Client
Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary

Scope
Master Plan and Schematic Design

Cost
$22 M

Completed
2007 (plan only)

PROJECT DETAILS

THE PLTS campus contains a wealth of assets, including spectacular hilltop vantage points towards Tilden Park and the Bay and a historic Thomas Church garden, but the community lacked a vision for their future on campus. A laundry list of complaints included a number of deferred maintenance issues that the seminary could barely stretch its budget to fix, as well as deficiencies of technology and accommodation. The aesthetics of the different buildings and their relationship to one other felt incongruous, creating the sense of a “collection of buildings” rather than a cohesive campus community. Many people believed that it would be difficult to define a Master Plan vision that could find consensus within the multiple stakeholders in the community.

Using our Issue Based Design Process, we met with 13 different stakeholder groups to develop a sense of values, issues, and goals that could unite the community.

We surprised our client by proposing a new, 11,000 square foot administration building in mid-campus. The building makes sense as a 3-dimensional solution to the need to travel 50’ of vertical distance between upper and lower campus. A pedestrian could walk out from the ground floor of an upper-level building across the green roof deck of the new building, arrive at the elevator, and travel down to the lower level of campus, without climbing or descending any steps. A number of existing buildings were being used inefficiently for purposes that were not the “best use.” By moving administration out of these buildings and into a unified “Campus Center” in the middle of the school grounds the other buildings could work better.

Our 3D Building Information Model (BIM) was useful during conersations with the neighbors and other members of the community, since we could show them, in live time, the massing and appearance of our changes from any perspective on or adjacent to the campus.

The PLTS Board approved our Master Plan unanimously and enthusiastically, on April 21, 2007, with a standing ovation for the Architect.