Committee Prep III: The Prepening (Four of Three)

Design Considerations

(this is where the slides and images stop because I haven't put this part of the PPT presentation together yet. Sorry!)
There are certain issues that concern UBC Properties regarding the Underground bus loop and the new University Boulevard Plaza.

• Limited space in the underground waiting area: While more students use the UBC Bus Loop in the morning peak hours than in the afternoon, afternoon use causes a significant problem because students will be waiting in the underground space instead of merely moving through it. While there is adequate space for most buses, there is not enough room for the afternoon B-Line peak (roughly 700 passengers for about 10 minutes)
• UBC Properties Trust has suggested that a good way to mitigate this problem is to use the SUB plaza as a buffer to slow down the movement of students to the 99 B-Line queue.Commercial Impression of Campus: the Campus Community Poll Results (Appendix B) show that many students, faculty and staff are concerned about the impact of a commercial space being the first contact point of visitors with the university of British Columbia.
• Un-public space: By creating a retail plaza as compared to an open space, the commercial space undermines the public nature of the plaza and therefore the University. There should be no question that the university and this space are welcome to all, even if they are unable to support these businesses. In the same vein, students should feel free to act in ways that retailers may feel is not helpful to their businesses.
• Little Green Space: Appendix B also shows that many students/faculty/staff are concerned about losing the Grassy Knoll: one of the few open green spaces left in the centre of campus. They also register concern about a lack of connection to the current use and history of the site.

Proposed action: Redesign the interface between the underground bus loop and the SUB plaza using microarchitectural articulations to address concerns about:

• Limited space in the bus loop
• Limited daylighting in bus loop
• Commercial impressions of campus
• Un-public space
• Lack of green space