Development of Campus At Lincoln Outlined

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31016, 23 March 1966, Page 6

Development of Campus At Lincoln Outlined

An idea of how the Lincoln College campus should be developed to cater for the 2000 students and 300 staff expected by 1980 was given by Mr J. R. Blake-Kelly, Assistant Government Architect, at a meeting of the college council yesterday.

The present university was a bit rambling which might be suitable for the rural character of the place and for the present small number of students, said Mr Blake-Kelly, but there must be consolidation and planners must settle for a more coherent campus.

The challenge was rather intriguing, said Mr BlakeKelly. Several years ago the problem concerning the refractory was to get the council to break away from the traditional type of campus.

Until 1980 it seemed that Lincoln would remain an agricultural college and there would be an optimum student roll of 2000 with a staff of 300. Thera were no figures available in New Zealand to establish the area most suitable for students and staff but figures from the University of California gave 140 square feet a person as desirable. If the college were thinking of becoming the third South Island university, as had been suggested by the principal (Dr. M. M. Burns), it should plan for a roll of 3000 and

buildings of 750,000 sq. ft.

For a student-staff roll of 2300 half a million square feet would be needed, said Mr Blake-Kelly. By 1970 existing and projected buildings would cover 238,000 square feet, which would give staff and students 200 square feet each—quite a liberal figure, said Mr BlakeKelly. The New Zealand average was 160 square feet a person.

Rural Charm

One of the problems existing was the failure to get people travelling along the road to pause and enter the university, said Mr BlakeKelly. More could be made of the rural charm to get people out of their cars. A university was paid for out of taxes and in New Zealand universities were inclined to erect bulwarks around themselves. This was the opposite of the American or European university, he said.

“The average New Zealander is rather wary of entering a campus. This is wrong,” said Mr Blake-Kelly.

As student numbers increased so would the parking problem. Public transport entering the ground was not feasible so parking areas would have to be provided.

The number of roads in the campus would have to be reduced. Ring roads should be used to service buildings and students and staff should use bicycles or walk. Interlocked System At this stage he would like a more interlocked system of buildings to be developed with one group finished in the next five years, said Mr Blake-Kelly. He suggested that the north-east corner should be developed first then the north-west. One danger was that where there was a major building it was so easy to put another beside it, he said. Mr D. S. Max said Mr Blake-Kelly should be made aware of some council members’ feelings about putting another building in front of the memorial library. He said that he did not know if the concept appealed to him very much and that a lot of Old Boys were jealous of the library and memorial gates. Mr Blake-Kelly said the grounds should be appreciated from within. He was against building a part of the college across the road as this introduced a hazard and a physical division from which the campus was already suffering, said Mr Blake-Kelly.