Sixth undergraduate college to go gothic.
By: David Campbell
Princeton University unveiled a concept plan for its sixth residential college Thursday night that would increase undergraduate enrollment by about 500 students by the end of the decade.
The Princeton Regional Planning Board responded favorably to the proposal, but expressed concern about over-development on campus, student parking and traffic impacts.
University Vice President and Secretary Thomas H. Wright said the enrollment increase from the new 290,000-square-foot collegiate-gothic building will be the most significant growth the university has witnessed since the school went coeducational in 1969.
The enrollment increase will be phased in over four years starting in fall 2006, when the university expects to finish construction work on Whitman College and open the $110 million complex to undergraduates.
Mr. Wright described the university as "fundamentally anti-growth." But in order for Princeton to remain competitive and keep pace with national growth and expanding fields of knowledge in new disciplines such as genomics, he continued, the school must get "incrementally larger." Undergraduate enrollment this year is 4,642.
"Princeton believes its mission is to provide leadership for this country," the vice president said. "The country is growing. Princeton University wants to keep up with that."
The university estimates it will have to hire 40 to 50 service personnel and assistant deans to help run the new college. But, he said, new faculty appointments will not be needed, noting that the student body is, in fact, catching up in size with current faculty.
The university plans to build the residential college on about 7 acres on which tennis courts are currently located, between Baker Rink and Dillon Gymnasium.
Designed by Demetri Porphyrios, a Princeton alumnus, Whitman College will be built in the collegiate-gothic style common to many of the dormitories on the university’s campus.
It will include three courtyards and an 80-foot tower, and will be built, Mr. Wright said, using authentic medieval construction techniques and trained stone masons. The building’s seven wings will range in height from two to five stories.
According to Jon Hlafter, director of the university’s planning office, the traditional masonry will be 16 to 20 inches thick in places and built to last hundreds of years. Mr. Wright said the project has elicited "excitement and joy" in the university community.
Whitman College will provide a new residential option that brings together students of all classes, notably juniors and seniors who prefer not to live in the eating clubs on Prospect Avenue, as well as some graduate students.
Planning Board members generally responded favorably to the project, including Princeton Borough Mayor and Planning Board member Marvin Reed, who commended university officials for opting for a central location for the residential college rather than pursuing a westward expansion of its campus considered earlier.
But the board did raise issue with the building density the campus would have once Whitman College is built, and the potential impact on parking from the new students and support staff.
Princeton Township Deputy Mayor and board member William Enslin called for a dialogue with the university about its growth.
"I look at your model over there and that’s pretty crowded," Mr. Enslin said, referring to a cardboard mockup of Whitman the university showed the board Thursday night.
Princeton Borough Councilwoman and board member Wendy Benchley said she hoped the university would examine its role in addressing the high density of Central Jersey and look to balance its growth with open-space conservation.
Responding to Ms. Benchley, Mr. Wright said, "I couldn’t agree with you more. This sort of thinking is very much in the minds of people at the university, and in the next few years you will begin to see the products of that."
The university officials indicated the school has ample parking to accommodate the planned growth. They said a new policy is in effect this year that bans freshmen from obtaining parking permits on campus, but said the university does not ban them from having cars and making parking arrangements elsewhere.
Mayor Reed said, "Anything you can do to help us to get to have students not have cars on campus is a big asset."
The board agreed to a staff recommendation that the proposal be forwarded to the Site Plan Review Advisory Board for classification and review as a minor site plan.
While about 25 percent of the building would be located in the township and subject to Planning Board review, the remainder that is in the borough is interior to the campus and thus qualifies for minor site plan review. The board agreed to permit the whole project to be reviewed as a single element a minor site plan before the advisory board.
The college is named in honor of eBay Inc. President and Chief Executive Officer Meg Whitman and her family, who gave $30 million toward the project last year.
Ms. Whitman received her undergraduate degree in economics in 1977 and serves on the university’s board of trustees.
Mr. Porphyrios is known as a classical-style architect. His award-winning portfolio includes a number of buildings and urban projects carried out in England, Europe, the United States and the Middle East.
He designed student accommodations, administrative offices and an auditorium for the Grove Quadrangle at Oxford University’s Magdalen College in 1994 and student accommodations, administrative offices, an auditorium and a library at Cambridge University’s Selwyn College in 1996.
Known for his work in traditional, classical architectural forms, Mr. Porphyrios earned his master of architecture degree in 1974, his master of arts degree in 1975 and his doctorate in architecture in 1980 from Princeton. He is the principal of London-based Porphyrios Associates.