FAIRFIELD — Architects have unveiled preliminary plans for Kennebec Valley Community College’s new 702-acre campus along U.S. Route 201.

Stephen Mohr said the intent of Mohr & Seredin, a landscape architecture firm in Portland, is to develop an academic quadrangle while preserving the historic and rural character of the land, which had been part of Good Will-Hinckley since the late 1800s.

Mohr said the quadrangle eventually could include additions to Averill-Alfond School and the Harold Alfond Recreation Center, a planned 500-to-1,000-seat performing arts center and Moody Chapel.

The campus green would be surrounded by the four core campus structures.

Mohr said Wednesday night during the presentation at King Hall that the tentative plan was a “snapshot of where we are in the larger process.”

The snapshot included building dormitories behind Harold Alfond Recreation Center and to the right of the athletic fields.

Nine peripheral parking lots that can hold 50 to 275 vehicles are also planned amid groves of trees.

Mohr said the master plan is based on four guiding principles.

The first is to foster collegiate character with a pedestrian-centered campus and quality buildings.

The second is to promote special qualities of the property, including its historic architecture, forests and streams.

The third is for designers to respect that the college is part of the larger Good Will-Hinckley campus and be sensitive to community uses. The grounds were once the site of the residential school Good Will-Hinckley until it closed in 2009. Part of the campus re-opened in September as home to the state’s second magnet school, the Maine Academy of Natural Sciences.

The fourth is to reuse existing structures when feasible and to prepare for long-term, sequential growth.

For example, Mohr said the organic farm’s structure will be kept intact and used for the college’s new agriculture program.

The campus will take shape for the next 15 to 25 years, he said.

Students may be on campus for classes during the 2013-14 academic year, perhaps sooner if a grant is secured for the agriculture program.

Mohr and Kennebec Valley Community College President Barbara Woodlee said water, sewer and technology infrastructure work is under way to prepare for the opening.

The next phase will include shoring up the Averill-Alfond School and designing a president’s house, Mohr said.

After that, the tentative plan is to add an academic wing to the Averill-Alfond School, he said.

The last phase would be construction of the performing arts center, Mohr said.

People attending the presentation suggested ideas ranging from using the adjacent Kennebec River to creating a child care program to adding a trotting park for horses.

Mohr & Seredin was selected from 15 firms that applied to create a master plan for the college. The company will be paid $98,225 to complete the plan by the end of June.

During the winter, architects toured and photographed the campus to become familiar with its layout and gathered data about the site, from soil composition to zoning regulations and from historical lore to staff needs.

In January, the Maine Community College System purchased 702 acres of Good Will-Hinckley’s 2,450-acre campus for $4.5 million for the community college.

The new site, which is about seven miles north of the Western Avenue campus, will allow Kennebec Valley Community College to expand its course offerings and its student enrollment from 2,600 to 5,000.

The purchase was made possible when the Harold Alfond Foundation donated more than $10 million to the college system.

Beth Staples — 861-9252

bstaples@centralmaine.com

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