Cleveland State University || Campus Master Plan || Overview

OVERVIEW

Cleveland State’s commitment to reinvigorating its physical setting will strengthen the University while providing a powerful stimulus to redevelopment in downtown Cleveland.

Click image for a larger view of diagram of master plan.

The Cleveland State University Master Plan establishes a framework for University and University-related development. It includes locations for new CSU facilities and it establishes a development zone at the periphery of campus where private sector residential and commercial development can occur, in partnership with CSU.

There is a change underway at Cleveland State, where the old model of the University as an enclosed, separate community is being turned inside out. The new Cleveland State aims to be an integral part of downtown Cleveland. University and private-sector development will transform CSU and the surrounding neighborhood into a vital, thriving downtown destination.

Increasing the number of students, faculty, and staff who live on or near campus is a priority in the master plan. The plan addresses quality of life issues to make the campus a safer, more appealing place, both for commuter students who comprise the majority of the current csu community and for campus residents that the University plans to attract.

In the master plan, academic functions are concentrated between Chester and Euclid Avenues, filling in the larger gaps between existing buildings to create a cohesive campus core. The University’s vast acreage of surface parking lots north of Chester Avenue are replaced by parking structures distributed throughout the campus. Concentrating parking in strategically located structures frees up land for the development of housing and athletic facilities and provides convenient access to campus facilities through a network of streets, pedestrian passages, and green spaces. New parking structures reduce demand for the existing main parking facility, located at the center of campus. This allows one bay of parking to be removed from this structure in order to create a new central green space, the University Commons.

Parks, landscaped areas, and playing fields will be expanded and enhanced as part of a campus-wide green space network, including:

Connecting landscapes, which link key University destinations, provide appealing passages through campus, and reinforce the University’s physical identity;
External green spaces, which occur at the most public edges of the campus to remove the perceived barrier between CSU and the surrounding City;
Internal green spaces, which serve the University community but are also accessible to the public; and
Limited access campus facilities, including athletic fields which are primarily programmed for University activities but will also be accessible, on a limited basis, to campus and neighborhood residents.

The plan identifies ways to improve north-south connections through the campus. Existing east-west connections are strong via Prospect, Euclid, and Chester Avenues which link the campus to Downtown, Midtown Corridor, and the suburbs. In contrast, connections to the north and south are indirect and unappealing, constraining the University’s relationship with the developing areas to the north of campus and with Cuyahoga Community College to the south. The plan addresses this issue by creating two north-south spines, one at East 19th Street and the other at East 24th Street. The spines are a combination of streets and pedestrian passages that connect directly to two new rta transit stops along the Euclid Corridor.