Picture a university campus that rivals the most inspiring public spaces in urban settings.

This campus would feature green spaces that connect the university’s historic heartland to the river nearby. The learning environment would attract the finest students and faculty, and stimulate interaction between the university and neighboring communities.

This vision took a significant step toward becoming reality at Rutgers University when President Richard L. McCormick announced the winning team in a design competition of world-renowned architects, landscape architects, urban planners, and transportation experts. The team will collaborate with Rutgers to redesign the historic College Avenue Campus.

The winning team – led by Enrique Norten of TEN Arquitectos and Ignacio Bunster-Ossa of Wallace, Roberts & Todd – was selected based on its outstanding record of success on other projects, its bold ideas and its willingness to adapt its concepts to reflect the priorities of the Rutgers and New Brunswick communities, President McCormick said.

“We are selecting a team that has proved itself most capable of working in partnership with Rutgers and New Brunswick toward a distinctive vision that will attract the best to Rutgers and will make citizens and alumni proud,” McCormick said. “Having selected a design team, we are eager to take the next steps toward realizing this vision. Specifically, we will place priority on those elements of the plan that can be accomplished soon, such as to make the public and pedestrian spaces more attractive and appealing.”

President McCormick was joined at the announcement by Norten, Bunster-Ossa and New Brunswick Mayor James Cahill, who has been involved with the College Avenue Campus initiative since its inception and who served on the jury that considered the proposals from the five teams that participated in the competition.

“I enjoyed being engaged with the design team selection process as a jury member. Each of the design teams presented interesting and thought-provoking concepts. I am excited with the prospect of working with TEN Arquitectos and Rutgers to implement a new vision for the College Avenue Campus,” Mayor Cahill said.

“We are honored to be a part of this historic initiative,” Norten said. “Rutgers is an outstanding university with a rich legacy and a promising future. We look forward to working with President McCormick and all of our partners at Rutgers to remake the College Avenue Campus, which has witnessed so many important events over more than two centuries.

“Attractive, easily accessible public spaces are important contributors to the intellectual vitality of all major institutions – particularly universities,” Norten added. “They encourage students, faculty, staff, alumni, and visitors to gather informally and to fully participate in all that a premier university has to offer.”

Norten and his colleagues released revised design concepts that reflect input from a series of public events and surveys throughout the fall semester.

“The five design teams took five very different approaches and suggested some novel and creative ways to look at the campus. We have benefited from their perspectives,” McCormick said. “The events that took place this semester – the lectures, panel discussions, presentations, public forum, exhibit, and surveys – further informed our decision. For example, we heard over and over again from the experts who came to campus that we needed to start with more detailed planning and the transforming of public spaces, and that we should defer building until later on.”