By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
During the tenure of former president Shirley M. Tilghman, Princeton University embarked on an ambitious program to reshape the campus with new buildings popping up all over the place, from the arts to the sciences.
In the past 10 years, Princeton has built some one million square feet of space, including the new Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment and the Frick Chemistry Laboratory to name a few.
By comparison under current President Christopher L. Eisgruber, Princeton is creating a campus plan for short and long-term needs but with not as much new construction anticipated at the moment or as many specific projects in mind as roughly a decade ago, the last time Princeton mapped out the growth of its campus. That largely reflects the view within Nassau Hall that, in 2016, the university is in a different place than it was decade ago from the standpoint of its facilities.
The planning document due out next year will reflect the priorities that university trustees have set for Mr. Eisgruber and his administration, like the phased-in addition of 500 more undergraduates. It will give decision-makers in Nassau Hall options for where to put a new residential college to house those students, said one university official on Tuesday.
“We know we need to figure out a location for that,” said university vice president and secretary Robert K. Durkee by phone on Tuesday.
Earlier this year, Mr. Eisgruber ruled out putting that building on the Springdale Golf Course or across Lake Carnegie in West Windsor. He did, however, leave open the possibility of relocating the Baker Rink, the hockey arena on campus, to make room for the new dorm.
Other growth areas include doing more, building wise, for the engineering and environmental studies.
Beyond that, the campus plan also will focus on the future of the Butler Tract, the former graduate housing complex on Harrison Street, the development of university-owned land in West Windsor and the development of land along Alexander Street, Mr. Durkee said. Another area of focus will be the long-term future of Springdale; the private club leases the property from the university, with the agreement due to expire in the next decade.
Local officials in the towns where Princeton owns land want a say in the process, given how any development the university does will have implications for communities like West Windsor and Princeton. Already, municipal and university officials have been discussing a possible rezoning of the Butler tract to make sure it can be redeveloped only for residential uses.
“I think we all agree it should be housing,” municipal planning director Lee O. Solow said Tuesday.
At the moment, the university is in the midst of a series of public presentations of where it is in its planning process. Representatives of the university on Monday went before a subcommittee of the Princeton planning board; another such meeting is scheduled for Oct.5, in West Windsor, before that town’s planning board.
West Windsor Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh said Tuesday that the meeting would be an opportunity for the town and the public to weigh in and offer comments to the university.
