St. Mary's College of Maryland Preservation Master Plan

St. Mary’s College of MarylandPreservation Master PlanHistoric St. Mary’s City February 2008The overarching principles guiding the site design, basedon the land-use study are:• Create a pedestrian connection between thehistoric campus and the central campus andimprove handicap accessibility.• Minimize impacts to archeological resources.• Create views and paths from the College to theState House to reinforce the significance of thestructure.• Create an entrance to the Maryland HeritageInterpretive Center on “Middle Street”, one of thehistoric town roads which was located on thissite.• Enhance and improve the safety of pedestrianscrossing Route 5.• Set aside land for student residences and services,such as retail and dining establishments.• Create additional parking spaces to serviceCollege faculty, students, and visitors.The project has been proposed in three phases due to thesize of the project which will require substantial funding andapprovals in order to move forward.Calvert Hall ADA RampIn order to make Calvert Hall accessible to all students, theCollege has initiated a project to construct an ADA accessramp on the main front entrance portico of the building. Theramp along the western, main façade would have someimplications on the historic character of the building, mostsubstantially resulting in permanent alteration of the existingportico. Should the ramp be desired on this main façade,every effort should be made to develop a solution that doesnot have any permanent impact on the existing building(i.e. any improvement should be reversible) and does notalter any significant historic building features, such as theportico. An option may be to pull the proposed ramp awayfrom the portico and building so as to clearly differentiatethe two building elements.Another option worthy of consideration is to constructthe ADA access ramp on the rear of the building (eastelevation). It has been stated that it is a goal of the Collegeto develop an entrance to the building on this façade and tostrengthen the Kent Hall Quadrangle as a usable outdoorspace for students, staff, and faculty. The new entry andimprovements to the Quadrangle could be incorporatedinto a larger project that would also involve the installationof an ADA access ramp. The ramp could be constructedin temporary materials until that time when the College isPage 4-5