This computer rendering of Franklin & Marshall College shows future development in the northwest section of the Lancaster city campus. The intersection at the bottom of the rendering is Harrisburg Avenue, at left, and Race Avenue. The detailed buildings in the rendering are currently under construction or will be built in the future.
Keith Orris talks about Franklin & Marshall College's master plan for its campus at a Wednesday meeting of the city planners.
Since 2004, Franklin & Marshall College has spent nearly $197 million on projects ranging from a new Writers House to redeveloping the former Armstrong floor plant and relocating the Dillerville rail yard.
Comparatively, the next few years will be less ambitious.
The private liberal arts college is planning to spend only $50 million to $55 million more in the next five years, as it begins to incorporate its new space into the college campus in the northwest part of Lancaster city.
Some of those changes already are taking place, college spokesman Keith Orris told members of the city planning commission Wednesday night.
The most evident is the ongoing construction of the new College House. Building of the $25 million residence hall near Race and Harrisburg avenues began in October. It is expected to be completed a year from now, Orris told commission members in discussing the college's revised master plan.
That residence hall will be the first of four, comprising a four-sided residential "quad" near the intersection. Those other dorms could be built over the next few decades, Orris said.
More immediately, before College House is completed, the college will remove the pedestrian bridge over Harrisburg Avenue. That bridge, which is connected to the College Square building north of the street, comes down too close to the new residence hall on the south side. It likely will be taken down this summer, he said.
"No one uses that bridge. It's a bridge to nowhere," Orris said. It was constructed when the college bookstore was located in College Square. Now, the bookstore is on the other end of campus.
The next change will be the redesign of the parking area adjacent to the residence halls along Race Avenue. The college anticipates reconfiguring the lot to add 75 spaces and adding permeable asphalt, which will allow rainwater to soak into the ground below.
With the changes to that lot, and the construction of a new parking lot behind the Alumni Sports and Fitness Center, the college can then proceed with plans to remove the parking lot adjacent to Williamson Stadium. That could come in the next two years, Orris said.
Plans call for a new stadium to be built north of the main campus on the former Armstrong site. That also is planned within the next few years, he said.
The asphalt from the Williamson parking lot would be ripped up to create a new campus green, the edge of which would be the campus' main walkway.
Orris described an 18-foot-wide pathway of red brick, bordered by Pennsylvania blue stone and a granite curb. The mile-long campus walk would run the length of campus, from Buchanan Avenue, across Harrisburg Avenue, and all the way to the planned Armstrong Boulevard near the stadium.
With the campus walk, Orris said the college will be emphasizing a car-free college. Students, staff and the visiting public would be expected to park in lots on the peripheries and walk to buildings on campus.
As part of that emphasis, the plans also call for construction of a 345-space parking garage where the stadium now stands. Entrance to the garage would be from College Avenue, and, because of the slope of the land, the top of the garage would be level with the Life Science buildings and other buildings to the west.
There is no timetable for garage construction, Orris said, adding that it may be a decade or more away.
Long-range plans call for construction of a new academic "quad" near the corner of Harrisburg and College avenues.
Between the proposed academic quad and the residential quad, the college plans new admissions and alumni buildings along Harrisburg Avenue, across from the western end of the College Row buildings.
Along with those new buildings would be a driveway or drop-off area and possibly a fountain, plans show.
"We're going to finally have a new front door," Orris said of what would be the main entrance to the college along Harrisburg Avenue.
The master plan Orris presented is actually a combination of three different plans, he said.
The foundation for the plan comes from the Baltimore firm of Ayers, Saint, Gross, which did a master plan for F&M in 2004 and updated it in 2008. New York-based Robert A.M. Stern Architects enhanced that plan. Olin Partnership, a Philadelphia-based landscape architect took both plans and created a cohesive look for the grounds of the college, he said.
"A master plan is a living document. … It represents a 25-year vision," Orris said.
That vision could be changed, but the intent is to give guidance to future college administrations, he said.