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A College Builds a Town From Scratch
During the last 10 years, average SAT scores have risen 82 points, says Evanovich. The percentage of students from out of state has doubled from 15 percent to 30 percent, demonstrating the school's emerging national appeal.
Renderings of the town project depict bustling shops and restaurants, with apartments above them. Construction on the first building of what will grow into a $175 million, 50-acre project (including 35 protected acres) could begin this summer.
  The University of Connecticut is seen through a barbed wire fence in Storrs, Conn., Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2006. The university, hoping to attract more top students who have been turning down UConn because of its isolation, wants to build a college town - with shops, restaurants, and apartments - almost from scratch. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill) (Jessica Hill - AP) 
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Most of the financing will be private. The developer, LeylandAlliance, specializes in dense but pedestrian-friendly and environmentally sensitive communities in a style called "new urbanism." The new "Storrs Center" will stand across the street from a proposed fine arts building to be designed by Frank Gehry.
The challenge is imbuing the place with the kind of charm that other college towns have acquired over decades and even centuries, without making it feel artificial or forced.
"We don't have that 300 years to create a place that has that organic quality," said Macon Toledano, who is overseeing the project for LeylandAlliance. But, he said, the careful study that has gone into what the community wants and how the buildings will be used will eventually produce a place with most of the virtues of more seasoned college towns.
The local community also has a lot riding on the partnership, which both sides say has gone some way to repair strained relations between the university and Mansfield. The mayor, Elizabeth Paterson (who also works at UConn), says people here have been talking at least since the 1960s about the need for some kind of town center in Storrs.
"We need a place where friends and neighbors can come together with other friends and neighbors while they're getting a cup of coffee or going to the post office," she said. Mansfield also needs to expand its tax base and derive more revenue from the thousands who visit campus.
"Why do they have to go out of town to get a nice meal?" she said.
The same thought has occurred to Nathaniel Slade, a junior from Bolton, Mass., though he hadn't been aware of the plans.
"I kind of like the idea of going to a college a little out in the country because I don't like to deal with the city," he said. "But sometimes something else would be nice too."
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On the Net:
University of Connecticut: http:/
Mansfield town plan: http:/
