CMU airs 10-year master plan

Projects include new business school

Carnegie Mellon University wants to construct a new home for its Tepper business school, expand Heinz College and undertake other campus work that includes turning two Forbes Avenue traffic lanes into bicycle paths.

Those are some of the projects in a proposed 10-year university master plan that campus administrators are preparing to submit later this month to the city.

Campus officials for months have been meeting with neighborhood groups and others who would be affected by the varied projects. Late Wednesday, Bob Reppe, the school's director of design, held a campus briefing for students, employees and others.

Specific dollar estimates for the individual projects have not been developed. But the work, if fully realized, likely would involve tens of millions of dollars of new construction and enhancements ranging from an expanded University Center and a new hotel on school land to a pedestrian bridge.

The plan will be reviewed by both the city planning commission and city council. The work proposed for the part of Forbes that cuts through campus requires review by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, because it's a state road.

The master plan is aimed at supporting university growth by both enhancing the existing core campus and by developing underutilized properties purchased by Carnegie Mellon along Forbes between Craig Street and Morewood Avenue, Mr. Reppe said.

The plan also recognizes that Carnegie Mellon's northern frontier, traditionally considered to be Forbes, has in fact become Fifth Avenue, thanks to university expansion, and that Forbes runs through what is now the middle of campus.

Individual projects will be staged as enrollment and program needs warrant. "All of these are contingent upon funding becoming available," Mr. Reppe said.

Specific dollar sources for the projects were not discussed at Wednesday's session. Carnegie Mellon is in the second half of $1 billion fundraising campaign.

Among the projects that Mr. Reppe said were deemed to be high institutional priorities are:

 A new nano-biomedical-energy research facility to be built next to Wean and Hamerschlag halls.

 Moving the Tepper School of Business from the Graduate School of Industrial Administration building and Posner Hall onto part of what is now the Morewood parking lot on the north side of Forbes across from Hamburg Hall.

 An expansion of Heinz College to include classrooms, possibly an auditorium and informal meeting space.

 A new building for alumni affairs and other administrative offices on the north side of Forbes across from the campus cut that would require moving some fraternity houses to a nearby site.

 Moving fitness facilities from the aging Skibo Gym to an expanded University Center and transforming Skibo into an updated headquarters for campus athletics.

 A Margaret Morrison Hall expansion to support the College of Fine Arts.

In addition to the nano research building, one of the earliest projects to be advanced could be the safety plan to take a traffic lane in either direction on the part of Forbes running through campus and turning those lanes into bike paths.

Mr. Reppe said planners had run models that indicate traffic flow would not be impeded because of planned traffic enhancements including installation of timed traffic lights. Also, going from four lanes to two means fewer lane changes by motorists that slow cars down on the four-lane road, he said.

The bike paths would utilize the existing paved street, so the work would likely cost substantially less than reconstructing the street, Mr. Reppe said.

The master plan also calls for extending the east-west campus pathway and improving pedestrian access between Forbes and Fifth by, among other things, developing a new sidewalk and bike path along Morewood, Mr. Reppe said.

The hotel likely would be developed south of Forbes near Craig Street and could be operated by an outside party, Mr. Reppe said.

First published on March 3, 2011 at 12:00 am