A growing

A growing number of universities are taking action to revitalize the neighborhoods that surround campuses. Duke University has financed the development of traditional infill housing for staff and faculty in the Trinity Heights project in Durham, North Carolina, and the University of Notre Dame recently began a similar effort. In the deteriorating neighborhood along Notre Dame Avenue, the ceremonial approach to campus, the university has purchased 34 vacant properties, torn down many of them, and sold lots to faculty and staff for 50 percent of the appraised value. Employees pay for the construction and must sell the homes to the university if they leave Notre Dame. To stay compatible with existing homes in the neighborhood, the new homes have to follow the residential design guidelines created for the university by Ayers Saint Gross of Washington, DC. The firm has also completed several new urban development proposals for mixed-use, “college town” development south of campus. The proposals call for street-fronting, mixed-use buildings and a new public space to improve a key intersection, as well a an overall reconfiguration of the street network to make it more friendly to pedestrian traffic.