The Campus Plan responds to the College's present needs and long-term objectives and projects physical space and facilities needs for the next quarter-century. More importantly, it reflects one goal that the College physical plant match the caliber of our academic and campus life program.
Completed in 2020
The $112 million HSSC brings non-fine arts humanities and social studies departments together in one building to create innovative learning spaces that encourage multi-disciplinary collaboration, active inquiry, student research and “intellectual collisions.”
The Center is home to 39 technology-rich classrooms and inquiry labs, and 145 faculty offices and dedicated research spaces that are grouped into five interdisciplinary neighborhoods. Additionally, the HSSC features four pavilions – two new and two renovated – joined by a central, three-story atrium with connecting bridges at floors two and three. The historic Alumni Recitation Hall (ARH) Tower dominates the atrium, which adjoins a cafe, the Institute for Global Engagement (IGE) and the Data Analysis and Social Inquiry Lab (DASIL).
Phase One completed in 2020
Grinnell’s outdoor spaces preserve, enhance, and create campus gathering places that give the campus a rich variety of experiences and provide the setting for College traditions.
Phase One of the Campus Master Landscape Plan has focused on creating a campus environment that is interesting, engaging, and complementary to Grinnell’s indoor learning spaces. The work has reinforced the strengths and unique character of campus spaces through improvement to circulation, future plantings, and maintenance.
Landscape changes reflect the College’s extensive investment in water conservation and have resulted in improved water use across campus. With a focus on tallgrass prairies and native landscaping, the College actively demonstrates its support for the environmental, social, and economic sustainability of the community.
Completed 2019
The Admission and Student Financial Services (ASFS) building provides a warm, welcoming, and engaging center where prospective students and their families enjoy learning more about Grinnell College, the admission process, and financial aid. The facility enhances the campus visit experience by bringing visitors directly into the intellectual heartbeat of the campus.
The $12 million two-story facility provides a technology-rich presentation room where visitors discover how Grinnell provides individually advised learning in the liberal arts and mentored research opportunities, brings together and celebrates diverse perspectives, and prepares students to navigate the world’s complexities. The ASFS also includes private spaces for conversations about admission and financial aid, as well as a welcoming waiting room with a large stone fireplace and wood-paneled cathedral ceiling.
Sustainability features of the ASFS include:
Currently in the planning phase
In 2014, the College began to outline needed renovations and expansions of student resident halls. Since then, student, faculty, and staff groups have worked through multiple sessions and scenarios to update and improve the student residential experience.
New student housing, including a state-of-the-art downtown student living facility, will decompress existing residence halls and expand offerings of housing styles, support the College’s residential mission, and provide opportunities to support multiculturalism and racial diversity on campus and in the community at large.
Since 2012, Grinnell College has been partnering with the Grinnell Area Chamber of Commerce and City of Grinnell to build out the “zone of confluence” between the campus and the downtown business district. Together, these collaborative development initiatives will connect campus and downtown, encouraging students, faculty, and staff to visit downtown and inviting the community onto campus.
Rendering of proposed Civic Engagement Quad (CEQ) by Adjaye Associates
The Grinnell College Board of Trustees has approved plans to build a unique facility to open in the fall of 2024 at the corner of 6th and Broad streets. The Civic Engagement Quad (CEQ) will provide an apartment-style living option for students as well as space for members of the college and town communities to gather for dialogue, exchange, and collaborative brainstorming on community engagement work, which has a long tradition at the College.
Conceived as a gateway that fuses and dissolves the barriers between the life of the town and the life of the college, the CEQ is consciously designed to foster collaboration and promote civic trust between campus and community members and presents an extraordinary new model for 21st-century education, living, and co-creating a community.
Rendering of proposed Emera project provided by Slingshot Architecture.
Emera by the Merge Urban Development Group is the first new market-rate housing development located in the Zone of Confluence. This project will attract new downtown residents, increase overall activity in the downtown area, and support further growth of local businesses.
Renovations began in July 2022 on the building near the northwest corner of Broad Street and Fifth Avenue to house the College’s Film and Media Studies Center.
The College is continuing to grow its heating, cooling, and power distribution to supply downtown building initiatives while further reducing electric and fossil fuel consumption with the ultimate long-term goal of being carbon neutral.
The Stew Makerspace is a collaboration between the Grinnell Area Arts Council and Grinnell College’s Wilson Center for Innovation & Leadership. First initiated as a pilot project in 2016–17, the Stew now houses creative maker spaces for the whole community including ceramics, woodworking, 3D printing, metalworking, and much more.
The Grinnell College Pioneer Bookshop supports education and promotes Grinnell College and the community. This location in historic downtown Grinnell, near many restaurants, shops, and other local businesses, opened in September of 2016.
A site-specific installation commissioned by Grinnell College, Grinnell Crossroads welcomes people to the community by honoring the past and providing a space of respite in the present. Designed by MacArthur “Genius” award winner Walter Hood, the work is inspired by the foundations and walls of two homes and a carriage house that originally stood on this site. The diagonal lattice walls evoke local wooden covered bridges and fences. Visitors circulate on paths that echo walkways at Grinnell College. Grinnell Crossroads celebrates the crossing and intersecting lives and histories that compose Grinnell.
Together with a group of other local investors, Grinnell College is co-owner of the Strand 3 Theatre via the Strand Theatre LLC. In 2003, the formerly 1-screen theatre was saved from closure though a major renovation and expansion project. A public fundraising campaign further enabled the restoration of the historic façade of this downtown jewel. The theatre is operated by Fridley Theatres, a Des Moines-based theatre company founded by Grinnell College alumnus Robert L. Fridley ’50. In addition to its regular movie schedule, the Strand hosts special events and special screenings such as New Student Orientation and Grinnell College Cultural Films.
Grinnell College acquired this property in 2016 as part of the effort to bring vitality to downtown and help support local commerce. Upgrades were made to the facility to ensure it would support a tenant that would enhance the downtown area and the community as a whole. In 2021 a local company, Mahaska Communication Group (MCG) opened a Grinnell branch at this location creating a new fiber-optic internet option in Grinnell. This addition was an important piece in addressing rural broadband connectivity — a critical issue brought into stark relief during the pandemic.
In September of 2016 the College purchased the four-story office building at 821 Fifth Ave. This building houses Grinnell College’s Office of Communications and Marketing on the third floor. The first and second floors house offices for senior and emeriti faculty members and the fourth floor is rented out to non-college tenants as office space
The City of Grinnell, Iowa worked with RDG Planning and Design to improve the facades of 13 different storefronts. Proposed work was reviewed by the State Historic Preservation Office and funding was received in grants through the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program as well as the College and property owners. The first phase of the project was completed in February 2017 and has inspired subsequent stages of downtown facade improvement by the city of Grinnell.
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