Worcester Polytechnic Institute,
Campus Quad & Wedge Triangle

After the addition of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) new 500-space parking garage and elevated athletic fields in 2014, the school was looking to reorient the campus in response to this major change to its composition. The new parking garage concentrated away from the center of campus, which meant the work had to focus on redesigning the Quad to be a strong, central community and gathering space for students and faculty, this included realigning circulation connections, creating placemaking nodes, improving drainage within the established active high-use lawn, providing donor recognition opportunities, and designing the new Wedge Dining Terrace to provide an outdoor dining terrace.

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Samiotes provided civil engineering and environmental permitting services for the improvements to the Campus Quad and Wedge Terrace. Renovations to the 2.75-acres of open space provided a vital gathering areas for students featuring brick pathways and a large dining terrace area. Soil Erosion and Sediment Control were a key design component due to existing soils. Additionally, we ensured vehicular layout and materials worked with the student pedestrian focus. A subsurface / underdrain system was instituted to help mitigate standing water and drainage issues in the existing Quad area (that is used for graduation), while we ensured the design of the new stormwater management system met storm events as required by the City of Worcester. The underdrainage system at the lawn diverts stormwater to an underground chamber which then slowly infiltrates the water back into the subsurface.

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