As the University of Virginia continues to rebound against chilling reports of behavior on campus, everyone from top administrators to students are coming together to try to make positive changes.
One of these changes is a specific safety design for areas of the UVa campus, including the academic center and the Ivy Road corridor, as well as athletic facilities. There is more information about the project at Piedmont Council for the Arts.
A January 18 report in Charlottesville Tomorrow showed how an award-winning design from a team including a graduate student, Hannah Barefoot, was on show at UVa’s fourth annual Vortex event.
Barefoot said the project was intended to create a safer environment for new generations of UVa students after the high-profile killings of Hannah Graham and Megan Harrington rocked the community and, as she puts it, led to a “sense of terror.”
“We wanted to respond to that and make sure we were constantly reevaluating,” Barefoot is quoted as saying, “so that we could create a spacial environment that can foster positive conversations and actions and memories.”
Campus Safety and Design
It’s these kinds of innovative design efforts that can really improve the collective safety of everyone using the UVA campus. Structural and landscaping changes, and changes to building complexes can really be effective in not only limiting violent crime but providing other kinds of health and safety.
For example, new designs can produce better pathway maintenance and better visibility for travelers. But they also help students to feel more comfortable and better served by those who are tasked with looking out for them.
Looking at Community Safety from All Angles
Other entries in the Vortex competition looked at alternative means of transportation for the Charlottesville area. A lot of excellent ideas came out of this event, with local leaders as well as other visionaries stepping up to try to envision what better safety looks like for Charlottesville.
At MartinWren, we applaud these kinds of efforts because we know that good planning and good safety policy makes a difference. As local Virginia injury lawyers, we are only too familiar with many of the challenges that residents face and the types of accidents that send them to healthcare facilities and medical offices.
We work with injury victims to provide them with qualified legal counsel, to help them figure out all of their options under the law, and to bring personal injury cases on our clients behalf. We use working knowledge of federal, state and local law, along with case precedent and familiarity with Central VA court systems to get injury victims the best chance at compensation that will cover the costs of their injuries, from care and recovery to pain and suffering.
Our experienced lawyers are dedicated to working for you and with you to protect your family’s finances after an injury. Call us for qualified legal counsel for a local personal injury or wrongful death case.
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