SUSTAINING A UNIVERSITY AND A TOWN
Author: Architecture Magazine
08/17/2006
Website: http://www.architecturemag.com/2006/08/sustaining_a_un.html
August 17, 2006 - For more than 30 years Storrs, part of Mansfield, Connecticut, and home of the University of Connecticut (UConn), has been talking about upgrading from cow town to commercially viable college town. Toward that end, in 1999 former mayor Mike Shore began an initiative that has become the Mansfield Downtown Partnership comprised of residents, town officials, UConn representatives, and developer LeylandAlliance. The partnership traveled to various college towns around the East Coast, including Princeton, New Jersey; Ann Arbor, Maryland; Northampton, Massachusetts; and Athens, Georgia. From each community, they extracted what they found to be principles of good design, which have become part of their guidelines for the development of Storrs Center. In addition, they have hired Herbert S. Newman & Partners of New Haven, Connecticut, to create a four-phase master plan for the area.
Of the 45 acres of land purchased by LeylandAlliance, 15 acres will be developed within the principles of New Urbanism: pedestrian-friendly streets, intimate lanes, and ground-floor retail with residences above. The remaining 30 acres will be reserved for open space. Scheduled to begin next year and be completed within the next five to seven years, the $165 million plan is projected to yield $3 million to $4 million annually in property tax. This revenue is key to the economic development of the town, but even more important, according to Macon Toledano, an architect at LeylandAlliance, is creating a framework that will provide immediate attraction for the college student population and a solid base for community growth in the long term.
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