An Award Winning Restoration

By Marc Barnes, The King's English

Even for landscape architects who regularly work on large, complex projects for public and private clients, some projects are more challenging than others. Reworking an entire street on a busy college campus can provide multiple challenges, as one Indiana firm found out.

Right: Crosswalks link most entrances of major academic buildings along McKinley Avenue. Planning for the project began more than 20 years ago as a major element in the Ball State University campus master planning process. The master plan called for three new major academic buildings to be sited west of McKinley Avenue, between its intersections with Riverside Avenue and Petty/Neely Avenues. Previously all academic buildings in this area of campus were sited east of McKinley Avenue, creating little or no need for students to cross the street.
Photos courtesy of Pinehall Brick

Rundell Ernstberger Associates LLC (REA), a landscape architecture firm headquartered in Muncie, Indiana, has been responsible for design and construction documents for multiple site development projects for Ball State University.

These projects have included streetscapes, quadrangles, parking lots, plazas, fountains, campus gateway signs, and landscape installations. REA has also served as the campus master planner since 1982 and continues to update the master plan on a regular basis, assisting the university in planning for future development.

In addition, REA’s design staff includes thirteen graduates from Ball State’s nationally recognized Department of Landscape Architecture, which effectively provides the company with an additional vested interest in the campus.

In the mid-1980’s, a comprehensive campus plan identified a new academic quadrangle to address the University’s planned growth. At the heart of this development would be a new focal element for campus and a revised streetscape which served to improve both safety and aesthetics.

The project centered on making McKinley Avenue, a major city thoroughfare bisecting the Ball State University campus, safer for pedestrians and at the same time, tying the area’s appearance together with the surrounding campus buildings. Beyond the design, the construction would also be a challenge, given that the builder would have to work around the transportation needs of 18,000 students.

The master plan noted that, as new buildings were completed west of McKinley Avenue, the number of pedestrians crossing back and forth across the street would increase significantly. As the buildings were completed and the student population grew, tens of thousands of students criss-crossed the extra wide street during class changes.

So far, so good. But then, shortly before the bids were let, the university approved a recommendation from the landscape architect to use clay brick pavers in the crosswalks and sidewalks. Because the $5.4 million project was publicly funded, specifications for the clay paver installations in the roadway would have to be approved by the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT). The challenge: specifications for clay pavers had not yet been written for an INDOT project.

Michael Sommer, a principal at Rundell Ernstberger Associates, found himself working against the clock to get the specifications prepared and approved so that the project could be bid and constructed during the summer when most of the students were away. It worked.

“We knew it would be more expensive. But we are talking about a legacy here.”—James W. Lowe, Director of Engineering and Operations, Ball State University

By the time students returned for the fall semester, what had been old was new again. Looking north from Teacher’s College, the new sidewalks and street crossings provide a new sense of place and a foundation in color and texture that unites all of the buildings of the North Academic Quadrangle through which McKinley Avenue passes.

The most prominent structure is the 150-foot Shafer Tower, also designed by Rundell Ernstberger Associates, from which bells toll every 15 minutes. Nearby are academic buildings including the College of Architecture and Planning, Bracken Library, and the Art and Journalism Building. The renovation project covers more than six acres and stretches to the middle of the academic core of the campus.

“The students have [now] adopted this area of campus as a gathering point,” said James W. Lowe, director of engineering and operations at Ball State. “They are stopping and sketching and talking. I didn’t see that in the past. The previous streetscape was unorganized and uninviting. The new streetscape now has a sense of order and place.”

The students weren’t the only ones who noticed. The project won the Best In Class Award for Paving and Landscape Architecture in the 2006 Brick In Architecture Awards, which was presented by the Brick Industry of America.

The areas of the center median not used as pedestrian waiting areas are raised planters used as barriers to prevent crossings except at the clearly defined crosswalks. The street was designed to slow vehicular through traffic. North and south bound lane widths are 16 feet, curb to curb, which still allow for passing in case of a breakdown.

Time for a Change

The need for the renovation came about because of significant changes on the campus. Lowe said that as the university has grown over the past 30 years, houses on the west side of McKinley Avenue were replaced by academic buildings – and students and faculty had to race across three lanes of traffic dodging cars as they crossed.

The solution, as designed by REA, was to install a raised median down the center lane of the street that included five carefully located pedestrian crossings. To further enhance safety, each of the crossings was given a contrasting surface to the asphalt street. This visual cue, in addition to the “rumble” surface, alerts drivers that they are entering or passing over a pedestrian crosswalk. Adjacent sidewalks also utilize brick pavers to complement the architecture of the nearby buildings.

“We had to go with a different material, because if [the street were] all asphalt… a driver would not be alerted to the crossover as well as you would be if you had a different material in your path,” Lowe said. “You want to see it coming is the basic idea.”

Lowe said the surface also works well to fulfill the requirements of the Americans With Disabilities Act, by providing a smooth surface for wheelchairs – and providing a different surface texture to help the visually impaired who use canes tell whether they are on the crosswalk or the asphalt street.

The project incorporates design features to “calm traffic” and control pedestrian crossings through the use of safe “waiting areas” within a raised median. What was once a dangerous place has now become a gathering spot for the Ball State campus. Plantings for the medians were chosen for their beauty and durability. They include “Winter King” Hawthorns, “Knockout” Rose, “Happy Returns” Daylily and “Crimson Pigmy” Barberry.

A Major Challenge

Using clay pavers in the street was a great idea but provided a major challenge to the design group. The $5.4 million project was funded 80 percent by federal transportation improvement funding, with a 20 percent local match. The project was a partnership of the university, the city of Muncie and the Indiana Department of Transportation.

The designers, city and the university developed the project drawings, which had to meet the transportation department’s requirements. INDOT, which normally oversees highway projects, had to carefully consider the design using brick pavers in a city street. Add into that the challenge of Indiana’s winter climate – think freezing and thawing – and now throw in an accelerated two to three months timeframe to construct the project.

Sample specifications were provided to Rundell Ernstberger Associates from a project in another Indiana city, which used a mix of old and new pavers. These specifications were not considered appropriate for the project underway in Muncie. “I spent an entire day [going] through the specifications that were given to me as trial specifications, line by line,” said Sommer. “We had to have… specifications for this job… in short order because the bids were due.”

Sommer said the final design as approved called for rebuilding the street from two feet down using drain tiles, concrete base with asphalt setting bed, and brick pavers as the surface course.

Since closing the street to vehicular traffic was not a viable consideration, the objective of the project was to reduce the conflicts created by the inter-modal mix of traffic (pedestrians, bicyclists, automobiles, buses and commercial) and provide safe conditions for vehicles and pedestrians within the corridor. The scope of the project included utility relocations, drainage improvements, designated pedestrian crossings, new pedestrian and street lighting, new traffic signals and the rebuilding of deteriorated curbs, gutters, sidewalks and street pavements.

The Final Hurdle

Lowe said the final hurdle was that the job had to be started and finished during summer vacation, when the campus student population would shrink by two-thirds, from 18,000 students to 6,000. The project was completed from May 8 to August 12, 2005 with the help of an experienced segmental pavement contractor.

Brian Simmons, president of LPS Pavement Co. in Chicago, worked with Muncie-based E&B Paving on the project. Simmons’ company installed 70,000 square feet of brick pavers in four weeks.

“I had three crews of four men there all the time,” said Simmons. “It took over half my work force there. They were working 10-hour shifts and it was hot – it was summertime and it was an asphalt bed over concrete, so the additional 350-degree asphalt kept the guys even hotter yet.”

But at the end of the day, all the effort was worthwhile on a number of levels. From a maintenance standpoint, Simmons said that underground repair work in the future means that the bricks can be removed, the repairs made and the bricks set back into place, instead of unsightly asphalt patching.

Improved drainage reduces localized flooding that had previously dominated the area during heavy rains. This improved visibility for drivers whose windshields were splashed. It also reduced splashing of pedestrians, formation of ice on adjacent walks when freezing temperatures exist, and deterioration of pavements through increased infiltration of moisture and snow removal chemicals.

“We went through some soul searching,” said Ball State’s Lowe. “We knew it would be more expensive. But we are talking about a legacy here. This is a long-term installation that will be here for decades to come. We needed something to maintain the richness of color and that’s why we chose the clay brick.”

Sommer said that the choice of materials was a natural outcome of the university’s experience in the past – and its past standard of using clay brick for buildings on campus. He chose Pine Hall Brick’s English Edge Autumn paver for their high quality, permanent color and the availability of matching sidewalk and road pavers.

Sub-grade drainage enhancements and increased depth of road pavement section will reduce maintenance requirements. Joint stabilizer was used in brick pavements at street crosswalks and vehicle pull-offs. Brick paving can be easily replaced following any underground repair work, eliminating “patching”, thus maintaining visual quality for the life of the project.

“Over the last four or five years, they have noticed that clay paver colors last better than other alternatives and they like the idea of richer colors that are more colorfast,” he said.

Sommer said that with the specifications now in place with INDOT, future installations will proceed more quickly.

“It was well worth the battle to get clay pavers into this project.”— Michael Sommer, Rundell Ernstberger Associates

“Looking back on it, I am satisfied with what I have seen and heard,” he said. “It was well worth the battle to get clay pavers into this project.”

The success of the initial phase of construction was followed with phase two which was completed in a similar concentrated schedule in the summer of 2006. The $3.4 million project includes the creation of a new campus entrance, a new pond, a new bridge and replacement of the roadway.

Approximately 2500 cubic yards of Class “A” concrete was utilized throughout the project, including walks, curbs, light foundations, underlayment for pavers, and concrete “band” edges. Structural concrete is produced in three classes: A, B and C. The differences are in cement and aggregate contents and water/cement ratios. All admixtures were INDOT pre-approved. Minimum testing frequencies were significantly exceeded with yield, slump and air tests run daily during weeks of high production. Clay brick pavers were set on a bituminous setting bed over a reinforced concrete base in both pedestrian and automobile applications.

About the Design Firm:

Rundell Ernstberger Associates LLC (REA) was established in 1979 to provide land planning, urban design and landscape architectural services.

The present staff of 18 includes six licensed landscape architects in two offices in Muncie and Indianapolis, Indiana.

Since its formation, REA has participated as a prime consultant to architects, developers, individuals, municipalities and universities in more than 20 states.

This can be attributed to the fact that the partners share a common vision of excellence in all forms of development and design on the land.

The firm’s design philosophy has always been to punctuate and celebrate the unique and individual identity of a particular place through an imaginative design and superior technical follow-through.

REA is widely recognized for creative approaches to master planning and site design. The staff is a uniquely talented group of individuals whose combined design and technical expertise results in the delivery of thorough and complete design packages to clients through all phases of work.

Recognized as one of the leading site design firms in the Midwest, REA has received more than 50 state, national and international design awards in the past 27 years.