Assessment

The first step in the preparation of the Campus Master Plan for Wright State University, the campus assessment, is also what sets this effort apart from most master plans. The assessment process provides a clear and thorough means to evaluate the character, condition and maintenance of the University's mission, objectives and budget and, most importantly, to take action to bring the former line with the latter. This "State of the Campus" checkup provides a strong foundation for the Campus Master Plan, showing how to build on those strengths and presenting a plan of action to overcome existing shortcomings.

The findings of the campus assessment show a diversity of physical strengths at Wright State. Among the more notable:

• The Quad, surrounded by the University's original four buildings, remains the strong and undisputed center of the campus.
• With few exceptions, the buildings on campus display a clean, consistent architectural style well suited to a modern, progressive institution of higher education.
• The campus contains a number of well-designed, if unrelated, outdoor spaces.
• The campus is remarkably accessible to people with all manner of physical abilities.
• The WSU Woods represent an ecological, education, recreational and aesthetic resource matched at few other similar institutions.

In contrast, the campus shortcomings are more focused and tend to be associated with issues of circulation:

• The campus lacks a recognizable main entrance.
• Circulation, both pedestrian and vehicular, is often confusing, inefficient and even dangerous, as there is often a lack of separation between cars and pedestrians.
• Parking areas have been expanded to cover as much space as possible, often at the expense of rational campus organization.
• The leapfrog pattern of newer development has led to a breakdown of spatial organization and clarity. As a result, the newer campus is composed of a number of attractive parts which don't join together into a function whole.