When you’re on campus for Homecoming next month (Oct 1-2 – you are coming, right?), you’ll notice that Hale Building has a different look. Over the past couple of months, it’s undergone a landscape renovation project to meet current ADA requirements for handicapped accessibility, improve pedestrian routing to newly located city crosswalks on the Main and Winchester street roundabout, and strengthen links with the recently completed Alumni Center.

The project helps establish the first of seven campus portals (entryways) recommended by the Facility Planning Committee and designated to improve  public accessibility and unify the public streetscape appearance. The landscape is being updated and valuable plantings will be preserved, while some of the  overgrown shrubs will be removed and the planting beds re-worked. Here’s a drawing of what the Hale landscaping should look like when it’s all done.

Bottom line? It enhances the elegance of this historic building, even before the grass has come in.