against a 500-year-plus-2-foot flood event .
“ We looked at individual buildings , campus wide utilities , electrical conduits , tunnels , sewer and storm drains , and tried to catch the weak links that could cause flood damage to a building ,” said Chris Pletcher , the Ayres Associates project engineer who developed the plan . “ We then developed a plan to address those so the university would know how to protect itself in an organized way .”
Ayres Associates has continued to help design flood protection measures that preserve the beauty of the campus .
“ We didn ’ t want to put up huge barriers to keep the river away from us ,” Wieland said . “ We want people to be engaged with the river , and we want the river to be engaged with us . We also pride ourselves on the architecture of our campus . As we looked at ways to protect these buildings , we didn ’ t want to detract from them .”
The university was founded in 1947 , and many campus buildings are listed on the state ’ s historic register . Art Building West was receiving a national architectural award during the 2008 flood , when 12 feet of water pressed against it .
Campus flood protection improvements include a flood pumping system at five sites , elevated sidewalks with seat walls ( short walls designed for seating ) along the river , and an invisible flood wall system that would be constructed during flooding around specific buildings .
For Art Building West , whose distinctive architecture overhangs a pond , flood protection included designing a pumping station in the pond . A consulting team that included Ayres Associates also designed a temporary flood wall with a pre-installed foundation . During a flood , installation of posts and planks would quickly complete the wall . Another pumping system was designed at the basement level of
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