Esplanade Named for Kent State President Lefton

The more than $10 million project that links the Kent State University campus to a newly redeveloped portion of downtown Kent will be named after the university's 11th president.

University officials announced that the Esplanade linking campus to downtown will be named after Kent State President Lester Lefton, who is credited as a key figure in helping to remake the city and campus.

Lefton will retire in July 2014.

Jane Murphy Timken, chair of the Kent State Board of Trustees, made the announcement Friday during a public event to dedicate the Esplanade on the eve of the university's homecoming festivities.

The trustee board will make the naming official by voting on a resolution to that effect at its December meeting.

The university spent more than $9 million to buy more than 40 private properties since 2007 in order to build the pathway, which links campus to the more than $100 million in redevelopment projects recently built or under construction downtown.

The city managed construction of the actual pathway, which itself cost about $3 million to build.

The future home of the College of Architecture and Environmental Design will be built on the Esplanade.

"There could not be a more fitting tribute to President Lefton than naming the Esplanade, which now physically and symbolically connects town and gown, in his honor,” Timken said. "His successful efforts to help forge a new era of cooperation between the university and the city of Kent; make Kent one of America’s best college towns; and to transform Kent State’s campuses into 21st-century learning environments—environments that cultivate student success now and for decades to come—will surely stand among his crowning contributions."