Architect Unveils Vision for Polk’s USF Campus

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

TAMPA | From the shimmering light and open spaces of a new train station to unfolding white wings above a museum, renowned Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava took a seemingly spellbound audience on a visual architectural tour Tuesday.

The overview of his projects ended in a tree-covered property alongside Interstate 4 where the University of South Florida Polytechnic plans to build its new Lakeland campus. It’s an undeveloped site whose first building Calatrava will design and whose master plan he’s redone.

Because the tour was on an overhead screen at the main USF campus in Tampa, and because Calatrava sees the future campus as a mini-city, the USF Poly images he showed weren’t the site as it is now.

What Calatrava showed was what he envisions – a narrow lake three-fourths of a mile long, with the first academic building at one end and a large plaza at the other. Dorms and other campus buildings, including an amphitheater, would surround the lake on either side.

“I’m speaking to you of a city and a future,” he told the USF Board of Trustees members. “It’s very important to have interaction between the students. We have to create a city.”

Architectural students and others crowded into the room to hear his presentation, which came after the USF trustees unanimously approved an updated version of USF Poly’s strategic plan.

The strategic plan includes developing and implementing new degree programs in five areas: applied health sciences, mathematics and science education, manufacturing engineering and technology, business and entrepreneurship, and information technology.

Classes would be taught in the framework of three colleges: a College of Technology and Innovation, a College of Human and Social Sciences, and a College of Applied Arts and New Media.

Students in a polytechnic work together in applying research to solve problems and implement solutions, USF Poly Chief Executive Officer Marshall Goodman said.

“The polytechnic model is multi-disciplinary,” Goodman said.

“It is very inclusive. It’s a fusion. It’s a new blend.”

Calatrava incorporates similar qualities into the master plan, which shows the layout and design of the site, including where buildings would be placed.

The master plan will undergo further review by the USF trustees.

In addition to images on the screen, Calatrava unveiled a series of architectural models, depicting steps he took in determining how the buildings and the lake would blend together harmoniously.

He said he envisioned putting the buildings “like jewels in the axis of the pool.”

The artificial lake, in addition to being the campus’s center, would be part of a “total wet land living machine,” recycling water and having the ability to heat and cool buildings.

“Your vision is just remarkable,” said Rhea Law, chairwoman of the USF board. “I think everyone in this room felt the emotions you were trying to impart to us.”

Gene Engle, chair of the USF Poly board and a trustee on the main USF board, was equally enthusiastic.

“His vision is outstanding,” Engle said. “What he’s proposing to bring to the university is something that’s going to be known for many, many years.”

He said Calatrava is listening to what USF Poly officials want, and working with them as he designs the campus and the first building.

“I am very pleased and proud to be working on this project,” Calatrava said after the meeting.

The USF Poly campus and its first building, projected to be 80,000 square feet, are scheduled to open in summer 2012.

The campus is at I-4 and the Polk Parkway near Auburndale.

The strategic plan shows a total cost of $62 million for the first facility, but Goodman said that includes the cost of preparing the land with infrastructure such as utilities. The budget for the building is $46 million.

Carole Philipson, a USF Poly board member, said the polytechnic’s impact will extend far beyond the campus.

“I’m not sure people really grasp what an economic stimulus to the region this is going to be,” she said.

The full extent of its economic impact hasn’t been calculated, but officials with the Central Florida Development Council predict higher paying jobs, a more educated workforce and companies interested in new technologies.

Law told students who attended that they were fortunate to see Calatrava’s presentation, which included quick sketches he drew to illustrate the earliest phases of his planning,

“You’ve seen history in many ways and gotten some insight into the thought processes of an architect,” she said.

[ Robin Williams Adams can be reached at robin.adams@theledger.com or 863-802-7558. Read her blog at robinsrx.blogs.theledger.com. ]