Howard University - Gorove Slade

University Transformation Leads to Better Transportation

Description

Since 2009, Gorove Slade has collaborated with Howard University on several iterations of their Central Campus Master Plan. This included transportation and parking analyses, presentations to neighborhood groups, and assisting with plan implementation.

The first campus plan Gorove Slade worked on was the 2010 Central Campus Master Plan as part of a team led by HOK. The mobility components of the 2010 Plan included improved crossings of Georgia Avenue and a new grid of east-west streets to help assist stitch together the campus and the surrounding neighborhood. A large focus was given to reducing parking demand, including demand management recommendations, which the University implemented in the following years.

Vital to the 2010 Plan was the ability to provide enough parking for faculty and staff while transitioning the Campus to a more sustainable transportation culture. Gorove Slade guided the parking and transportation elements of the Master Plan and identified strategies to reduce parking demand, including developing an overall set of goals and evaluating how each component of the transportation system was helping or hindering meeting these goals. The subsequent reduction in campus parking demand set the stage for the 2020 Campus Plan.

The 2020 Plan focused on the core, concentrating University activity closer to the heart of campus. As part of the Campus Plan team, Gorove Slade developed a set of high-level strategies, organized around five elements:

Ensuring there is no net increase in parking supply
Improving pedestrian conditions and connectivity
Increasing multimodal access
Providing safe, efficient access to the new Howard University Hospital
Being a good transportation neighbor

The transportation and mobility recommendations incorporated into the Campus Plan all target at least one of the five elements. Due to the lack of public space on Georgia Avenue, the Plan includes ideas on how to evolve the parallel 6th Street into a pedestrian spine through the campus, with recommendations on how to re-orient the street from a vehicular-based connector to one with higher quality pedestrian and bicycle facilities. The Plan also includes strategies on how to reduce parking demand and remove parking from the campus core. Combined with taking advantage of changes to building infrastructure, the Plan also removes and downgrades roadways in the campus core by relocating service and delivery locations. Gorove Slade also identified how the Campus transportation network needed to adapt for the new hospital, identifying improvements to multi-modal access on the streets surrounding the site.

Details

Client: Howard University, HOK
Location: Washington, DC
Project Size: The total land area within the Howard University boundary is approximately 86 acres, with 74 buildings equaling over 4.9 million square feet.
Land Use: Higher Education