The Board of Trustees Plaza and Fountain, located in the center of the Western Michigan University's (WMU) campus, replaces the Alumni Fountain created by O'Boyle, Cowell, Blalock & Associates, Inc. (OCBA) in the 1980's. This Kalamazoo, Michigan-based firm was retained for the new renovation project. While the original feature was beautifully designed, it was placed in the center of a plaza which evolved over time into a major pedestrian thoroughfare and forced pedestrian traffic out to the edges of the space instead of through the center. Additionally, recessing the water element into the ground plane and placing large planters and benches around the feature to keep visitors from touching the water compromised the fountains design integrity.

When maintenance costs and the need for improvements to the aging fountain began to increase, WMU decided that a complete renovation of the outdoor plaza was needed. Their goals were to provide clear pedestrian circulation through the center of the space, repurpose expensive building materials already owned by the client, introduce the sound of water along the edges of the courtyard, eliminate trees that block views of the surrounding architecture, reduce maintenance, and simplify snow plowing.

 

The plaza is the primary focal point for the outdoor patio of a new Student Center recently built along the north edge of the space. Two large, post-modern buildings and several site retaining walls frame the other two sides of the irregularly shaped courtyard. The existing walls were to remain in place; however, the pale pink tile cladding and aluminum wall caps were in extremely poor condition and in
need of a facelift.

The redesigned plaza space is open in the center and framed by plantings and a water feature made of repurposed stacked granite, leaving space for movable tables, planters, and pedestrian movement through the open paved area. The campus landscape master plan - completed by OCBA - called for a variety of seating options along walkways from which students can see and be seen. Based on that idea, a concept was developed offering a seat wall along the plaza perimeter that defines the edge of the water feature and the planting area on the other side of it.

A large set of granite steps set behind the seat wall allow water to cascade into an underground basin before recirculating back to the top. The pond-less, recirculating fountain system has an equipment vault located in an adjacent lawn panel. LED lights with changing colors in the fountain provide a focal point at night. Plantings between the seat wall and granite steps are intended to discourage students from accessing the water cascade and aesthetically soften the edges of the granite steps.

The site walls and steps include over 10,000 square feet of flamed, dark, and smooth granite. The stone slabs were salvaged from a building demolition that had occurred twenty years earlier, and WMU wanted most, if not all, the remaining stone to be used in the project. The slabs vary in depth from 2" to 4" and in length and width ranging from 2' x 9' to 4.5' x 4.5'. The smooth and flamed granite were available in the greatest quantities; however, smooth granite had been used in small amounts around campus on previous projects and proved too slippery to serve as a paving material, so it needed to be used in a different way. The concepts that emerged intentionally celebrated the flamed granite texture and varied thicknesses, organizing the material into a clean sculptural feature while tying it into the site context.

The challenge for the design team was to treat the existing walls using the most flamed granite slabs while addressing the failing tiles and cap. The budget did not allow for replacement of the walls, and the variable granite dimensions would make it impossible to clad the walls with the slabs set vertically. The preferred solution was to cut the flamed granite slabs into consistent 18" x 4" x 2" units and set them on brick ties to face the existing walls. Wider slabs of smooth granite are then used to cap the walls. Larger, 3' x 3' units of four thicknesses were placed to create the tiered fountain and planter steps, carefully situated to reconcile the varied dimensions of the existing material. The height of each tier of stone is selected to respect the odd stone dimensions and utilize the material most efficiently without cutting. The project reused approximately 750 of the existing 1,249 granite slabs.