
Architect Selected To Lead Development Of Gateway Urban Campus Master Plan
The Kentucky Department of Finance Division of Engineering has selected EOP Architects
of Lexington as the lead firm to complete a Campus Master Plan for the Urban Campus
that Gateway Community & Technical College has proposed for downtown Covington.
The team developing the plan also includes:
KLH Engineering of Covington;
Urban Collage, Inc., a nationally recognized urban planning firm headquartered in
Atlanta with offices in Lexington;
M2D, a Lexington-based landscape architecture firm; and
Brown amp; Kubican, a structural engineering firm in Lexington.
Gateway announced in March it would seek $52.8 million in public funds for an Urban
Campus to replace an antiquated Gateway facility on Amsterdam Road. Numerous groups
have endorsed the project, including the Kenton County Fiscal Court, the City of Covington,
the Kenton County Public Library, the board of Covington Independent Public Schools,
South Bank Partners and the Northern Kentucky Consensus Committee.
Developing a master plan is the next step in campus development. The team selected
by the Finance Cabinet includes highly experienced firms that bring considerable expertise
on how to develop a new campus that will not only fit into the urban core but will
also serve as a catalyst for even greater economic development in the area, said Ed
Hughes, Gateway president and CEO.
EOP was founded 30 years ago and is an awarding-winning firm that previously designed
the Nursing and Allied Health Center at Gateway's Edgewood Campus and led the team
that developed the master plan for the new Lexington campus of Bluegrass Community
and Technical College. Like Gateway, BCTC is a member of the Kentucky Community and
Technical College System.
Urban Collage has completed more than 350 urban design projects in 12 states. The
firm brings a focus on the potential and partnerships associated with urban development
and will help lead college and community involvement, academic planning and urban
planning.
The city is really looking forward to working with EOP and its team on this project,
said Jackson Kinney, Covington's community development director. Kinney noted the
timing of Gateway's work coincides with the city's preparation of a Center City Action
Plan that is intended to provide a unifying strategy to guide revitalization efforts
in the urban core. Development of Gateway's urban campus in the heart of downtown
will obviously be an extremely important element in that strategy, Kinney added.
Hughes said the master plan should be complete in April 2012 and noted the college
expects preliminary design concepts by mid-autumn. The design team will be able to
build on information provided by urban residents during seven community forums in
2010 and numerous other meetings with community groups over the past two years.
Gateway announced in May 2009 that it was forming a partnership with the Kenton County
library and Covington public schools to create an Urban Campus that would make career
and transfer education much more accessible to urban residents.
As an interim solution, the college began offering classes in the former Two Rivers
Middle School building at 525 Scott Boulevard in Covington in August 2009. Enrollment
there has climbed more than 1000 percent in just two years, to nearly 1,100 students
last spring.
The demand for career and transfer education in the urban area is well documented,
Hughes said. We have spent the last two years listening to the community about its
dreams for a new campus serving urban residents. Our hope is that the new college
campus and the development that will occur around it will be well integrated into
a vibrant central city.