How to vote:
- Go to the East Mall website to learn about the project
- Look at the blueprints to see what students came up with
- Take a short survey about what you want to see on campus
The East Mall is a student-designed landscape architecture project to improve the area from the Jo Ann Gora Student Recreation and Wellness Center to Ashland Avenue near the Village, in the area around Noyer and Woodworth Complex.
The goal is to make a path for both pedestrians and cyclists.
About 30 undergraduate students spent a week working with professional design firms to come up with blueprints for the area.
During this week, professionals came in to work with the students. Spencer Harvey, a senior landscape architecture major who is working on the project, said a lot of their classes let them go work, since their work time went from 8 a.m. until dinner time.
Being able to work on this type of project is unique, especially because they will actually get to see their work come to life, Harvey said. Most of their projects end up just being a drawing on a piece of trace paper.
"This case specifically is the first time we've done something on Ball State's campus that has the potential to be built, as opposed to something that might not go anywhere," Harvey said. "One of the most meaningful things will be to come back here in 20 years and be able to see people enjoying the space you had a hand in influencing."
In order to figure out what needs to be improved in that area of campus, the architecture students had to spend some serious time scoping out the area.
Harvey said one of the big things missing around campus seemed to be quality outdoor gathering and event spaces.
"It's absolutely vital to know what the problems are and what the potentials are before you start plopping in things, otherwise in five years you'll have the same problems and you won't really fix anything," Harvey said. "To actually interact with someone to create ideas that may actually get built in your undergrad career is a really rewarding experience."
Weston Rogers, a senior landscape architecture major, has been involved with the project since August.
He too said he was excited to be working on a project that will have impacts so close to home.
“It’s exciting to work on a site where you know the project, you know the campus and you know the day-to-day workings of the site," Rogers said. "You can visualize what you want to see from the campus."
One of their biggest challenges was trying to create a protected pedestrian experience as well as maintaining all the day-to-day operations of the university, like vehicle access to service areas, parking lots, garages and emergency areas, Rogers said.
Now, the students and university are looking for student input on the designs. Up until March 25, students can learn more about the project and vote on the set of blueprints they like best.
These surveys are important as the process continues because it gives the designers an idea for what the area should look like, Rogers said.
“We're designing for other people, so if we don’t have their input, our design could end up being not functional or worthless,” Harvey said.
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