Outstanding Student Project:

#UMKC Spaces Student Exploration of Places

Recipient: University of Missouri-Kansas City

In the fall of 2015, the UMKC Trustees Ad-Hoc Committee on the Campus Environment invited the Urban Planning + Design program to run a studio on the Urban Design of UMKC's Volker Campus. The studio was encouraged to examine the following four issues: the human experience on campus, walk and bike circulation, campus monuments, and campus gateways. The studio was broken down into four key main projects: impressions, elements of the public realm, analysis, and Volker campus design interventions for 2005. This project utilized social media technology to further public engagement ad to conduct detailed site investigations. Students and the University promoted an Instagram photo and hashtag campaign #UMKCspaces to collect mages of spaces that work on campus. Students also used the GPS data on photos taken with their smart phones to locate significant elements of the public realm for use in GIS. These analyses lead to the identification of five planning and urban design opportunities that show how the Volker campus might better meet the needs of students in the near future: Activate Troost, Intensify Cherry and 51st Street Node, Prioritize Public Streets, Deploy Modern and Functional  Signage, and Rethink Surface Parking. These analyses, visions, and proposals will support the next update of Volker Campus Plan by the UMKC Facilities Department.