Haverford College officials sought a plan to “serve as a living document and decision-making tool … [and to] balance our ambitions for academic and institutional development with our commitment to sustaining the physical beauty of the campus.” How should the campus support evolution and growth while nurturing sustainability and preserving Haverford’s arboretum landscape, intimate character and wide vistas?

Some thought recent campus development polarized this small community into an “upper campus” centered on the historic Founders Green and a “lower campus” – while disrupting natural areas and draining life from the campus core.  There were few places for people to come together – one-on-one or in groups. Enrollment increases forced the conversion of social space into student bedrooms, and the planned addition of new faculty burdened existing facilities. 

Rather than addressing these issues project by project, college officials sought a more comprehensive view, aligning the physical campus to the college’s academic, student-life, environmental, administrative and financial goals.  Planning could also analyze policies and schedules alongside buildings, landscapes, hydrology, transportation and utilities.

At Haverford College, Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates’ master plan considered the campus from a variety of perspectives – offering opportunities for increasing sustainability well beyond those available on a project-by-project basis. 

Input and Consensus

In keeping with its Quaker heritage, college officials sought broad input and consensus. Nearly 400 members of the campus community – faculty, staff, students, alumni, and township officials – participated in a series of meetings conducted at the outset and at project milestones. 

Areas of analysis synthesized in the plan were wide-ranging and included, among others, space use and scheduling, instructional technology, parking and transit policies, energy use and distribution, hydrology, landform, soils and vegetation.

Recommendations ranged from overall framework plans to programming for individual buildings and policy suggestions.

The Campus Plan

The campus plan re-animates Haverford’s historic core while creating lively connections to newer facilities beyond the center. Maintaining and augmenting the primacy of Founders Green in the campus hierarchy of outdoor spaces (Haverford’s “forum”), even as new greens are developed, supports a coherent sense of the college as one place, one community. Also, focusing density in the core helps preserve natural areas and open greens that give the campus its distinctive character. The plan recommends growing within existing space when possible and logical and suggests uses for both existing and new structures.

Intensifying academic uses around Founders Green will help restore life to this important symbolic space while supporting maintenance and preservation of the campus’ most historic buildings. 

Two pedestrian axes – one north-south and another east-west – extend through and beyond the campus core to set parameters for future development. New buildings will be oriented with entrances and at-grade transparency along these axes, enlivening paths while connecting important campus uses. New greens are also organized along these routes, bolstering the campus’ leafy character and intimate scale. Structuring new development along these paths preserves the college’s most beloved landscapes and vistas.

The overall organization of the campus plan is rooted in sustainable design principles and recommendations to:

•  maintain a compact campus core and minimize expansion into the community and “sprawl”;


• value, maintain, update and adapt existing buildings where philosophically desirable and programmatically and financially feasible;


• where new building is necessary, build on sites where natural systems have already been disrupted and minimize new impervious surfaces;


• maintain and enhance existing important green spaces;


• build intensively to minimize building footprints and maximize open area;


• stack parking to minimize site area devoted to automobiles and to minimize runoff;


• continue to provide faculty housing within walking distance of campus, reducing automobile use on campus;


• create stormwater initiatives that consider watershed areas holistically;


•  replace the aging existing central plant with new, more-efficient equipment to meet capacity, conserve energy and – by increasing the condensate return rate on steam lines – conserve water;


• encourage transit use of two nearby commuter lines by making more accessible and amenable paths between the campus and the stations, and by considering the walk from the stations important gateways to Haverford’s campus;


• enhance native vegetation zones in select areas of campus to moderate local climate and air quality, maintain stable stream flows, remove pollutants from air and water, provide habitat for wildlife and pollinating insects, and contribute to Haverford’s sense of place and human well-being; and


• beyond setting the requirement for LEED certification, set Haverford-specific goals related to particular credits, including goals that exceed LEED  requirements. For example, requiring a targeted number of credits achieved in the “Optimize Energy Performance” category beyond those required for certification.

Sustainability Guidelines

A series of guidelines – ranging from general principles on building location to suggestions on cleaning materials – were developed to support the overall planning framework and the college’s ongoing sustainability efforts:

• suggestions for reducing energy use in existing buildings campuswide include conducting building-by-building audits for energy efficiency, adding occupancy sensors to help control lighting systems, and replacing aging conventional washing machines with energy-saving/water-conserving front-loading washers;


• increasing the intensity of use in existing buildings – by scheduling more classes during off-peak hours, for example, or by making classrooms available for meetings or other uses during non-class hours – could help limit the amount of new construction needed;


• recommendations for energy supply and distribution systems, in addition to replacing the aging central plant, include heat recovery systems, upgrades to pumping systems, and replacing building-by-building cooling systems with a districtwide chilled water plant to save energy and reduce maintenance;


• reducing automobile use would not only cut greenhouse gas emissions but also decrease the area on campus dedicated to parking and limit the need for parking structures; suggestions include offering employees incentives to use public transportation, considering a shuttle route coordinated with commuter trains during peak hours, and providing more bicycle racks (and showers) on campus;


• recommendations for vegetation include continuing to phase out invasive, non-native plants and reducing traditional lawn in favor of a wider range of plant cover types, such as meadow and woodland groves; an integrated pest management plan would minimize the use of harmful chemicals;


• stormwater strategies to promote groundwater recharge such as harvesting roof runoff for reuse, reducing or eliminating the use of potable water for irrigation, creating green roofs where feasible, and continuing the college’s use of pervious pavement in parking area; and


• additional considerations include campuswide informational programs encouraging people, for example, to turn off lights and equipment and unplug chargers, green cleaning initiatives, and continuing the college’s efforts to create connections between the curriculum and the campus. 

These initiatives, in tandem with the college’s ongoing efforts and within the framework of the campus master plan, could move Haverford College closer to its goal of a significantly more-sustainable environment.

Campus Master Plan for Haverford College

Location: Haverford, Pa.

Area:  216 acres

Student Population: 1,168 undergraduates 

Completion:  2010

Distinctions: Honor Award, Planning for an Established Campus, Society for College and University Planning, 2010



Project Team

Lead Consultants: Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates Inc.

Landscape Architect: Andropogon Associates

Traffic, Transportation, and Parking Consultant: URS Corp.

Cost Consultant: International Consultants Inc.

Civil Engineer: Hunt Engineering Co.

Structural Engineer: Keast & Hood Co.

MEP Engineer: Brinjac Engineering Inc.