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Riverland Community College, Master Plan - Austin, Albert Lea and Owatonna
Multiple Campuses, MinnesotaHGA's Master Plan for Riverland Community College guides new buildings, additions, renovations and other campus investments for the next 30-50 years. The campus master plan addresses all three campuses and identifies locations for new buildings and facilities. The plan creates overall campus zones for athletic fields, academics, parking and outdoor spaces that can be preserved.
This plan is also meant to be a road map for capital planning in the more immediate term of the next six years. Based on the findings of program research and facility analysis, the plan prioritizes needed investments.
Campus Design Strategies for Riverland
Riverland's origins as a community college and vocational institute can be seen in the Austin campus today. Two historically separate faculties and teaching programs now share the same 60-acre campus. Although athletic fields, historic windbreaks and tree plantings bind the overall site together, the East and West campuses still feel quite separated.
Overall Facility Design Strategies for Riverland Campuses
The strategies below underlie the architectural and facility recommendations of the plan:
Address significant deferred and remedial maintenance needs, and bring facilities into compliance with life-safety and accessibility regulations
Relocate selected academic and administrative programs to re-align the use of the facilities with the changes brought about by the merger of the Community Colleges and Technical Schools.
Identify locations for possible building additions or remodeling made necessary by growth, decline or change in programs.
Coordinate internal changes and building entries with external campus design changes
Reorganize administrative areas such as the Student Service Center, Financial Aid, Counseling and Human Resources to work more efficiently
Relocate Health Sciences and Art Departments to be closer to related activities.
The following strategies shape the recommendations in overall campus design at the Austin campus:
Use new buildings and additions to shape usable, sheltered outdoor space
Build on the historic pattern of windbreaks and woodlots to reduce campus open spaces and winds
Create clear and inviting outdoor spaces that connect the west and east campuses
Visually align new buildings to create greater campus unity
Create a clearer sense of entry with visual connections between gates and front doors
Guide campus growth in zones of logical adjacencies
Site possible Technology Center to shelter and reinforce the northern edge of campus
Site a new path that links the east and west campuses with both a corridor and a strong sequence of spaces and visual connections
Master plan recommendations with regard to Riverland at Albert Lea include:
Clarifying and reinforcing building entries which are currently confusing
Creating an inviting way for students from an adjacent high school (currently under construction) to reach the Community College
Creating and reinforcing Business, Health Care and Science wings within the building
Creating larger classrooms to better serve the increased liberal arts curriculum
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