On March 3, in preparation for the next campus master plan, the Office of the Treasurer and architectural firm Ayers Saint Gross presented a progress update on their analysis of campus facilities and facility needs. The top four priority areas identified by Ayers Saint Gross include Hawthorne-Longfellow Library (H-L), Moulton Union, Smith Union and lab spaces.

This presentation followed listening sessions held in October to collect campus input on the needs of Bowdoin’s physical spaces. In addition to holding these sessions, Ayers Saint Gross tabled in Smith to gather student opinions on their favorite and least favorite campus spaces, marking them with green and red dots, respectively, on a map.

“What’s interesting is sometimes those green dots and those red dots overlap each other, so students feel [they] love Smith Union, but then they feel like it might not be the best use of what we’ve heard is a large amount of gross volume on campus,” Ayers Saint Gross representative David Duxbury said.

Ayers Saint Gross developed guiding principles after these campus sessions: building a shared vision, investing in what exists, future-focused planning, building on campus identity, reinforcing community, increasing connectivity and integrating cross-cutting themes.

With this in mind, the planners then introduced what they had identified as the top priorities to address. They listed improving accessibility at H-L and Hubbard Hall, modernizing the library and expanding Bowdoin’s data center. Combined priorities for Moulton Union and Smith Union included reworking these spaces to be more functional from a dining operations perspective as well as addressing student feedback to reorganize Smith to better utilize the space. Finally, they noted the desire for updated and more interdisciplinary lab spaces.

Duxbury noted some other facilities that his team is analyzing to include in the campus master plan as well. The planners will conduct an analysis of the use of wood-frame houses on campus, either as housing, academic or administrative spaces. They also noted aging housing and classroom inventory as potential areas for consideration.

In considering the renovation of existing facilities, the planners acknowledged the tension between historical preservation and modernization of campus—a phenomenon which they noted speaks to Bowdoin’s identity. This point was confirmed by a polling activity during the session asking people to pick words they associate with the College: Tradition, history and modernize were most popular.

“I find it interesting seeing [the words] tradition, history and modernize, among other things. I get it, as somebody who actually was born in Brunswick, and has seen the transformation along Harpswell Road,” Duxbury said.

The presentation also touched on Bowdoin’s sustainability commitments and how that will inform construction. The College has significantly reduced Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions, which are more indirectly related to the institution, but Bowdoin’s immediate Scope 1 emissions—which largely come from campus facilities—are still high and need to be addressed if there are hopes to achieve the current goal of carbon neutrality by 2042.

“Bowdoin does kind of offset its emissions, but there’s really a desire through this master plan to think about how, through building renewal and through what we’re thinking about with energy in the future, that buildings can be as renewable and as non-carbon dependent as possible,” Ayers Saint Gross representative Kevin Petersen said.

Additionally, Petersen and Duxbury emphasized the opportunities for connection between the College and the larger Maine community in all the projects the College is considering.

“We heard a desire to amplify the connectivity of the region, to both the town of Brunswick as well as some ecological conditions around the midcoast of Maine,” Duxbury said.

Ayers Saint Gross will return to campus in April and host, along with the Office of the Treasurer, more listening sessions to narrow down these priorities and begin to draft project plans.