University of Pittsburgh Hillside Framework Plan Wins SCUP Award!
We’re honored to have been awarded a Society for College and University Planning (SCUP) Excellence Award Honorable Mention for the University of Pittsburgh Hillside Framework Plan!
The jury commented:
“…the vertical complexity and a campus on a hill is a real physical challenge, and they did it really well…[We] appreciated the understanding that a range of solutions can still be connected and read as a continuous feature – the ‘Green Ribbon’.”
The University of Pittsburgh Hillside Framework Plan prioritizes campus landscape as its own capital project within a holistic campus vision, addressing the challenges of traversing dramatic and distinctive topography. Rethinking the relationship between urban lower campus and the vastly different, yet complementary, character of the Hillside provides an opportunity to envision a signature landscape that creates a sense of unity and cohesion between disparate architecture and infrastructure capital projects. The landscape and connective tissue of the university becomes an iconic feature in and of itself – a complement to the iconic “Cathedral of Learning.” The Hillside Framework Plan also empowers university project managers to make strategic decisions toward a future campus in a manner that is holistic, rather than describing capital projects of isolated character.
Academic campuses are at the core of our practice. Our mission, focused on empathy and accessibility – the invitation to participate – allows for humanist constructs where very different sorts of people can find themselves in conversation with one another. We design education-centered landscapes that invite people to self-identify as individuals and as a collective whole for the purpose of activating camaraderie and ideation. It is these environments where people can connect and engage in enriching encounters – both planned and serendipitous. You never know from where the next big idea might emerge (exactly to what higher education aspires).
We are working with several universities presently, all of whom appreciate our values and approach and see in our collaborations the prospect of great returns on investment. They include Howard University, Purdue University, Temple University, and more planning projects with the University of Pittsburgh, among others.