Riverside Campus Plan - Office of Facilities Coordination - Texas ...

TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY RIVERSIDE CAMPUS PLAN18FIGURE 1The 1943 Fire Station onFlight Line Road, now theConservation Research Laboratory(7063) used by NauticalArchaeology department.FIGURE 2Student working in the DigitalFabrication Facility on the“Architecture Ranch” at RiversideCampus.1however most other users rely on parking on theedge of the grass bar ditches, or along the edge ofFlight Line Road. Paved areas alongside hangarand maintenance structures also provide informaloff-street parking.Recent grass-fires in the area have drawn attentionto the fact that the sole access to RiversideCampus is from Highway 47, and as this isflanked by pasture land on the north, and a scrubarea identified by the Corps of Engineers as a‘safe’ land fill, the issue of safe egress in the caseof fire is one of concern.FACILITY EVALUATIONA recent Facility Evaluation Assessment undertakenby Texas A&M University in 2009 expresslyexcluded consideration of the RiversideCampus. Evaluations were undertaken by themilitary authorities in 1957 and a great manybuildings were identified as poor quality with alimited useful life at that time.An architectural windshield survey was conductedin July 2011 by the RCP team to establish thearchitectural qualities and the current physicalconditions of the buildings.The majority of the 1943 historic buildings havealready gone. The remaining structures blendwith the later structures at Riverside. The utilitariannature of the historic structures allowsthem to be used for a variety of contemporarypurposes. For example, the Nautical Archaeologydepartment uses the 1952 fire station (7063)as a Conservation Research Laboratory. The spatialqualities of the structure allow the researchersto conduct conservation and research of partsof salvaged vessels and use the adjacent land forstorage and desalination of waterlogged items.The department has also built contemporarystructures around the Fire Station building forfurther research and storage. The historic buildingsthat are not occupied are rapidly deteriorating.One of the remaining 1943 hangars (7072)was demolished in July 2011 due to the dilapidatedcondition of the building. There are severalcontemporary architectural examples such as the2006 ‘Architectural Ranch’ (7007), a facility forfull-scale construction and digital fabrication,which shows how a new structure can embracethe cultural heritage values of the Riverside campuswhile meeting contemporary research needs.The design of the building reflects the sensibilitiesof the industrial architecture of WWII, mimickingthe earlier wooden structures by its metalframe and exterior siding. In addition, the buildingmaintains a similar mass and height to earlierbuildings.2