in the virtual workshops that the plan features projects to redesign the Marvin Center and Potomac Square, and the STEM and medical district will expand its facilities to include residential and dining halls.

The University’s STEM district, the area around the Science and Engineering Hall, would house an “ambulatory care center” at Tompkins Hall and expand the public health school’s facilities into the Medical Faculty Associates building, Aziz said. He said SEH would expand to Rome Hall, and a newly renovated School of Medicine and Health Sciences would expand beyond its current facility into different buildings.

Aziz said plans include a “neighborhood model” of residence halls organized by class year with new dining and recreational facilities. He said the neighborhood would include a communal dining location similar to District House near Thurston and Mitchell halls.

Aziz said officials also plan to transform the Marvin Center into a “world-class” events center with larger venues for public speakers. He said the building’s student organization offices and the Financial Aid Resources will move to a “flagship” student center featuring a dining hall and game rooms near Kogan Plaza’s Engine Company 23 fire station.

“If you’re able to remove those uses from Marvin, you can create a really world-class conference and events center that’s on par with the types of speakers and events the University currently hosts,” he said.

Aziz said the committee has no set timeline for the developments and will be placing initiatives into higher and lower “priority groups.” He said the committee could complete redesign initiatives like that of Kogan Plaza and H Street more quickly than other reconstruction projects.

Increasing Mount Vernon Campus accessibility

Aziz said the current proposal for the Vern downsizes residence hall space, connects West Hall to the quad and expands the athletic facilities with increased parking and spectator spaces. He said the plan allows for additional athletic and aquatic facilities without decreasing the size of the competition soccer field located outside West Hall.

“There is some perceived need for more space and better space there so really rethinking that part of campus,” he said. “We know that the campus is interested in improving the outdoor pool and building a new aquatic or swim center so we have put that in our program list to test.”

Officials announced in late January that the Smith Center’s pool facilities in Foggy Bottom will be replaced with an additional basketball court.

Anjulie Palta, the architectural designer at Cooper Robertson, said during the workshops that the plan would eliminate the Webb building, a current office space, and the Acheson Science Center to expand spectator space overlooking the soccer field and connect the space to a redesigned east quad in the “heart” of the campus. Officials intend to decrease the number of stairs and “extreme” ramps angling at an 8 percent slant or higher to increase facility accessibility and meet Americans with Disabilities Act guidelines, she said.

“It’s almost like unlocking this door by removing some of these buildings to really open up some of this open space and make it much more connected and ADA friendly,” Palta said.