A new patio will greet students across the first-floor entrance of Hale Library this fall, providing a fresh outdoor study space surrounded by gardens and many of the area’s existing trees.
The project is phase one of a master plan to redesign Coffman Commons, with construction set to begin shortly after the school year concludes and finish in late August or early September. Katie Chandler, graduate student in architecture, designed the patio with a design team from Manhattan engineering firm Schwab Eaton. She said the two main priorities when designing the patio were to create a place where students can spend time outside and ensure accessibility.
“The main thing is providing a variety of opportunities for studying outside or just spending time outside,” Chandler said. “Right now, we have some opportunities for counter height seating in some areas, as well as the more typical tables and chairs. One thing that we wanted to prioritize was making sure that there was accessibility involved so that all students on campus are able to engage with this space.”
Chandler had the opportunity to design the new patio after the Student Governing Association issued a request for proposal in fall 2024.
“President Linton had recently announced the next gen strategic plan … and part of that was he wanted students to have a say in what the campus would look like,” Brady Kappelmann, senior in marketing and sales and 78th student body president, said. “One of the things is he set aside $250,000 that he wanted student government to administer and basically have some sort of request for proposal for an outdoor space.”
SGA and faculty members reviewed close to 40 submissions, and after the top three presented their final designs, they selected Chandler’s.
However, Chandler’s winning design wasn’t originally for Coffman Commons; it was for the Quad. Leslie Wren, project manager for the Coffman Commons master plan, said the location change came after K-State Facilities’ landscape services suggested which areas on campus needed a redesign the most.
“Landscaping services came in and brought it to our attention that [the] proposal is beautiful, really great, and there are other spaces on campus that could use a little bit of love [and] have a lot of potential that is not being used,” Wren said. “She [Chandler] and the design team went and assessed them for how much they might check all those boxes of possibilities, and recommended Coffman Commons.”
Due to its central location on campus, Coffman Commons sees high traffic every day as current students enter and exit Hale Library and prospective students pass through on campus tours. The area’s high traffic was a main reason why Chandler and the design team chose Coffman Commons, Wren said.
“This space is going to be fantastic,” she said. “One, because it is right in the campus core. It’s right in the historic central part of campus, that a lot of students classically recognize this as K-State. It’s right outside Hale Library, and so it sees a lot of traffic, and … right inside the sunflower entrance is where you’ve got that Cornerstone Café. So there’s already a lot of traffic in and out, and to be able to provide students a place to take that coffee or pastry or whatever they’ve gotten outside, get some sunshine and vitamin D and fresh air. I think that’s fantastic.”
Once Chandler selected the location, she conducted an on-campus engagement opportunity to find out what students wanted implemented in a new outdoor space.
“We were on site, and we were polling students and talking to them to see what they actually wanted to see in that space, whether that they wanted to see more group study spaces or individual study spaces, more relaxed or more active,” Chandler said. “And so that was really cool because we learned that all of those kinds of spaces are wanted by students, but our primary focus with the phase one of Coffman Commons is small group study and then potentially a little bit of individual study based on the feedback that we got on campus.”
Along with seating areas, the new patio will feature a planter surrounded by a circular seat wall, which Chandler said she hopes can one day display sculptures created by students.
Five additional phases are included in the conceptual master plan, which the university will implement as funding allows. Proposed concepts for the other phases include more study spaces as well as areas designed for relaxation. There is also a proposed plan to install terraces in the lawn in front of Hale Library, creating an amphitheater-style space to better accommodate events and potentially bring back the Movies on the Grass film series Coffman Commons used to feature.
Though there is no set timeline for the remaining phases, Chandler said she plans to return to campus to attend the phase one ribbon-cutting.
“I’ve been lucky and had an amazing opportunity to be able to leave my mark on campus and really feel like I’ve made an impact.”
