This unbuilt centennial master plan reimagines a historic outdoor education campus as a safer, more inclusive, and environmentally resilient destination. The long-term vision introduces a welcoming visitor center, updated campsites, flexible lodging, nature-based recreation, and improved infrastructure to support year-round use. New group lodges, cabins, yurts, and treehouses broaden the campus’s ability to serve young people, families, schools, and community organizations. Together, these improvements balance the character of a beloved landscape with contemporary expectations for accessibility, safety, learning, and connection
Shape
Extensive site analysis, stakeholder engagement, and ecological assessment informed a plan rooted in the landscape’s opportunities and constraints. The team responded to flood risk, aging infrastructure, sensitive habitats, and complex circulation by concentrating development in suitable areas and relocating vulnerable campsites and structures to higher ground. A raised creek-side trail becomes the campus’s primary pedestrian spine, improving safety, wayfinding, and access while connecting visitors more closely to nature. Folded rooflines, A-frame forms, wood, stone, and native plantings create a cohesive identity across the proposed buildings.
Inspire
The master plan establishes a flexible framework intended to welcome a broader range of visitors while preserving the qualities that make the campus meaningful. Restored habitats, improved water quality, accessible trails, and nature-based learning environments would strengthen connections between recreation and environmental stewardship. Resilient infrastructure and expanded lodging options would also support new programs, longer seasons, and greater financial sustainability. By bringing adventure, conservation, and community together, the vision positions the campus to remain a place of discovery, belonging, and growth for generations to come.
The opportunity and challenge of this design was to honor what people already love about the reservation while imagining how it could grow, with new experiences carefully integrated into the landscape.
- Daniel Schneider Associate Principal, Architect | Mackey Mitchell Architects
