Your ideas are needed for the future development of George Mason University’s Fairfax West Campus during a strategic campus-planning workshop May 22-24.
The workshop is designed to collect ideas that “look beyond immediate needs and into the future of the campus 30-plus years from now,” said Thomas Calhoun, Mason’s vice president of facilities.
The Fairfax West Campus is located west of Route 123/Chain Bridge Road north of the City of Fairfax. The university’s Field House, baseball stadium, soccer stadium and other athletic fields and facilities are located there.
“The West Campus is a significant asset of the university and a large area of it remains undeveloped,” said Calhoun. “The recent opening of Campus Drive, which connects the West Campus to the East Campus, makes use of that land to meet university missions more attractive.”
Mason administrators want to hear from faculty members, staff, students and alumni, as well as government leaders, businesses, and area residents with ideas as to how best use the property, including ways to integrate academic, research and student life needs.
Monday’s session will be highlighted by a keynote speech by Chris Downing, vice president of the Enterprise Innovation Institute at Georgia Tech. Downing, who played a key role in developing Georgia Tech’s award-winning research campus, Enterprise Innovation Institute, will describe how the university and the city of Atlanta coordinated development of their campus.
After the keynote, small working groups will meet. Those groups will present findings on Tuesday and gather feedback. At the conclusion on Wednesday, there will be a presentation of the preferred plan and a discussion about implementation.
“We have no specific plans at this time,” said Calhoun, “but rather we want to identify ideas that meet our objectives. From that, we can begin to pursue strategies and funding.”
The workshop is free and open to the public. It will be held in The Hub Ballroom at 10423 Rivanna River Way on the Fairfax Campus. Visitor parking is located in the Shenandoah Parking Deck. Maps of both campuses and directions are located here. For more information, contact Traci Kendall at 703-993-8846 or tkendal2@gmu.edu, or visit westcampusvision.gmu.edu.