Entrances and Orientation
The campus is defined by the two Interstate highways and University Avenue. Any traffic entering the campus itself through these boundaries is entering the world of higher learning, an enclave dedicated to a specific purpose. The definition of entrance will be accomplished by erecting gates.
The gate will accomplish two purposes. It will have a welcoming function and will define the point of entry. The warm welcoming feeling will be accomplished on a conscious level by displaying the NMSU sign on the gate, by making it attractive with texture and shape of the gate and by landscaping it. On a subconscious level, the shape of the proposed gate will be designed to draw visitors by appealing to our subconscious instincts related to territoriality.
Defining the point of entry is essential to a smooth functioning of the university. The campus is a place of learning, of creativity, of expanding human intellectual horizons. This purpose is sometimes different from the goals of the outside world. For these and other reasons, we need to define clearly the boundaries and the entrances into the university.
There will be four major entrances: two are from the University Avenue and two are under the expressways. The Triviz Street entrance and the proposed El Paseo entrance are both high-traffic-density roadways. These entrances will have gates as illustrated on the accompanying sketch.
The two underpasses, on El Paseo and Cholla Streets, will have signs on the expressway bridges on Las Alturas and Mesilla Park side of the bridges. There is a considerable traffic through these entrances, and increasingly so as Las Alturas and Mesilla Park grow.
A new underpass is proposed from Stewart Street under Interstate 25, and possibly another underpass under University, a continuation of Triviz Street north. Also proposed is an extension of one I-10 ramp into College Drive. The present I-10 ramp exits on Main Street; the proposed ramp would split off from the existing ramp before it reaches Main Street. Another proposed modification of the ramp system on I-10 is to reroute the ramp that goes into Mesilla Park so its branch would lead directly to the university campus.
In addition to gates, the campus will be defined at its three corners by towers. The purpose of these towers, perhaps 12 feet high and bearing the NMSU sign, will be to define the boundaries of the university visually from a distance mostly from the expressways, but also from the city and the campus itself. They will be billboards in function, but they will be low-key, dignified and aesthetically pleasing towers.
Similar in function will be kiosks and orientation signs placed strategically within the campus itself showing where to make a turn from the University Avenue and Stewart Street into the campus. They will be located at turnoffs to parking lots, and will show what buildings the parking lots serve. In addition to the automobile signs, there will be orientation signs with maps showing building locations on campus. These will be in parking lots and on the Malls.
All buildings, as they currently do, will have signs indicating the name and perhaps function of the building. All signs, the towers, entrance gates, parking turnoffs and pedestrian orientation kiosks will have a unified appearance, a feature that in itself will facilitate orientation.
Daily traffic will enter on Triviz and El Paseo Streets. Visitor traffic will be directed by signs placed on University Avenue to College Drive where a visitor center will be located. The visitor center will orient new visitors, distribute maps of the campus and permit authorized persons to enter the Horseshoe, which will be closed to regular traffic.
College Drive will be the formal entrance because it permits the most advantageous appearance of the Horseshoe and Hadley Hall. An effort will be made to beautify the west end of the campus, which will be the first university land a visitor will see. The agricultural lands provide a park-like environment, friendly and relaxed, in the tradition of the university as a Land Grant College. When a new ramp is constructed from I-10 and Espina Street is closed, College Drive will assume a new significance.