Centers and Centeredness-A look at Centers and the Unity Master Plan

What is the center of a community? For an architect, a center is the place where people meet and converse. Creating centers is a primary consideration while implementing the Unity College Master Plan.

Randolph T. Hester examines various centers, their design and purposes in his book Design for Ecological Democracy. Throughout this section, Hester looks at developing democracy through building community as well as integrating buildings and landscapes in order to create centers. As Unity College moves forward with the Master Planning process, every new building and landscape feature should be designed with the thought of working to develop centers in order to foster community.

When taking a look at centers in relation to the current Unity campus, many centers exist that have been created through the placement of buildings. These centers exist outside of the cafeteria/north coop/south coop area. A large amount of residential students pass through this area traveling from residence halls to the café. In addition, many faculty and staff pass through this area when traveling to north coop (administration), south coop (classes and faculty offices) or on their way to the top of campus. As a result, often times there are chance interactions among people which result in conversations on a large variety of topics.

The second widely used center is the student activity center building. While it acts as a center and draws a large number of people with a plethora of interests, there are many things that could be done to make this center more appealing. The parking lot in front of the student activities building acts as a small center where people entering and leaving the building mingle and interact. This center is primarily used before and after classes and occasional events that draw people to the building. In addition, people exiting or entering the library pass through this space and often times engage in conversations.

While many people use this particular center, the fact that the gathering place is also a parking lot often deters people. Hester explains that human and vehicular interaction will reduce the number of contacts people have with each other, as well as the amount of time an individual spend utilizing that center. By reducing the parking lot and eliminating the human/vehicular contacts, this established center would become highly effective.

As Unity College finalizes the master plan, these centers must be taken into consideration. Ultimately, when the location of residences halls are changed, a new café/student center is built and new academic buildings are constructed, centers must be developed. Buildings must be placed and oriented in order to be conducive to building the community. In addition, by carefully incorporating parking lots and other vehicular zones, the negative impacts that vehicles have on centers can be avoided.

Along with centers that incorporate the traffic from one location to the next, Unity College needs to look into centers that cater to the individual niches of the campus. Centers focusing on forestry, fisheries, adventure education, sustainability, humanities, wildlife, con law, hunting, fishing, shooting, boating, hiking and cultures all need to be created. By having various places around campus dedicated to individual interests, the college can help bring together individuals that have a unique interest. As a result, these people will be able to mesh and become more productive members of the college community. An example of one of these centers or niches would be the constructing of an outdoor sport/conservation niche. This location could have a small lounge with a fishing/hunting/shooting theme. Various clubs could hold their meetings at this location and it would make them feel at home. In addition, in close proximity, there could be an archery range, easily accessible to the campus community. As a result, anyone that has the slightest interest in archery may be more inclined to investigate the sport and seek out individuals to give them advice and get them started in the right direction. Currently, many activities and interests around campus are secluded and do not feel welcoming to new people. By positioning centers in more visible, open areas, they are likely to be more effective in recruiting people to that interest. Ultimately, through the development of centers, Unity College can continue to grow and progress into the future.

Citations
Hester, Randolph T. Design for Ecological Democracy. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2006.