On November 5, HMC received an Award of Merit in Master Planning by the Community College Facility Coalition (CCFC) for the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District (GCCCD) Facilities Master Plan! The GCCCD Facilities Master Plan is the result of a comprehensive planning process that involved multiple stakeholders from the district, the Grossmont and Cuyamaca colleges, and the community. The plan highlights the district’s physical needs to best serve students, and provides direction for improvements to the two campuses so that GCCCD can offer the environment that best supports the colleges’ excellent education programs. The challenge was bringing together a multi-college district to develop a district level facilities master plan to create a shared vision, while respecting and celebrating the unique culture and spirit of each college.
The CCFC award jury was quiet impressed with the project and said, “What strikes us about this master plan is that we can see and understand the transformation that will occur during the implementation of the plan. We appreciate the engagement that occurred during the development of the plan with the forums and the visual note taking.”
The jury also noted, “The GCCCD Facilities Master Plan demonstrates the perfect balance of defined educational goals, well-organized design objectives and an engaged participatory process. Above all else, the master plan directly supports the educational functionality by creating multi-functional spaces, usable outdoor settings, and developing academic clusters that serve to simplify student way-finding and increase interdisciplinary collaboration. In addition to its exemplary functionality, the master plan embraces the natural habitats in which these campuses reside, by providing beautiful view corridors to the surrounding nature preserves and low impact/sustainable design principles.”
