The ABW/Tipton design team’s involvement began in 2001 with Louisiana Tech University to master plan the campus with an emphasis on corridor connectivity to include future student housing and City revitalization efforts. As the relationship developed and a partnership between University and City was unified, the team was asked in 2007 to develop a plan for “Tech Village” a mixed-use neighborhood that would be developed in place of a largely abandoned former industrial zone on the campus edge. The effort expanded under the direction of Hunt Guillot Associates in collaboration with renowned planning firm Sasaki Associates to develop the physical plan for a new research park based upon the University’s prominence in the fields of biotechnology and to plan for a research and innovation based campus expansion.

Completed in 2008, the plan generated an urban design strategy to restore the street grid of the city, providing organization for development that effectively connects it to surrounding residential and mixed-use neighborhoods. The design stimulates pedestrian use, locates small-scale parks, and identifies locations for infill private development. Now recognized by the University as the “Enterprise Campus”, the first two buildings, a research building and the new School of Business, are set to both be open by 2012.