Wagner College
Wagner College
Campus Master Plan
Staten Island, N.Y.
Wagner College is located on 105 bucolic acres on Staten Island, with dramatic views of the Manhattan skyline and New York Harbor. Founded in 1883, the college underwent a series of growth spurts before, in recent years, commissioning H2L2 to embark on a master plan.
With the college's vision defined as “a liberal arts college sustained by and sustaining the community,” the plan calls for the expansion of academic, residential, and student support space to accommodate future growth and enrollment. Because this growth is likely to occur over time, the proposed new facilities are logically sequenced to allow the college to build incrementally as needs dictate.
The plan specifically strengthens two areas of the campus, creating an intellectual center in Sutter Oval and an emotional center in Trautmann Square. Sutter Oval, the traditional campus green, also serves as the formal entrance to the college and as a ceremonial stage. Trautmann Square is the crossroads of student traffic, seeing most of the campus population on a daily basis. With these two green areas as the predominant outdoor spaces, the plan further organizes the campus into a series of outdoor rooms of contrasting scales, textures, and identities.
The architecture of the buildings, both existing and proposed, serves to enhance these spaces.