Kirkwood Community College Master Planning
OPN has been working with Kirkwood Community College for more than 20 years. Kirkwood’s campus covers 680 acres, including a 400-acre working farm on its main campus. The 27+ buildings hold more than 1.65 million square feet of interior learning space and a 15-acre athletic complex.
In 2016, Kirkwood and OPN embarked on a campus planning process to update the prior master plan, completed in 2006, and establish a vision for the campus for the next 10 years. The process prioritized: establishing a central hub, improving wayfinding on campus and within buildings, and promoting community by through visual transparency between and within buildings.
Implementation of the master plan included the following projects, which are now all completed:
- Iowa Hall Student Center
- Washington Hall
- Veterinary Technology Center
- Michael J. Gould Recreation Center
- Automotive Technology
Concurrent with the implementation of of the 2016 master plan, the college also embarked on a planning process specific to its Animal Health, Farm Operations, Grain/Feed/Row Crops, Swine, Tippie Beef agricultural programs, and the Iowa Equestrian Center. This plan will address aging outdated facilities with the goal of recruiting prospective students and meeting program certification requirements.
Photo Gallery
The first master plan, completed in 2006, identified a number of new projects, and their potential locations on campus. Vignettes were developed to help define the size and scope of each project for the Board of Directors. The plan included broad-scope cost estimates, program summaries and a tiered implementation. The master plan was a tool for planning the use of $27 million in funding and led to an implementation strategy for a number of signature facilities on campus over a 10-year period. Projects completed as a result of the first master plan include:
