Campus Green

Once a barren, blacktopped parking lot, this six-acre site has been transformed into a major social and academic green space for the West Campus. Campus Green offers large areas of open lawn, an international arboretum, triangular garden terraces, benches, landscaping and a series of limestone water-stair fountains. The Braid, an inviting pattern of pathways, plantings, seat walls and water elements, runs diagonally across the site. At the Lindner Drive entrance, a distinctive cone-shaped mound recalls the region's Native American earthworks.

The lower half of the green is Sigma Sigma Commons. Dedicated in 1998, this gathering place has a granite performance amphitheater, a number of pedestrian walkways and plenty of space for quiet study and sunning.

Dedication: Oct. 20, 2000
Location: Northeast quadrant of West Campus between the Alumni Center and Scioto-Jefferson complex
Contains: A wireless connection to the Internet for laptop computers
National design firm: Hargreaves Associates

Photo left/Lisa Britton
Photo right/Dottie Stover

CCM Village

Henry Cobb has called the seven-year, $93.2 million renovation and construction of the new College-Conservatory of Music the most complicated project undertaken in his 50 years as an architect. Three buildings were involved:

• Schmidlapp gymnasium (middle right, abutting the stadium) was renovated to create the Dieterle Vocal Arts Center.
• Memorial dormitory (far right) was remodeled to create rehearsal rooms and offices.
• Then Mary Emery Hall (left) was partially demolished and encased in a new construction.

The resulting CCM Village doubled the existing floor area and enhanced its reputation as one of the nation's best training centers for performing arts and electronic media.

The project has received regional, state and national awards for excellence in design from the American Institute of Architects.

Dedication: Dec. 3, 1999
Location: West end of Corry Boulevard, West Campus
Contains: A dramatic college quadrangle, a reconstructed underground garage, a studio theater and recital hall with state-of-the-art facilities, an electronic media center, theater production studios, administrative offices and classrooms.
National design firm: Pei Cobb Freed & Partners

Photo/Timothy Hursley

University entrance gates

Two different styles of entry markers, constructed of bronze-capped Ohio sandstone with an internal light source, have been placed in various locations around campus. Gently curving sandstone walls, bearing the university seal and the words "University of Cincinnati" in bronze, mark actual visitors entrances, as well as symbolic entrances, while tall sandstone monoliths, or pylons, are grouped to signal parking.

The monoliths may stand alone, such as the ones at the Woodside Gate on Martin Luther King Drive, or in combination with an entrance wall, as is done to welcome visitors to the Kingsgate Conference Center at the Goodman Gate.

The prime example of a symbolic gate is the long wall at the corner of Clifton Avenue and Martin Luther King Drive (above). Although University Corner does not contain a physical entrance, it certainly offers many guests their first welcoming glimpse of campus. This wall's curve was extended to echo UC's historic McMicken Circle entrance.

Design firm: Hargreaves Associates

Photo/Dottie Stover