St. John Fisher College - Mainstage

As part of St. John Fisher’s plan to improve the existing Student Center’s usability and enhance the collegiate involvement for students, faculty and visitors, QPK Design prepared plans to expand to the exterior of the building by providing an energetic communal outdoor plaza space.

The plaza includes a large, circular fire feature as the datum of the space with supporting elements such as a radiused stone seat wall, plantings behind the wall to create a sense of enclosure, and a pergola to provide a comfortable overhead plane.

The plan included connections to existing academic building and residence hall quad walkways, around usable open space for lawn games and social events. The space provides break out area for campus events and is usable at night due to the implementation of an advanced lighting design.

A unique aspect of the site included porous unit pavers with integral heating to omit the need for snow removal and the use of melting chlorides. Consistent with sustainable site design practices, the porous pavement utilizes the ability of the native soils to infiltrate rainwater and mitigates impact from otherwise impervious services that increase storm water runoff quantity.

The project involved presentation of the concepts and plans to the St. John Fisher student body and the student life & campus facility staff, who, through an advisory committee provided feedback on the preferred plan.