Eckerd College
St. Petersburg, Fla.

Completion: 2002
Size 267 acres

It's not often that Ayers/Saint/Gross takes on Mother Nature, but that was part of the mandate in developing a master plan for Eckerd College on Florida's west coast.

The beautiful bayfront location gives the College a unique presence, but tropical storms and hurricanes are realities that have to be dealt with in locating buildings and landscapes. This priority and four others formed the basis of the planning process. The others are:

• Enhance the campus as a place intellectual, imaginative, and spiritual formation
• Give primacy to pedestrian and bicycle transportation to invigorate the residential community in proximity academic and social settings
• Optimize the cohesiveness of the faculty and support interdisciplinary study through architectural elements that reinforce personalized teaching and mentoring
• Embody an environmentally protective and ecologically protective and ecologically sound approach to facilities and land use through sustainable or renewable materials.