Great campuses are, without exception, developed around a set of principles for what the campus should be like.  One of the difficulties of developing a visually cohesive campus is that it is hard to resist the temptation to incorporate a new solution to an old problem. All designers have favorite answers to common design situations, and few of those answers are the same from designer to designer. The ultimate purpose of these guidelines is to provide a unified set of solutions to those common problems so that every designer can produce coordinated designs for the campus.

The climate, environment, and weather of Galveston offer unusual challenges to buildings, and these guidelines addressed those situations through material choices, building orientation, and landscape and hardscape design.