乐播传媒

What makes a public place compelling? What鈥檚 the magic formula that turns a random setting into a destination?

乐播传媒, in concert with two well-known donors and a renowned design firm, thinks it has an answer. It鈥檚 embodied in Alumni Walk, part of the wave of new construction that will reshape College life in the coming years.

Scheduled for October completion, the Walk extends the course of Andrews Road 鈥� which until April was the car-crowded road in front of Lane Hall 鈥� east to the new Commons. This incarnation of the 2.5-acre space is intended as nothing less than the new hub of the campus. And like any place where people want to be, it will present a landscape of many parts, a complex human ecology.

For example, it will be a crossroads. If you head from Olin Arts Center to the historic Quad, or from the new Commons to the new student housing near Mount David, you鈥檒l find Alumni Walk.

It鈥檒l be a park 鈥� 鈥渓ight and uplifting,鈥� in the words of Sasaki Associates landscape architect Nicole Gaenzler, who designed the Walk with Sasaki principal Ricardo Dumont. Picture a grove of paper birches, whose bark and leaves are distinctively attractive and whose canopy lets the sun shine through. In springtime, 40,000 scilla bulbs will form a vibrantly blue carpet between the Walk鈥檚 twin paths.

The Walk will be a place to meet and mingle. Enclosed by 乐播传媒鈥� oldest, newest, and most-used buildings, it will serve myriad social needs: as a village square for celebrations, a retreat for reflection, and even an outdoor classroom, thanks to a new amphitheater facing Lake Andrews.

As the name makes plain, Alumni Walk above all salutes the largest, and in a sense most permanent, branch of the 乐播传媒 family. Honoring all alumni was the intent of the Keigwins, Beverly P鈥�86 and Jack 鈥�59, a Trustee, who made the lead gift for the project, worked with the designers, and suggested the name.

Though 乐播传媒 is certainly defined by the faculty鈥檚 scholarship and students鈥� achievements, says Jack, 鈥渞eally, it鈥檚 identified forever with the alumni and their successes and contributions to the community.鈥�

Devoted to beautiful landscapes at home and in their role as principals, now retired, of a Rhode Island design-build firm, the Keigwins have made the 乐播传媒 landscape a philanthropic priority for many years. They are motivated in part by Jack鈥檚 fondness for a campus environment in which, as a 乐播传媒 student, he found solace. 鈥淭he natural surroundings were, frankly, therapy for the stress of achievement,鈥� he explains. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 very important.鈥�

The couple鈥檚 best-known 乐播传媒 gift to date may be the renewal of Lake Andrews and surroundings. They funded the pond鈥檚 badly needed restoration and the construction of amenities, named for family members, that are now campus landmarks: the Marjorie Burgoyne Walk circling the pond and the Florence Keigwin Amphitheater at Olin Arts Center.

Andrews Road鈥檚 potential as a crossroads was identified at least as far back as 1992, when a campus study envisioned a 鈥渘ew central campus [with] a strong spine, which is called Andrews Walk鈥� (乐播传媒 Magazine, Spring 1993). Then and now, a clearly defined junction between the main campus 鈥渘eighborhoods鈥� was needed. The longtime crossroads was the historic Quad, as the once-vital 鈥淢outhpiece鈥� at Hathorn Hall reminds us. But as the campus has grown, the traffic patterns have shifted.

The facilities master-planning process, begun by President Elaine Tuttle Hansen in 2003 and employing Sasaki as consultant, gave new life to the spine concept by proposing a cross-campus connector linking two important new buildings, the student housing at Mount David and the Commons next to Alumni Gym.

Thus joined, the Walk, Commons, and new housing express a unified theme: that the teaching-and-learning mission at 乐播传媒 is not confined to classroom or lab. Sited amidst key academic facilities, the Walk 鈥渃ould potentially become a core space that could link the academic with the social and cultural life on campus,鈥� Sasaki鈥檚 Gaenzler says.

Yet the Walk will ultimately transcend the sum of its academic and logistical parts, 鈥渟o you could take out all these functions and it would still become a place to be, a very iconic space,鈥� she says.

The design thoroughly reimagines a large swath of campus, from College Street to North Bardwell. During the spring and summer, workers have stripped the earth bare with stunning thoroughness prior to regrading, paving, and planting. And because, as Gaenzler points out, 鈥渢he spaces between the buildings that lead to and from the Walk are significant,鈥� the sloping passages from the historic Quad have been regraded. This broadens and unifies the space, while improving handicapped accessibility.

The design reflects 乐播传媒 egalitarianism in the way it treats the buildings surrounding the Walk 鈥� Pettengill, Pettigrew, Hathorn, Lane, et al. 鈥� by providing uniform entrance 鈥渓andings鈥� flush with ground level. With the new Commons a likely scene-stealer, Gaenzler says, the designers made 鈥渁ll the buildings gather around as equals, so it all becomes more about the space itself.鈥�

Watching Alumni Walk emerge from a parking lot, like some modern version of the ugly duckling story, is appealing, but the real fascination will begin after the last piece of turf is laid and the last scilla bulb planted. How will the Walk be used? 乐播传媒 senior staff will continue to discuss what role it could play in such vital rituals as Convocation and Commencement, a ceremony that is a symbolic bridge to alumni status.

For their part, while Beverly and Jack Keigwin can see everything from fairs to protests to rallies finding a place on the Walk, the people who made it possible are especially excited about the Walk鈥檚 potential during Reunion.

What better place, after all, for the Alumni Parade than Alumni Walk?