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Campus Master Plan

Drury’s master plan is a clear vision for how the institution will develop, grow and evolve, physically, over the next 25 to 30 years. A good master plan envisions a fabric of buildings, open space and landscape that are knitted together in a cohesive, legible, attractive — and memorable — way. It is not a prescription for exactly what will go where. Instead, the plan establishes an ordered yet flexible framework which will guide all future planning and development.

It also reflects – in form and function – what makes Drury University unique. Crafted with extensive input from the Drury and Springfield communities starting with a week-long charrette in April, the plan imagines a future that both preserves and enhances that which defines the Drury campus and experience for generations to come.

Download a Summary of the Master Plan

About the Drury University Campus Master Plan

After months of work with renowned architecture and design firm Cooper Robertson, Drury University has completed a new campus master plan that will guide the school’s physical evolution for decades to come, and build on the success of recent growth in enrollment, academic programming, and alumni engagement.

The small, private liberal arts school based in Springfield, Missouri, is making strategic moves to address the needs of today’s students in a rapidly changing world, and set itself apart in the competitive landscape of American higher education. The strategies are being laid out by second-year president Dr. Tim Cloyd, who spearheaded gains in national visibility, enrollment, and fundraising in 13 years as president of Hendrix College in Arkansas, which is now a top national liberal arts school.

Drury’s master plan was crafted with extensive input from the Drury and Springfield communities, starting with a week-long charrette in April and continuing throughout 2017. The master planning process has taken place in parallel with a wide-ranging study of Drury’s academic offerings as well as plans for a comprehensive capital campaign. These strategic priorities will inform each other in the coming years as Drury moves to raise its regional and national profile.

“Drury’s new master plan provides an essential, visionary framework to anticipate and accommodate our campus needs over the next 25 to 30 years,” says University President Dr. Tim Cloyd, now in his second year in office. “It reflects who we are, and who we want to be. It is inspired by Drury’s rich legacy, but designed to carry our mission forward deep into the 21st century.”

Drury, a private liberal arts school based in Springfield, Missouri, chose New York-based Cooper Robertson to develop its master plan because of the firm’s extensive experience working with higher education institutions including Ohio State, the University of North Carolina, Yale, Georgetown and Duke University. The firm’s most recent project in the Midwest is a redesign of the Gateway Arch Museum and Visitor Center in St. Louis.

“A good master plan envisions a fabric of buildings, open space and landscape that are knitted together in a cohesive, legible, attractive — and memorable — way,” says John Kirk, principal architect with Cooper Robertson. “Drury’s master plan is ambitious but fully achievable, and I have great confidence in the ability of the leadership and community to make it happen.

Some of the guiding principles of the plan include:

  • Establish a hierarchy of open spaces ranging from the iconic to the intimate.
  • Create two new precincts that anchor the north and south ends of campus: a residential precinct to the north, and a design and innovation precinct to the south, connected by Drury Lane.
  • Make great streets, and articulate each major intersection as a “node” with hardscape, landscape, wayfinding, and architecture.
  • Strengthen Drury’s borders with distinctive thresholds and entrances, yet maintain an open nature toward the surrounding Midtown neighborhood.
  • Imbue Drury with distinctive character through architectural interventions including a hierarchy of gateways, bridges and towers.

Master Plan Updates

Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer David Hinson provides an update on the Master Plan process and what to expect this fall.

The first full phase of Drury University’s master plan process will be completed later this fall. Design firm Cooper Robertson, together with the Master Plan Task Force, is guiding the process. It began in the spring with a week-long charrette to gather input from numerous stakeholders. Cooper Robertson representatives held a campus-wide meeting in late summer to update our faculty and staff on the work. The final version of Cooper Robertson’s “framework plan” – which itself is truly just a starting point for potential enhancements across campus – will be presented to the full Board of Trustees in late October. 

Although the framework plan is not yet finalized, the April charrette and Cooper Robertson’s continued work with the Master Plan Task Force have revealed a number of key priorities and possibilities that will be addressed in the plan. Those include:

  • Defining a visual “language” that will inform future construction in a way that honors the past and unifies the look and feel of the campus going forward
  • Setting a framework that will allow Drury to build, renovate or otherwise enhance the campus based on needs that stem from academic programming
  • Addressing the need for a new or revamped student center
  • Potential design concepts for new Breech building that are interdisciplinary in nature
  • The possibility of transforming Drury Lane into a pedestrian-only mall
  • Identifying strategies to better unify the residential and academic areas of campus
  • Identifying ways to better define Drury’s entrances and edges
  • Improving walkability across campus
  • Enhancing beautification

Due Diligence and Discovery

Due Diligence and Discovery

“Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir people’s blood, and probably, themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistency. Remember that our sons and daughters, grandsons and granddaughters, are going to do things that would stagger us. Let your watchword be order and your beacon beauty.” 

Daniel Hudson Burnham
(1864–1912)

Key Recognitions

  • Drury unravels at it’s edges
  • Drury is not landlocked
  • Drury is three campuses. Not one.
  • Drury’s immediate adjacencies and connectivity to its context is essential
  • Drury has important neighbors who should be partners
  • Drury’s existing architecture is traditional buildings
  • Drury needs standards

Key Recognition #1: Drury Unravels at it’s Edges

There is too much asphalt.

artist drawing showing too much asphalt on the current campus.

 


Key Recognition #2: Drury is NOT Landlocked

Drury has plenty of capacity to expand within it’s existing boundaries. 600,000 GSF potential net growth on current Drury land holdings.artist drawing map of drury campus showing it is not land locked in springfield.

artist drawing of drury university proposed campus map.

 


Key Recognition #3: Drury is Three Campuses. Not One.

a campus map showing drury is separated into three campuses instead of one.


Key Recognition #4: Drury’s Immediate Adjacencies and Connectivity to its Context is Essential

There are several sites adjacent to the core area of campus that the University should focus on in the near or long term.

artist drawing of drury campus map showing several sites adjacent to the core area of campus that the University should focus on in the near or long term.

 


Key Recognition #5: Drury has Important Neighbors Who Should Be Partners

artist drawing showing drury campus and who the school should be local partners with.

 


Key Recognition #6: Drury’s Existing Architecture is Traditional Buildings

photos describing drury's current architecture including stone chapel, sunderland hall, wallace hall, and burnham hall.

Drury’s existing architectural fabric is largely one of traditional buildings rendered in red brick and white stone.


Key Recognition #7: Drury Needs Standards

a montage of images showing drury's mismatching current campus accents, landscape, and architecture.

 

Drury has no standard, or consistent treatment for landscape, hardscape, commemorative structures or street furniture.

 

Guiding Principles of the Master Plan for Drury University

  • Establish an ordered, memorable, yet flexible framework plan for the University which will guide all future planning and development.
  • Articulate each major intersection as a “node” with hardscape, landscape, wayfinding and architecture.
  • Define Drury’s edge conditions and create psychological thresholds.
  • Transform Drury Lane into the Iconic Heart of campus
  • Make great streets
  • Establish a hierarchy of open spaces ranging from the iconic to the intimate.
  • Create two new enervating precincts that anchor the north and south ends of campus: a residential precinct to the north and a design and innovation precinct to the south, connected by Drury Lane.
  • Consolidate athletics & school spirit on the main campus and its immediate periphery.
  • Re-imagining Central Street as a linear park that tells the history of Drury University and Springfield, Missouri as significant actors in the realization of the American idea.
  • Imbue Drury University with distinctive character through architectural interventions including a hierarchy of gateways, bridges and towers.

Establish an ordered, memorable, yet flexible framework plan for the University which will guide all future planning and development.

artist drawing of drury campus highlighting new roads and transportation features around campus.

 


Articulate each major intersection as a “node” with hardscape, landscape, wayfinding and architecture.

a map of main drury intersections showing “node” with hardscape, landscape, wayfinding and architecture.

 


Define the Edge Conditions

Benton Ave

campus map highlighting Benton Avenue though campus.The Northwest Quadrant

campus map of the The Northwest Quadrant of campus.Housing Frontage

a campus map of proposed Housing Frontage.The East Quadrant

drury campus map of The East Quadrant.The South Quadrant

drury campus map of the The South Quadrant.

 


Transform Drury Lane into the Iconic Heart of Campus

 

campus map showing the transformation of drury lane as the new backbone of campus.


Make Great Streetsshowing proposed landscaping around streets on drury campus.


Establish a hierarchy of open spaces ranging from the iconic to the intimate

proposed artist drawings of the new Drury quad and president's house garden.
proposed artist drawings of the new stone chapel historical garden and student center green.


Create two new enervating precincts that anchor the north and south ends of campus: a residential precinct to the north and a design and innovation precinct to the south, connected by Drury Lane.

artist rendering of campus map showing how the north and south ends of campus can be united.


Consolidate athletics and school spirit on the main campus and its immediate periphery.

various imagery of Drury athletics including basketball, baseball, and soccer.


Re-imagining Central Street as a linear park that tells the history of Drury University and Springfield, Missouri as significant actors in the realization of the American idea.

artist campus map Re-imagining Central Street as a linear park that tells the history of Drury University and Springfield, Missouri.
artist drawing of Central Street streetscape with landscaping.


Imbue Drury University with distinctive character through architectural interventions including a hierarchy of gateways, bridges and towers.

artist drawings of various drury buildings showing proposed architectural interventions including a hierarchy of gateways, bridges and towers.

Campus Master Plan Landscape Framework

Landscape Guiding Principles

  • Preserve what is best about Drury’s landscape and hardscape fabric and enhance it with additional layers of planting, pathways and outdoor rooms.
  • Institute typologies of quadrangle, plaza, terrace, courtyard, promenade and garden to instruct the definition and character of the campus landscape.
  • Develop a consistent, standard palette of landscape and hardscape materials that are the connective tissue of the campus.
  • Within the defined landscape typologies, identify approaches to hardscape, planting, site furnishings and special conditions such as art and commemoration accordingly.
  • Adopt a policy and design standard for the site selection and design integration of all commemorative landscape elements (perhaps the design of the new Drury Lane is the equivalent of Literary Walk in Central Park).
  • Standardize all street furniture including recycling and trash receptacles, bike racks, shelters, “blue phones” etc.
  • Establish a standard of maintenance of Drury’s Grounds to maintain it as the oasis it is and to recognize the functional use and program of each landscape typology.

Landscape Palette: Defining the Drury Campus material palette

Landscape Palette: Defining the Drury Campus material palette


Proposed Landscape Improvements

Proposed Landscape Improvements
Proposed Landscape Improvements
Proposed Landscape Improvements


Spatial Typologies: Decoding the DNA of the Drury Campus Landscape

Spatial Typologies: Decoding the DNA of the Drury Campus Landscape


Planting Typologies: Decoding the DNA of the Drury Campus Landscape

Planting Typologies: Decoding the DNA of the Drury Campus Landscape


Proposed Landscape Improvements

  1.  President’s House & Garden
    – Consolidate Garden/Outdoor Event Space
    – Driveway moves to back, working around large existing trees
    – New low wall defines campus edge, creates threshold
  2.  Benton Ave Quad
    – Linear Quad Space framed by new buildings
    – Existing trees preserved
    – Gateway/Entry thresholds formalize Western edge of Campus
  3.  Stone Chapel & Gardens
    – New low seatwall defines Campus Boundary
    – Expanded Entry Plaza
    – New garden space behind Chapel
  4.  Welcome Center – Landscape
    – Renovate Sunken Garden, adding planting, new seat wall, & paving
    – Renovate Entry Plaza & Planting Area, preserve beautiful limestone walls
    – New event/garden space at Intersection of Central & Drury Ln.
  5.  Burnham Circle
    – Transform loop road into Pedestrian Promenade and Fire / Service Lane
    – Renovate Plazas near Library, Housing, Welcome Center
    – Enhanced Gardens along edge
    – New crossing walks enhance connectivity
  6.  Drury Ln. Promenade
    – Linear pedestrian promenade framed by formal tree planting & gardens
    – Social seating areas for study/informal gathering
    – Serves as Fire Lane for emergency access
  1.  O’Reilly Plaza
    – Add tree planting in plaza to create shade
    – Updated flexible seating & furnishings
  2.  Linear Residential Precinct & Oak Lawn
    – Linear Informal Play Lawns and Sports Courts framed by buildings
    – Existing Large Oak Tree framed by new lawn space & building program
  3.  Central Quad
    – Consolidated crossing paths framed by looping promenade/ fire lane and new buildings.
    – Fountain opportunities at center
    – Preserve existing large trees & add gardens along outside edge of space
  4.  Athletics Field Plaza & Landscape
    – New Entry Gate and Ticketing Booth/Restroom
    – Stepped Amphitheater Seating with views to Downtown
    – New Colonnade / Architectural Element
    – Renovated gardens and stormwater area
  5.  Athletics Building Entry Plaza
    – New iconic Entry Plaza with integrated stormwater garden w/ bridge
  6.  Diversity Center / Historic Church Green
    – Option for event lawn space to serve weddings & events at Diversity Center.
    – Aligns Beech School Architectural element across Drury Lane South

Proposed Landscape Improvements

Cooper Robertson

John Kirk, AIA, will serve as Partner-in-Charge, ultimately responsible for the team’s work and primary point of contact. He will be joined by Brian Shea, AIA, Senior Urban / Campus Planner and Noor Makkiya, Designer. We have also engaged SiteWorks, an award winning landscape architecture studio based in Charlottesville, Virginia. Siteworks is a small,dynamic studio dedicated to making meaningful human places that intelligently engage local ecologies, are culturally relevant and that operate simultaneously as habitat and as living sculpture. We are involved in projects ranging from gallery installations, site sculpture and private gardens, to corporate and institutional landscapes,post-industrial sites, urban design and public parks. SiteWorks will be led by Peter Joseph O’Shea, FASLA,FAAR, who recently collaborated with CooperRobertson on the Longwood University Master Plan.


John Kirk, AIA

Partner-in-Charge
Cooper Robertson

 

 

 

 

Brian Shea, AIA

Senior Urban / Campus Planner
Cooper Robertson

 

 

 

 

Noor Makkiya

Designer
Cooper Robertson

 

 

 

 

Peter Joseph O’Shea FASLA, FAAR

Principal Landscape Architect
SiteWorks

 

 

 

 

 

 

Campus Experience

Cooper Robertson practices award-winning architecture and urban design with both disciplines working together at a range of scales. Our New York City-based staff skillfully addresses large scale campus design challenges, shapes major cultural and educational buildings, and crafts exceptional private residences and resorts.

In all of our work we have sought to wed practicality and professional rigor with art; to combine reason and passion. The test, we believe, is how well our projects will survive in twenty-five or fifty years – a test which differentiates the useful and the timeless from the merely fashionable.

Developing building designs and plans for academic institutions represents a major portion of our practice. We have completed assignments for educational
institutions across the country, developing campus master plans and designing residential buildings, teaching facilities, research centers, professional schools, medical buildings, performance halls and museums for higher education clients. Our portfolio features planning work for university clients ranging from small colleges in bucolic settings to large urban research universities.

Relevant Community Design Experience

Cooper Robertson has also successfully worked with private developers and public agencies to prepare master plans and designs for new developments and urban districts across the country and is internationally recognized for the design excellence of its projects.

The firm has been recognized for its mixed-use master plans and design of new communities and neighborhoods at a range of densities. Battery Park City was featured at the very first Congress for the New Urbanism in Alexandria, Virginia. Our master plan for Carlyle in Virginia was presented at and published in The Seaside Debates, Celebration was presented at the Congress for the New Urbanism, and Vald’Europe was recognized with a CNU Charter Award.

We have received National AIA Awards for the masterplan of WaterColor in Florida, the urban design of Battery Park City in New York, and for the Master Plan for the Central Delaware Waterfront in Philadelphia.The firm also received ULI Awards for Excellence for the design of the new communities of Celebration and WaterColor in Florida. Cooper Robertson is the first firm to receive National AIA awards in both architecture and urban design in the same year.

Notes from Cooper Robertson During the Charrette

What is the culture of Drury University?

  • Drury is “home”
  • Drury is “family”
  • “Drury makes things better”
  • Students feel a connection to not only Drury, but also with the faculty
  • “The hallmark of Drury is a certain intimacy”
  • “It’s the interpersonal connections” that defines Drury
  • At Drury “we know everyone”
  • At Drury “everyone cares” about others’ success
  • Drury (at Breech) there is an esprit de corps
  • Drury is/aspires to be genuinely diverse
  • Everyone is nice
  • Drury is student centric
  • Drury students want to be
  • Drury cultivates ethical big leaders and thought leaders

What is the first thing one thinks of when one says “Drury University”?

  • Trees
  • Drury Lane (and Wallace Hall)
  • The Stone Chapel
  • Quality teaching and caring faculty
  • A wonderful community
  • Interdisciplinary education
  • Relationships
  • Tradition
  • Red brick and limestone

What does Drury need?

  • A clear vision
  • Clear edges and thresholds
  • A welcome center
  • Aggregated athletics facility near campus
  • An indoor athletics facility
  • A clearly defined fabric
  • A living room/student center
  • Hang out spaces (indoors and outdoors)
  • “Places where intersections can happen all the time”
  • Spaces that are welcoming to outsiders
  • A variety of assembly spaces from 20-30 to 800-1000
  • A student success center
  • Enhanced connections to and through the Midtown neighborhood to Commercial Street and south to Downtown
  • More collaborative spaces/maker-spaces
  • More small study/team space
  • Technology
  • Bathrooms
  • To attract a more diverse student body
  • More “food hubs” and outdoor picnic areas
  • Amphitheaters, outdoor classrooms, event spaces
  • Sorority houses
  • Shuttle system
  • Better amenities
  • A new “innovation center” that also houses the Breech School of Business Administration
  • Bring art back into the fold
  • Presence/visibility of continuing education

Guiding Principles

  • Preserve what is best about Drury University- culturally, educationally, and physically – and build on its strengths
  • Enhance the campus’ physical fabric with infill buildings and a layering of landscape and hardscape elements
  • Strengthen physically the university’s edges with architecture, hardscape and landscape
  • Establish a hierarchy of thresholds, front doors
  • Reimagine Drury Lane to create a pedestrian-friendly “mall” as the university’s most iconic and memorable open space and organizational element- attention to the Mall in Washington DC or the Lawn at the University of Virginia.
  • Reimagine Burnham Circle as the university’s primary “quad” and develop smaller, more intimate “outdoor rooms” in a variety of scales.
  • Strengthen Drury’s perimeter through joint venture partnerships with “friends” and neighbors of Drury
  • Establish better connections from, to and through the university from Commercial Street to Walnut Street and from Campbell Street to Downtown.
  • Establish a welcoming presence to the surrounding neighbors
  • Address Drury’s [proximity] to railroad/OTC
  • Investigate strategies to aggregate athletics on one property

Vision

  • The vision for Drury University will, ultimately, be informed by the strategic positioning platform now being drafted, and will envision a Drury University of the future, in quality and character, capable of expanding its influence profoundly locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally.

Drury Task Force

Portrait of Kris Anderson

Kris Anderson
Task Force Chair
Board of Trustees

Portrait of Terry Lynn Reynolds

Terry Reynolds
Board of Trustees

Portrait of Rita Baron
Rita Baron
Task Force Vice Chair
Local Springfield Lead
Board of Trustees

Portrait of David Hinson.

David Hinson
Executive Vice President
Chief Operating Officer
Chief Information Officer

Rosalie O'Reilly Wooten

Rosalie Wooten
Board of Trustees

Portrait of Don Deeds.

Don Deeds
Professor of Biology

Portrait ofSteve Edwards

Steve Edwards
Board of Trustees

Portrait of Bob Weddle.

Bob Weddle
Dean, Hammons School of Architecture

Portrait of Thomas G. Prater, M.D.

Dr. Tom Prater
Board of Trustees

Portrait of Bill Hart

Bill Hart
Board of Trustees

Portrait of Lyle D. Reed

Lyle Reed
Chairman of the Board
Ex-officio Member

Portrait of Mark Walker.

Mark Walker
Chair of Breech School Task Force
Ex-officio Member

Dr. Tim Cloyd

Tim Cloyd
President
Ex-officio Member

Thomas Westbrook Lynch

Dr. Tom Lynch
Chair of Beautification Task Force
Ex-officio Member

Meagan Ley
HSA Student

Morgan Harper
HSA Student