KU_Chapter01_DataCollection_2014-06-10

© KU MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS
THE WEST DISTRICT
Sustainable landscape between Multidisciplinary Research
Building and the School of Pharmacy
The West District is currently built to accommodate
vehicles more than pedestrians. Its built
character is low-density suburban surrounded
by naturalized fields and emergent woodlands.
However, there is a sense this is an area in
transition.
Whereas the Central District lends the impression
of several individual growth phases, much of the
West District feels bisected with two characters:
a naturalized landscape that presides in the west
half of the district along Kasold Drive, and an
office park type development along the north, east,
and south edges.
There is a sense of potential and promise in the
ravines and curving hill forms that mirror the
outline of Mount Oread. The ecological basis of
this area is perfect for living laboratories and
research, although there is no easy access by foot
to the North and Central districts. The benefit of
ecological mitigation to offset the environmental
impact of carbon, stormwater, urban heat island,
air quality, and biodiversity only increases in value
over time.
Many of the woodland slopes and drainage
patterns in the West District are not culturally
managed, and are still in the process of ecological
succession. The importance of these assets is without
question; it requires active forest management
for them to become stable or self-perpetuating ecological
communities. Active management increases
the ecological function and resilience of this asset.
These natural processes provide the West District
its primary character defining features. Restoration
and integration of these processes into the built
environment should be a primary goal.
The West District is an excellent opportunity to
implement advanced sustainability practices in
new facilities with the greatest potential for natural
systems integration.
In contrast to the North and Central districts, the
West District still maintains a large percentage of
its natural hydrology and watershed. While this
should be an objective for the entire campus, restoration
of West District systems requires less effort,
due to the limited alteration of the natural features.
The bioswales at Park & Ride, and naturalized
detention in the southwest corner of the district,
provide prime examples of how natural hydrology
can be preserved and incorporated as a defining
feature of the district.
The West District pond is a residual research area
and should be integrated to the larger hydrological
system. These isolated improvements and features
should be extended and connected with the remaining
watershed features. Future development
should embrace the concepts of sustainability as
a signature expression of the university’s mission
of stewardship and creation of a learning environment
of living laboratories.
Because of isolated development patterns, naturalized
fields, channeled streams, and curvilinear
roads, there is little visual sense of how the West
District fits together. Yet, when driving north on
Constant Avenue, the land opens up at Pioneer
Cemetery, with views to the Lied Center and
eastward across Iowa Street. There is a sense of the
prairie as it existed before campus and community
development. Pioneer Cemetery is the primary
historic landmark of the West District, with
important connections to the origin of Lawrence as
a community.
DATA COLLECTION: CAMPUS CONDITIONS
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KU 2014–2024 CAMPUS MASTER PLAN