Tech Green, the largest open space on the Georgia Tech campus, is the main recreational outdoor space for the University’s 25,000 students. In addition to daily passive activities, its significant size can accommodate major campus events, rallies, festivals, and concerts.
Tech Green also contains one of the largest stormwater harvesting cisterns in the United States, holding up to 1.4 million gallons of water. By collecting condensate and stormwater from an eighteen-acre watershed, the cistern is able to provide enough greywater for the new Clough Learning Center and irrigation of the Green for a month.
The development of edge conditions and programming of adjacent academic buildings were critical to the success of the Green’s presence on campus as a central social space. Master planning for the Green involved program development and site design along the north, west, and south edges of the lawn, and is based on the concept of a theater mezzanine, loge, orchestra, and stage. Skiles Walkway, acting as mezzanine, transformed a former parking and loading area into a major circulation route from the south-east to the campus center. The site’s east and west edges, as loges, are marked by north-south walkways, seatwalls, and social spaces within the Clough Learning Center which overlook the Green’s activities. When more formal events take place, orchestra and stage spaces will be incorporated as new additions along the lawn’s north edge.