MOUNT VERNON — A new pedestrian mall will span the historic Cornell College campus, providing additional gathering spaces and landscaping to enhance the heavily traveled path. Construction is scheduled to begin in May 2002 and completion planned for August 2002.
Marie Carter of Bettendorf is contributing $1.5 million toward the project, which will be named in her honor. The Marie Fletcher Carter Mall will connect the buildings from West Science Center and South Hall on the east side of campus to Armstrong Hall on the west.
“This will become the showcase of our campus and the perfect tribute to the Fletcher and Carter families,” said Cornell President Les Garner.
Activity spaces will be developed at key places along the walkway as it winds through campus: between Cole Library and Old Sem, in front of Allee Chapel and near The Commons. The new pedestrian mall is being designed by Herbert Lewis Kruse Blunck Architecture of Des Moines, which received the American Institute of Architects 2001 Architecture Firm Award.
Carter’s husband, Archie Carter, a civil engineer, died in 1994. He was a 1933 graduate of Cornell, longtime member of the Cornell Board of Trustees and consistent contributor to campus improvement projects big and small. It was not unusual for him to notice a cracked sidewalk or a bare space that needed a tree, and then to offer to pay for it. The Carters contributed to renovations in Bowman-Carter Residence Hall with a $500,000 gift in 1989 plus an additional $1 million from 1994-97.
“Archie was dedicated to Cornell. He would be proud that our family can continue to help beautify the campus,” Marie Carter said.
Cornell’s wooded hilltop campus has the distinction of being the only U.S. campus listed in its entirety on the National Register of Historic Places.