Designing With Social Well-Being And Safety In Mind At Bisnow's June 18 Higher Education Summit

David McCullough, principal landscape architect at McCullough Landscape Architecture, has seen the future of college campus design, and it looks very different from his days as a student at Cal Poly University, San Luis Obispo, he said.

For one thing, much greater emphasis is placed on the social well-being and safety of today’s students. To help realize these goals, some schools are rolling out on-campus mixed-use campus designs to emulate vibrant city neighborhoods.

“What’s cool is they are turning their campuses into mini-downtowns,” McCullough said. “Everything is right there, so the students no longer need to leave campus to go grocery shopping, for example. There's a lot of social interaction because all the students are hanging out at these third places and getting to know each other.”

McCullough, who called such approaches to design “healthy and exciting,” will be moderating a panel at Bisnow’s Southern California Student Housing & Higher Education Summit on June 18 in Los Angeles. Bisnow spoke with him to get his take on design trends in higher education and what he expects people to be talking about at the event.

Visit here to learn more about the event.

Bisnow: What challenges does student housing face in Southern California?

McCullough: The mental health and safety of students are the two biggest issues we're seeing related to design, but I think it's also the case across the nation and maybe even worldwide. 

Mental health concerns began with Covid when students were stuck in their rooms and doing their classes online. It was a real challenge for them and a sad thing to watch as a parent. 

That spurred a whole conversation about mental health related to the lack of social connection, which has dramatically impacted what we've been doing. There's been a strong push to create social opportunities and to provide mental health services on-site. Within the facilities we are building, there is often a health component and an effort to push as much social interaction as possible.

Bisnow: How does that impact the design of today’s education facilities?

McCullough: You’ve probably heard this, and I think there’s a lot of truth to it, but your typical dorm housing is dead. Instead, campuses are offering what they call “shared housing,” where students have their own rooms but share amenities.

When we were in college, we shared a room with at least one other student and usually they were strangers. Nowadays, students are demanding their own individual rooms. But study after study has found that isolation is the worst thing possible for students, so the shared spaces are designed to encourage ample social interaction and engagement.

Bisnow: People who study these things say isolation isn’t good for anyone, right?

McCullough: You know, it’s funny because we do a lot of urban nonstudent-related multifamily as well. The trend there for many years was people would come home and park in their secured parking garage, get on an elevator and go straight to their units, and then they were detached from their urban fabric to some degree.

But now the thinking is you need to encourage people into situations where they're interacting. On campus, we no longer want students parking and going straight to their rooms. We want to make sure that they're in environments where there are lots of things happening and that present opportunities for people to meet and engage.

That’s important because we're trying to replicate the real working world today, where people are working from home quite a bit but they also are looking for third places where they can gather, work and socialize.

Bisnow: How does student safety fit into this conversation?

McCullough: People are concerned about campus shootings, but even one small negative incident can cause problems for a campus for many years to come. Universities and community colleges want to do everything they can to avoid these situations.

A movement called Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design, in large part, is about the way you design the common spaces such that people don't necessarily feel like they're being watched. What we found is that putting cameras everywhere is not necessarily as effective as we thought and even counterproductive, but you still need to design spaces so that you know there are eyes on people and the spaces don't present opportunities for people to do nefarious things.

Bisnow: What role does landscaping play in addressing these issues?

McCullough: Because of the renewed desire to take social interactions outside, conditioning outdoor spaces so they are used is a priority. Even if you have an incredible outdoor space, if it’s too hot or too cold, people won’t use it.

We’ve gotten creative, for example, with the way that we place trees, whether they’re deciduous or evergreen. Deciduous trees are great when you have really cold winters and you need the sunlight. 

And then in the summertime, the trees, strategically placed, can help condition a space because everybody’s using devices. If there’s too much glare on a screen, they’re not going out there and using the space. But you can design a space using landscaping so there are areas protected from direct sunlight, encouraging people to use the space.

Bisnow: What do you hope people take away from your panel at the Bisnow event on June 18?

McCullough: That a lot of campuses and administrators are realizing the value of social interaction, and that landscaping and architecture play a vital role in keeping students safe and engaged. It's become more complicated, but it's also interesting from a design perspective.

Click here to register for the summit.

This article was produced in collaboration between McCullough Landscape Architecture and Studio B. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.

Studio B is Bisnow’s in-house content and design studio. To learn more about how Studio B can help your team, reach out to studio@bisnow.com.