Wednesday, December 12, 2012
GOOD DEVELOPMENT AND SOUND INVESTMENT
Every day, countless individual investment decisions are made. Taken together, these can have a big impact on a city's image for investment. Whether private decisions about where to build, or public decisions to improve or expand infrastructure, they all affect the desirability of a city as a place in which to invest.
What kind of development image is your city building for itself? Will it be attractive to investors – and local residents? Just like everyone else, developers are looking ahead, seeking a reasonable return on investment, in balance with a reasonable level of risk. All things being equal, then, good private development may best be attracted by cities that wisely plan for and manage their investments in facilities and services – the kinds their own local residents desire – that will serve them well for years to come.
Responsible developers are interested in local long-term public commitment to local people and businesses. So they look for a continuing record of putting time, talent, and money into achieving local goals. Should prospective investors find evidence of no planning or of poor management –inadequate infrastructure or incompatible land uses located next to one other, for example – they will get an uneasy feeling that the future of the city is in no one's hands. So, rather than looking like the right place in which to invest, your city may instead project a negative image to those you wish to attract. And such problems can be avoided with just a little foresight – a little planning ahead.
The style of planning and management that can help a city take charge and bring positive growth and development is rooted in fiscal conservatism, one of the South’s most enduring political beliefs. Effective, local planning brings residents together to decide the kind of place they want, the best areas for economic development, and the places for investment that will support their city's quality of life.
This approach to planning does not dictate future decisions, but rather helps local elected officials invest today so the future will be more like their constituents want it to be. This kind of planning helps to build local commitment to invest in the capital improvements, operations and maintenance it takes to attract the kinds of development residents want, and can help fit growth and development into the places they want.
Planning can improve the quality of life for everyone: when implemented consistently over time, effective plans help attract the growth in jobs, industries, retailers and office development a city wants. Such positive results also help keep local residents happy with city government the people they elected to watch out for their interests citywide. Planning for growth and development is not only the essence of fiscal conservatism in local government; it is the only sure way to demonstrate your city's commitment to the future.
Darrell Meyer, FAICP
Senior Vice President
KPS Group, Inc.
2101 First Avenue North
Birmingham, AL 35203
205.458.3271
dmeyer@kpsgroup.com
www.kpsgroup.com
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
A Vision, A Grant, A Vacant Lot Bring Life to Downtown Gadsden
Nick Hall, City Planner at Gadsden had a vision to turn a vacant lot into a beloved treasure. He had a vision to transform a muddy, grassy area, collecting rainwater from the rooftops of the surrounding buildings into a vibrant green courtyard. Today, it is a place where friends meet friends, shoppers stroll in from Mainstreet, and where families gather for reunions, dinners, and weddings. During the summer, Downtown Gadsden, Inc. hosts a monthly concert, made possible with grant funding from the Alabama State Council on the Arts.
Since it's grand opening several years ago, the courtyard has become a beloved destination. The City loves it. The Senior Center would like to adopt it, and the merchants love the crowds and the customers. It is a win-win for everyone.
Landscape Architect: KPS Group, Inc. , Amy G Smith, ASLA, LEED AP
Contractor: Dunn Construction
Owner: City of Gadsden
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Campus Planning
Campus Planning and Landscape Architecture
KPS recognizes that the physical campus is a manifestation of an institution's mission and culture. A campus should express the individual uniqueness of it's people, place, and time. It is a blending of learning environments, campus life, and supportive elements.
Our plans act as roadmaps for our clients, allowing their physical settings to grow more useful and beautiful over time. KPS recognizes that each component of a campus plan is integral to the overall success and learning environment of the Institution. We strive to inter-relate buildings, infrastructure, open spaces, transit, site ecology, and storm-water management. Our process is intensely collaborative and involves consensus building amongst administrators, faculty, students, facilities staff, and prospective users.
University of Alabama Master Plan Update
Tuscaloosa, Alabama
The University of Alabama Vision, as described by President Witt in the 2007 plan:
"Our vision is to become the “university of choice for the best and brightest.” People—students, faculty, staff and alumni—are the heart of this university. They are the greatest of the four cornerstones of our vision. The other cornerstones—programs, facilities, and resources—will equip our students not only to compete in the world, but to preserve and change it for the better. By bringing together academics and research, this university creates a synergy that benefits not only the students, but the entire state of Alabama.
To make our vision a reality, we have created a bold new plan that includes the most aggressive goals and ambitious objectives we have ever set forth. As we walk the Capstone today, we enjoy the shade of trees we did not plant, the music of chimes we did not build, and the benefit of programs we did not initiate. However, it’s now our time and responsibility to provide for the future. It’s time to plant trees whose shade we will not enjoy and to support the education of young men and women yet to be born. Now is the time for us to choose. And we choose to transform the future." President Witt
The University of Alabama Campus Plan presents a clear and compelling vision: a return to the fundamental principles on which the University of Alabama campus was historically planned and designed, even as the University responds to contemporary demands. This requires reclaiming and reinforcing the campus as a prime example of the American campus planning tradition. Therefore, the Campus offers a complete learning environment—a hospitable, yet engaging academic setting, steeped in the beauty, climate and culture of the South, where residential villages, academic villages, outdoor gathering places, walkways, and recreation areas are interwoven into a gracious and welcoming setting that nurtures the soul and inspires the mind.
Since the plan completion in 2007, The University of Alabama Campus Plan has served as a roadmap for some of the most aggressive changes the University has undertaken. The campus has been transformed into a pedestrian environment by removing the automobile from the core of the campus. All Freshman are now residing on campus in one of several residential villages, and the core campus has expanded to include the new engineering complex. KPS is currently engaged with the University in the 2012 Campus Plan Update which will incorporate the former campus of Bryce Hospital, the university's neighbor for 150 years. A preliminary version of that plan is shown above.
University of Alabama Birmingham
Birmingham, Alabama
The Campus Master Plan Amendment explores and identifies ways in which the University of Alabama at Birmingham might grow over time within its urban context; continuously evolve its role as a leading economic engine in the State of Alabama; enhance the quality of living, working, playing and studying on-campus; and foster public and private investments essential to the well-being of the University’s neighbors, Downtown Birmingham, and the city overall.
In terms of the physical improvement and growth of the campus, these issues are essential to the evolution of the University’s unique, multi-functional campus:
A campus-wide open space system that will organize and interconnect the campus and its major functions.
A walkable campus to optimize future growth opportunities.
A focus toward town and gown as academic, medical, research and other University functions grow in the future, the campus must also grow.
University of North Alabama, Campus Master Plan Update
Florence, Alabama
The 2010 Campus Master Plan update envisions a return to the traditional American campus planning principles upon which the University of North Alabama, the first state-chartered institution to begin operation in the state, originally developed. The plan reveals the campus perhaps 20 or so years from now, assuming continued growth and investment in academics, housing, campus amenities, and support facilities.
New facilities are positioned around the campus in support of a unifying network of open spaces. This provides a strong, central academic core with optimal internal accessibility and appropriate transitions at the community edge. Bicycle and pedestrian improvements work together with the campus’ functional organization so that students, staff, and visitors will find it increasingly convenient to move about the campus. Vehicular access, parking facilities, and an improved wayfinding system provide easy arrival and departure while supporting and encouraging safe, non-vehicular travel within the campus.
Campus functions are organized around the historic campus core, which is reserved primarily for academic and administrative uses, while new student life functions will be strategically integrated to increase activity and convenience. Significant improvements in student housing facilities outside the core will be supported by major investments to student life facilities that will be con-centrated toward the center of campus and available to all.
University of Alabama Huntsville, Master Plan
Huntsville, Alabama
According to University President David Williams, "One of the most important things for a university to do is ensure that it plans its future infrastructure needs carefully and coherently."
In response, KPS Group is helping the University community develop a new campus master plan consistent with their new "Powers of 10" goals and strategic plan.
Among their goals is to bring student life and related organizations into a more central role to allow the opportunity to create a more vibrant and integrated campus. The University selected KPS Group in part for its commitment to an open, transparent planning process that invites everyone to participate in planning for the future of the campus.
The KPS approach seeks participation from all parts of the campus. Students must feel involved in the planning of their residences and their on-campus life. Everyone must share concern for making the campus a safer place to walk and ride. They must also help to solve the ever-thorny problem of campus parking so that students, faculty, and staff can park close to their destination and everyone can walk or ride between classrooms with equal ease—without getting in a car.
The University of Alabama in Huntsville has set very aggressive goals for growth of students, faculty, and facilities. According to President Williams, "In five year's time, this campus will be a very different place—an intrinsically better place to live, learn, and work."
KPS is proceeding with the planning process as a comprehensive, in-depth operation that involves active participation of the entire university community.
Oakwood University Master Plan
Huntsville, Alabama
KPS Group prepared a Master Plan for Oakwood University in 1999, and a Campus Plan Update in 2010. The Oakwood University Master Plan grew out of the University's vision as a self-sustaining campus. Wellness, wholeness, and sustainability are not just ideas on this campus, but daily practices at this unique African-American Seventh-Day Adventist University.
The Campus Plan was developed around several key components of Campus Life- walking, healthy living, sense of community, and sustainability. University leaders envision a truly self-sustaining campus, where families meet, live, and learn, where children are raised, and where the elderly retire.
The plan features new residential areas, academic buildings, greenways and trails, K-12 schools, a retirement village and a cemetery.
Auburn University, Campus Green and Transit Shelter
Auburn, Alabama
The Auburn Campus Green provides a new campus square, and a new heart for the Auburn University Campus. It re-introduces one of Auburn’s original football fields, as a central lawn for passive play, event gathering, and game day activities. It organizes buildings, streetscapes, and plazas along the edges of that green, with areas for seating, for gathering, and for overlooking the rolling green. It proposes a Central Transit Station that reminisces the original façade of the stadium, and thus blends the historic field with the hidden layers of Jordan Hare. The plan is carefully fit within the campus context- physically, historically, and programmatically. It accommodates bus traffic, game day traffic, game day services, stadium egress, and daily pedestrian traffic. And most importantly, it skillfully creates a setting that fosters learning, recreation, gathering, and the Auburn Spirit.
KPS Group, Inc. prepared the master plan and construction documents for the new Transit Pavilion and Campus Green at Auburn University. The new Transit Pavilion and Green was designed to serve as the heart of the Auburn Village. Located in the heart of campus, the area serves as a comfortable and welcoming place for students, as they arrive on Campus each day. The open-air transit pavilion, brick walkways, lights, and banners offer a unique corridor which has affectionately been named "Tiger Alley". On football weekend, the streetscape becomes a festive event area, where the Auburn marching band parades toward the stadium just before kickoff.
The transit pavilion overlooks a new central lawn to the east. This areas is known as Bullard Field, Auburn’s home football field, from the 1920’s until 1939. The reconstructed field replaces parking that was added during the1970's, and restores a central lawn in the heart of campus. It is a place for all of the Auburn community to gather and share in the life and Spirit of Auburn.
The Central Transit pavilion is fashioned akin to the original facade of Jordan Hare Stadium, and thus blends the historic field with the hidden layers and geometries of Jordan Hare Stadium.
The Tiger Transit system hosts 42 buses, and over 2 million riders annually, with the central loading zone located at Tiger Alley.
KPS recognizes that the physical campus is a manifestation of an institution's mission and culture. A campus should express the individual uniqueness of it's people, place, and time. It is a blending of learning environments, campus life, and supportive elements.
Our plans act as roadmaps for our clients, allowing their physical settings to grow more useful and beautiful over time. KPS recognizes that each component of a campus plan is integral to the overall success and learning environment of the Institution. We strive to inter-relate buildings, infrastructure, open spaces, transit, site ecology, and storm-water management. Our process is intensely collaborative and involves consensus building amongst administrators, faculty, students, facilities staff, and prospective users.
University of Alabama Master Plan Update
Tuscaloosa, Alabama
The University of Alabama Vision, as described by President Witt in the 2007 plan:
"Our vision is to become the “university of choice for the best and brightest.” People—students, faculty, staff and alumni—are the heart of this university. They are the greatest of the four cornerstones of our vision. The other cornerstones—programs, facilities, and resources—will equip our students not only to compete in the world, but to preserve and change it for the better. By bringing together academics and research, this university creates a synergy that benefits not only the students, but the entire state of Alabama.
To make our vision a reality, we have created a bold new plan that includes the most aggressive goals and ambitious objectives we have ever set forth. As we walk the Capstone today, we enjoy the shade of trees we did not plant, the music of chimes we did not build, and the benefit of programs we did not initiate. However, it’s now our time and responsibility to provide for the future. It’s time to plant trees whose shade we will not enjoy and to support the education of young men and women yet to be born. Now is the time for us to choose. And we choose to transform the future." President Witt
The University of Alabama Campus Plan presents a clear and compelling vision: a return to the fundamental principles on which the University of Alabama campus was historically planned and designed, even as the University responds to contemporary demands. This requires reclaiming and reinforcing the campus as a prime example of the American campus planning tradition. Therefore, the Campus offers a complete learning environment—a hospitable, yet engaging academic setting, steeped in the beauty, climate and culture of the South, where residential villages, academic villages, outdoor gathering places, walkways, and recreation areas are interwoven into a gracious and welcoming setting that nurtures the soul and inspires the mind.
Since the plan completion in 2007, The University of Alabama Campus Plan has served as a roadmap for some of the most aggressive changes the University has undertaken. The campus has been transformed into a pedestrian environment by removing the automobile from the core of the campus. All Freshman are now residing on campus in one of several residential villages, and the core campus has expanded to include the new engineering complex. KPS is currently engaged with the University in the 2012 Campus Plan Update which will incorporate the former campus of Bryce Hospital, the university's neighbor for 150 years. A preliminary version of that plan is shown above.
University of Alabama Birmingham
Birmingham, Alabama
The Campus Master Plan Amendment explores and identifies ways in which the University of Alabama at Birmingham might grow over time within its urban context; continuously evolve its role as a leading economic engine in the State of Alabama; enhance the quality of living, working, playing and studying on-campus; and foster public and private investments essential to the well-being of the University’s neighbors, Downtown Birmingham, and the city overall.
In terms of the physical improvement and growth of the campus, these issues are essential to the evolution of the University’s unique, multi-functional campus:
A campus-wide open space system that will organize and interconnect the campus and its major functions.
A walkable campus to optimize future growth opportunities.
A focus toward town and gown as academic, medical, research and other University functions grow in the future, the campus must also grow.
University of North Alabama, Campus Master Plan Update
Florence, Alabama
The 2010 Campus Master Plan update envisions a return to the traditional American campus planning principles upon which the University of North Alabama, the first state-chartered institution to begin operation in the state, originally developed. The plan reveals the campus perhaps 20 or so years from now, assuming continued growth and investment in academics, housing, campus amenities, and support facilities.
New facilities are positioned around the campus in support of a unifying network of open spaces. This provides a strong, central academic core with optimal internal accessibility and appropriate transitions at the community edge. Bicycle and pedestrian improvements work together with the campus’ functional organization so that students, staff, and visitors will find it increasingly convenient to move about the campus. Vehicular access, parking facilities, and an improved wayfinding system provide easy arrival and departure while supporting and encouraging safe, non-vehicular travel within the campus.
Campus functions are organized around the historic campus core, which is reserved primarily for academic and administrative uses, while new student life functions will be strategically integrated to increase activity and convenience. Significant improvements in student housing facilities outside the core will be supported by major investments to student life facilities that will be con-centrated toward the center of campus and available to all.
University of Alabama Huntsville, Master Plan
Huntsville, Alabama
According to University President David Williams, "One of the most important things for a university to do is ensure that it plans its future infrastructure needs carefully and coherently."
In response, KPS Group is helping the University community develop a new campus master plan consistent with their new "Powers of 10" goals and strategic plan.
Among their goals is to bring student life and related organizations into a more central role to allow the opportunity to create a more vibrant and integrated campus. The University selected KPS Group in part for its commitment to an open, transparent planning process that invites everyone to participate in planning for the future of the campus.
The KPS approach seeks participation from all parts of the campus. Students must feel involved in the planning of their residences and their on-campus life. Everyone must share concern for making the campus a safer place to walk and ride. They must also help to solve the ever-thorny problem of campus parking so that students, faculty, and staff can park close to their destination and everyone can walk or ride between classrooms with equal ease—without getting in a car.
The University of Alabama in Huntsville has set very aggressive goals for growth of students, faculty, and facilities. According to President Williams, "In five year's time, this campus will be a very different place—an intrinsically better place to live, learn, and work."
KPS is proceeding with the planning process as a comprehensive, in-depth operation that involves active participation of the entire university community.
Oakwood University Master Plan
Huntsville, Alabama
KPS Group prepared a Master Plan for Oakwood University in 1999, and a Campus Plan Update in 2010. The Oakwood University Master Plan grew out of the University's vision as a self-sustaining campus. Wellness, wholeness, and sustainability are not just ideas on this campus, but daily practices at this unique African-American Seventh-Day Adventist University.
The Campus Plan was developed around several key components of Campus Life- walking, healthy living, sense of community, and sustainability. University leaders envision a truly self-sustaining campus, where families meet, live, and learn, where children are raised, and where the elderly retire.
The plan features new residential areas, academic buildings, greenways and trails, K-12 schools, a retirement village and a cemetery.
Auburn University, Campus Green and Transit Shelter
Auburn, Alabama
The Auburn Campus Green provides a new campus square, and a new heart for the Auburn University Campus. It re-introduces one of Auburn’s original football fields, as a central lawn for passive play, event gathering, and game day activities. It organizes buildings, streetscapes, and plazas along the edges of that green, with areas for seating, for gathering, and for overlooking the rolling green. It proposes a Central Transit Station that reminisces the original façade of the stadium, and thus blends the historic field with the hidden layers of Jordan Hare. The plan is carefully fit within the campus context- physically, historically, and programmatically. It accommodates bus traffic, game day traffic, game day services, stadium egress, and daily pedestrian traffic. And most importantly, it skillfully creates a setting that fosters learning, recreation, gathering, and the Auburn Spirit.
KPS Group, Inc. prepared the master plan and construction documents for the new Transit Pavilion and Campus Green at Auburn University. The new Transit Pavilion and Green was designed to serve as the heart of the Auburn Village. Located in the heart of campus, the area serves as a comfortable and welcoming place for students, as they arrive on Campus each day. The open-air transit pavilion, brick walkways, lights, and banners offer a unique corridor which has affectionately been named "Tiger Alley". On football weekend, the streetscape becomes a festive event area, where the Auburn marching band parades toward the stadium just before kickoff.
The transit pavilion overlooks a new central lawn to the east. This areas is known as Bullard Field, Auburn’s home football field, from the 1920’s until 1939. The reconstructed field replaces parking that was added during the1970's, and restores a central lawn in the heart of campus. It is a place for all of the Auburn community to gather and share in the life and Spirit of Auburn.
The Central Transit pavilion is fashioned akin to the original facade of Jordan Hare Stadium, and thus blends the historic field with the hidden layers and geometries of Jordan Hare Stadium.
The Tiger Transit system hosts 42 buses, and over 2 million riders annually, with the central loading zone located at Tiger Alley.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Avondale Park Renovations
Avondale Park, dedicated in 1886, was one of Birmingham's earliest parks. The park site was chosen because of its natural spring, which was a popular attraction with local people, as well as a favorite stopping point for weary travelers along the old Huntsville Stagecoach Road. With its natural beauty, rolling topography, and natural spring, the park quickly became a gem for residents all over Birmingham and the region. The park hosted the Birmingham Zoo for several years, and has long served as the home for Avondale Amphitheater.
A grand new gateway at the park entrance features ornamental metal artwork with playful cutouts of the park's features such as ducks, catfish, theatrical masks, treble clef, musical staff, and guitar.
Massive stone columns support the metal work, with floral leaflets and ornamental lights at the top of each column. A new playful fountain features a bronze elephant representing “Miss Fancy”, a beloved elephant who resided at the park when it was home to the Birmingham zoo.
The historic amphitheater has been restored, with new arbors, festoon lights, and accessible restrooms. The original spring and grotto, which had been closed and hidden for many years, has been “unveiled”, and features a new waterfall and pool.
The park also includes three new baseball fields, and a new concession building with restrooms. A plaque near the ballfields commemorates the 1953 Little League World Series Champions, whose home field was Avondale Park. A walking trail circles the lake and play areas, and winds along the wooded hillside.
Play areas are nestled within the shade of the park's existing trees, and are designed to accomodate children of different age groups. Benches and picnic pavilions are located conveniently nearby for parents.
Amy G. Smith, ASLA, LEED AP
asmith@kpsgroup.com
Landscape Architect: KPS Group, Inc.
Architect: Jim Waters; KPS Group, Inc.
Civil Engineer: Dynamic Civil Solutions
MEP: Khafra Engineering
Electrical Design: Cater Reddington Staub
Graphic Design: Objective Design
Irrigation: Irrigation Consultant Services, Inc.
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