Urban Campus Strategic Planning

Bringing together three schools into one unified campus in an urban context

Company

Architecture Research Office

Project type

Client project

My role

Research/Analysis/Strategy

Project duration

6 months

Background

The Harvard Longwood Campus in Boston is home to three schools: Harvard Medical School, Harvard School of Dental Medicine, and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Each of these schools operates and manages independently. Consequently, development on the Longwood Campus has been led by individual schools in a piecemeal approach.

In order to maximize mutual benefits and create a shared vision among all schools for an integrated, cohesive campus, ARO was commissioned, along with the Boston-based urban design firm Utile, to conduct a detailed strategic planning framework for the Harvard Longwood Campus.

This is a highly collaborative project that involves close communication with clients, designers, architects, urban planners, engineers and real estate developers. As part of a diverse consultant team, my responsibilities in this project included leading focus groups, synthesizing research findings, and assessing the spatial programs and urban design opportunities.

Problem

The subsequent addition of buildings has led to inefficiencies in urban land use and a lack of recognizable overall Harvard identity. The three schools are facing a common challenge: available spaces are running out as the population grows faster. The separate development approach does not support the quantity or quality of space needed to meet the long-term vision.

Stakeholder engagement

Who are stakeholders?

Harvard University Planning and Design Office, academic deans, leaders from the 3 schools (decision makers)

To facilitate an open dialogue with the three Schools and better understand their unique needs and priorities, HUPAD, ARO, and Utile met independently with representatives from the three schools. The purpose was to gather initial information on three topics:

  • Growth drivers

  • Framing questions such as funding and recruitment pipeline considerations

  • Potential synergies and sharing opportunities.

Schools' priorities

Through a series of stakeholder interviews we were able to understand the priorities of growth areas for each school:

Ranked priorities for each school

With further discussion on how schools use and manage spaces and programs, the priorities are rearranged and combined to represent the overall needs of all schools:

Ranked priorities between all schools

Conclusion of stakeholder needs

  1. Stakeholders have less interest in sharing school specific spaces, such as classrooms and offices. It would require a completely different way for Harvard to manage these spaces and is not feasible unless Harvard is proposing a new management structure.

  2. Stakeholders are interested in sharing community wide convening and amenity spaces.

  3. There is some interest in sharing some research space and housing, but not consistently among all three schools.

User outreach and research

Who are users?

Students, faculty, staff, researchers, academics

To gain insight of users’ experience of the campus, a survey and focus group sessions were offered to the Longwood Campus community to gather quantitative and qualitative input on the existing campus experience.

8

Focus groups

88

Participants

729

Survey results

1. Defining the focus group curriculum

A total of eight sessions were hosted, with two conducted in person and six conducted virtually. Each focus group lasted approximately 90 minutes and was divided into 3 parts, consisting of mapping exercises and discussions.

A. Introduction and welcome

Introductions, purpose and high-level instructions.

B. Warmup/icebreaker

Break into two groups with one facilitator. With quick reactions, participants respond to the following prompts. The goal of this exercise is to quickly get the participants engaged in thinking about the campus.

What do you like or dislike about the campus as it is now?

C. Physical experience: circulation, approach, access, navigation, etc.

Show and mark up the campus plans. Each participant to draw line of approach to campus and separately a line of where they move throughout campus on a typical day, followed by discussion.

  • How do you get to the campus? (Public transportation, car, bike, walk)

  • How do you move around on campus throughout the course of a typical day? How does this change seasonally? Why do you take these paths?

  • What do you like/dislike about the approach experience as it is now, and why?

  • Are you able to orientate and navigate from one building to another within the campus with ease?

  • Are you able to orientate and navigate within the campus with ease?

  • Are you able to distinguish Harvard Campus within the LMA area? Are you able to easily sense when you enter the campus and when you leave the campus?

  • How do you go to the other Harvard campuses and how often do you go? Do you bike, drive, or take M2 or other transit? Do you find that convenient?

D. Social experience: activities, schedules, amenities, etc.

show and mark up the campus plans. Each participant to draw the boundary of the campus, followed by discussion.

  • What do you consider the heart of campus, and why? Do you consider that heart belonging to you and do you feel welcome there?

  • Please draw the edge(s) of campus.

  • Have you felt engaged and part of the campus community? Where were you on campus, and what activity were you participating in? Why did you feel that way?

  • Identify two indoor and two outdoor spaces that you visit most regularly. What attributes/qualities attract you to these places, and why?

  • Where do you spend most of your time on campus? Does that change during different seasons? Why is that?

  • Do you ever spend time on campus outside of your regular work/study time? What events/activities keep you longer on campus?

  • What brings you to other Harvard campuses? Are there aspects of other campuses/places/amenities (including non-Harvard campuses) that you wish were at or near the Longwood campus?

  • Are there types of outdoor spaces you would like to be added to the campus?

E. Conclusion

Wrap-up and outline what's next.

  1. Talking directly with the campus members

In-person sessions

we had two In-person sessions held on campus.

Virtual sessions

we had two In-person sessions held on campus.

  1. Synthesizing all the data

We gained a lot of valuable data from all the sessions and I synthesized all responses:

Emerging themes & insights

After synthesizing the feedback based on space attributes and key issues, the following themes emerged:

There is a desire for a central community place and gathering spaces to foster a vibrant atmosphere and sense of place.

A lack of connectivity at multiple scales contributes to a sense of isolation on campus and relative to the greater Harvard community.

Activation and improvements to open spaces and shared amenities will promote interaction and create an inclusive and welcoming campus.

The commute to campus and arrival experience are challenging, compromising on-campus participation and engagement.

Detailed processes and summaries are organized into an outreach report which is shared with all stakeholders on the project.

Strategy framework

Models of management

Taking both stakeholders' perspectives and users' needs into consideration, we evaluated three potential models for managing the campus:

Shrink wrapped

The Longwood Campus as currently configured, accommodates the space needs of the three Schools separately, but there is no room for major new growth.

Venn diagram

This is likely not the right model since it implies the shared programs and facilities would be jointly managed.

Mutually-beneficial shared spaces

This model suggests that a fourth entity would both provide and manage shared facilities and amenities.

Measures of success

  1. Short and long term forecast of growing needs to meet the teaching mission and research enterprise

  1. Shared opportunities for space optimization and synergy that benefit the Longwood community

  1. A realistic and practicable roadmap for implementation

Existing campus assessment

  1. Space growth needs

Space growth

Program area takeoffs

All three schools lack available space for the growing populations and curriculums, the lack of swing space necessary for renovating existing buildings, and an agreement that the Longwood Campus suffers from a minimal amount of amenity and social spaces that foster community engagement.

  1. Placemaking and vibrancy

On-campus amenities

  • Limited locations & hours

  • Internal locations within school-specific buildings

Off-campus amenities

  • Internal locations deep inside buildings

  • Lack of street-facing shops and restaurants

Space constraints on campus hinder growth and impact the campus experience. The lack of amenities results in lower engagement and less activities. Interstitial spaces feel marginal due to lack of ground floor active-uses and isolation from the campus core. The exterior spaces can be improved to give a sense of hospitality with more robust planting and shading.

  1. Campus identity and coherence

Timeline showing the development history of Harvard’s Longwood Campus

The identity of the Longwood Campus was originally shaped by the historic character of the first Harvard Medical School buildings and their relationship to the early Longwood Medical Area hospital buildings. Growth over the latter half of the 20th century created an incohesive campus fabric defined by piecemeal building additions, with each school satisfying their space needs within the limitations of the real estate they had available.

Contextual building heights

  • Meeting the space requirements of the schools will necessitate significantly taller new buildings

  • Encourage increased height along Huntington Ave. to align with context

Development density

  • Campus growth should balance the preservation of key historic structures and the maximization of development potential

  • Augment density at key urban nodes can clarify campus fabric

  1. Connectivity and the public realm

Public transit ridership patterns

  • 20 bus routes and the MBTA’s green line E-branch

  • Desire for more direct connections to Allston, Downtown Boston, and other green line branches

  • Issues with MBTA's reliability, frequency, and delays

Campus connectivity and building access

  • Primarily access via Longwood Avenue and Avenue Louis Pasteur

  • Building access is typically secured by card entry with minimal spaces accessible to the public

Although the Harvard Longwood Campus is embedded in a dense, urban context, the campus does not capture the vibrancy and activation of that setting. Rather than working cohesively to reinforce spatial hierarchies, facilitate connectivity and activation, and unify the campus with a legible identity, the site tectonics, hardscape, vegetation, and lighting operate under different and disparate principles, resulting in a feeling of fragmentation throughout the campus. These incoherent elements disincentivize spending time outdoors and inhibit multi-modal circulation into and through campus.

Emerging opportunity sites

Through a series of discussions with the client and with critical input from the real estate consultant, we identified the key opportunity sites shown below. General criteria used for the evaluation of the opportunity sites are:

  • The overall site’s footprint

  • Connectivity to Longwood Avenue, Avenue Louis Pasteur, and/or Huntington Avenue

  • The existing conditions of the buildings presently built

  • The property’s development potential

Key opportunity sites on campus

Strategic land use scenarios

Informed by the spatial program assessments and long-term urban design vision, our team developed the following strategic land use scenarios, including potential site capacity and public realm options that balance current and future space needs of the three schools, with appropriate campus planning and development concepts.

Early explorations

Scenario development

Assumptions: Dimensional Standards

Core & shell lab buildings

  • The the gross floor area shall be at least 27K SF.

  • Ideally lab buildings should be no taller than 11 stories to avoid the need for a second (expensive) mechanical floor.

Residential buildings

  • The gross area shall be at least 11K SF to achieve acceptable net/gross efficiencies.

  • To optimize efficiencies and flexibility of unit layouts, the distance from shared circulation to the window wall shall be between 27'-30’.

Administrative/Classroom Buildings

  • Academic Buildings are more flexible in size and configuration than the previous building types.

  • The minimum area of of a typical floor for academic uses shall be 15K SF to achieve acceptable net/gross efficiencies.

Scenario 1: on-campus housing

Pros

  • Kresge only needs to move once

  • HSDM gets publicly-accessible clinical space on Huntington Avenue.

  • Existing Kresge Site is freed up for reinvention

Cons

  • HMS loses control of the 180 Longwood Site (but could gain control of some or all of the current Kresge site)

Scenario 2: off-site housing

Pros

  • HSPH and HSDM have unique addresses in prominent locations

  • HSPH floorplates are larger than Scenario 1, which translates to fewer floors

Cons

  • Missed opportunity for adding vibrancy/activation because of off-campus housing

  • Fiscal impacts for locating housing off-site

  • Fully academic building may not be able to be as tall as residential building as a result of BPDA permitting priorities

Scenario 3: HSPH moves off-site

Pros

  • Presents opportunities to develop individual sites along Huntington Ave and Longwood Ave

Cons

  • Kresge site is constrained and doesn’t yield ideal footprint for a clinical/research building

Summary

Next Steps

The project is currently progressing to the next phase, which involves cost estimation and real estate analysis. Cost estimators and real estate developers will assist the team in analyzing the overall market conditions that could impact the Harvard Longwood Campus now and in the future, as well as exploring real estate tools such as purchases and lease-backs to help achieve the development goals.

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