FROM PARKING TO PARK

Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) transforms a car-dominated campus entry to a park-landscape that connects to the city’s 1300-acre Forest Park. For decades, impervious roads and surface parking separated the historic campus core from the park, limiting pedestrian movement and civic engagement. To establish a welcoming, people-first campus entry, WashU engaged the landscape architect to lead a multidisciplinary East Campus Vision Plan, continuing through site implementation for seven new buildings with four architectural teams.

RECONNECTING CAMPUS AND CITY

Embracing its mission to leverage higher education as a catalyst for student life, community vitality, and regional connectivity, WashU undertook a transformative capital project reimagining nearly 20 percent of the campus. The project supports long-term academic growth, strengthens connections to regional greenways, and reinterprets early 20th-century campus plans by the Olmsted Brothers and architects Cope & Stewardson through a contemporary lens of resilience, equity, and placemaking.

PERFORMATIVE LANDSCAPE SYSTEMS

The design for the East End is a major sustainability initiative featuring LEED Gold-certified buildings. The design replaces turf and impervious paving with a high-performing ecological landscape that supports biodiversity, stormwater management, and long-term campus resilience. By replacing more than six acres of paving with diverse native plant communities and an expanded tree canopy, the design reduces the urban heat island effect and strengthens habitat value and seasonal character across the site. Bioretention systems and rain gardens filter pollutants and improve water quality, while detention infrastructure manages stormwater for reuse. Native and adaptive planting strategies reduce landscape irrigation demand by more than 52 percent and decrease indoor potable water use by approximately 40 percent. Together, these systems contribute to a healthier campus environment and support WashU’s Level III Arboretum designation.

BRIDGING CONTEMPORARY USE AND TRADITION

The landscape architect encouraged the integration of contemporary landscape and architectural elements to complement WashU’s Collegiate Gothic identity. Two glass pavilions, the Welcome Center and Schnuck Pavilion, frame views of historic Brookings Hall and define a central gathering place once dominated by vehicles. The Welcome Center consolidates admissions and student services, while the Schunck Pavilion houses a public café and bicycle hub, reinforcing the East End as a civic gateway.

ADAPTIVE UNDERGROUND GARAGE

Parking is relocated into an underground 800-car garage, and the landscape above is lifted and leveled to align with existing and new buildings, creating a 12-acre central green—Tisch Park. This landscape serves as a social spine, stitching together peripheral spaces, providing universal access, and establishing a flexible framework for future growth.
Below grade, the garage is fully integrated into the campus fabric and designed for long-term adaptability. Daylight from skylights and planted courtyards, generous ceiling heights, clear wayfinding, and direct building connections support safety and a welcoming arrival, while allowing future conversion to academic use as parking demand declines.

WELCOME CENTER COURTYARD & ONE TREE PROJECT

The Welcome Center Courtyard sits at the garage level, inviting visitors from the parking up into the center green. The courtyard design recalls the patterns of the Mississippi Delta in a lush planting that uses a nurse log to bring new life with its decay, making way for a new generation of seedlings. The nurse log is a salvaged tree from the site’s original Pin oak allee. This tree generated the One Tree Project – an interdisciplinary class studying one tree’s impact on ecology, resource legacy, and culture.

PARK EXTENSION

Tisch Park is enjoyed by the WashU and local community as an extension of Forest Park. At the center, the flexible green is the focus of the district’s identity. It can host large events and seasonal gatherings, including Shakespeare in the Park. Spaces around Tisch Park support outdoor activity, social interaction, and quiet respite. The design creates a sculpture garden from art hidden on a secluded terrace at the Kemper Art Museum, bringing art directly into the daily lives of students and visitors. Academic programs, once divided by parking, now connect across the shared landscape, with engineering to the north and the arts to the south, engaging park edges.
From parking to park, the East End converts a car-dominated threshold into an inclusive destination for campus and community life. The resulting activated landscape fosters collaboration, social engagement, and well-being, and redefines the university’s relationship with the surrounding city.

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