As far back as April 8, 2021, the Board of Trustees and Administration Office of Lake Land College (LLC) had begun working on new landscaping efforts to beautify the campus. Various options were being considered at the time, before finally settling on developing the plans in cooperation with an architect from St. Louis. The new Master Plan was then announced and presented on Sept. 21 to various groups such as staff, the Navigator News, Student Government Association and more.

Vice President for Business Services, Greg Nuxoll, mentioned that “the number one main focus overall is to improve the look [of the campus] as you’re driving by. There’s going to be a lot to the plan, but that is one of the number one objectives.”

One of the biggest changes currently being planned includes moving and repaving Entrance 1 from Route 45 into a complete straightaway. The current configuration curves sharply into a dangerous three-way stop intersection where a constant high-traffic road meets directly at two points out of Lot A and the road from Lot B.

That road will curve gently as it does currently, but instead of curving at odd angles into and around Lot F and back out via Entrance 2, it will instead complete a full U-turn to create a new entrance, aptly titled Entrance 3. That way, a safe flow of constantly moving traffic can be established that keeps students, staff, and visitors much safer as they enter campus. The current configuration of Entrance 2 will then be revised to be more ceremonial, with added visual details to make it look much nicer and more open, perhaps for graduation photos in the future. 

Additionally, the sunken plazas, lakes, and more will be redone and improved to be more accessible, especially for the disabled, as there currently only exists mostly stairs into those areas. Walkways will be added with benches as well to improve the travel of everyone overall on campus.

Completion of the new landscaping project is estimated to take upwards of ten years. At its fastest, work could begin as early as late next year, if events move along as planned. This would mean that current students may or may not be able to observe the new work being done to campus infrastructure, although it definitely sounds exciting to revisit perhaps a decade or two down the road!