Planning Calendar
The Building UB team is leading a careful and inclusive planning process designed to produce an exemplary plan that will meet the needs of students, faculty, and staff and enjoy the support of alumni and the community at-large.
The planning process is designed to bring together the expertise of a high quality consultant team with the deep local knowledge of all the members of the UB community. The planners continue to reach out to a wide range of constituencies – on campus and off – to make sure the end result reflects the values, needs, and mission of the greater UB community.
The work is proceeding in five major steps: (0) a period of planning to plan; (1) definition of the vision, guiding principles, and strategic considerations; (2) a review of emerging concepts for campus development; (3) presentation of a draft master plan; and (4) commencement of a concerted implementation campaign.
Planning to Plan
Fall 2006 – Summer 2007
The pre-planning phase began with President John Simpson’s community address in October 2007 and continued with broad consultation with campus and community constituencies; liaison with local government partners; research on campus precedents from around the nation; information gathering on existing conditions on three campuses; and the selection and contracting of a consulting team led by Beyer Blinder Belle of New York City.
Phase I: Vision, Strategic Considerations, Guiding Principles
Fall 2007
UB staff and the consultants kicked off work on the plan in August 2007. After a period of reconnaissance and information gathering, the Building UB team developed a detailed statement of challenges and opportunities in five thematic areas: urban design, transportation and way-finding, landscape and environment, condition of the learning landscape, and historic resources of the three campuses as the basis for further work.
The team’s facilities condition sub-consultant, VFA, also began a detailed audit of the physical condition of every building owned or leased by UB. Phase I work culminated in a public review of “vision, principles, and strategic considerations” in a day-long public event at the new UB Downtown Gateway facility.
Phase II: Campus Concepts
Spring 2008
Working from their description of what is, the consultants developed an array of ideas about what might be in the future of UB. These “campus concepts” included a broad range of ideas for mitigating weather conditions, promoting alternative modes of transportation, creating new spaces for learning, developing complementary facilities to support university programs, and improving the design of UB campuses (for example, by connecting the Ellicott to the Spine and the Spine to Lake LaSalle).
These concepts were arrayed against a set of alternative scenarios for university growth – one in which academic units would grow in their current locations, and two others in which health sciences schools would migrate to a new downtown campus with some professional schools would relocate to South Campus.
The Center for The Arts was the venue for another open public forum in April 2008 when staff, students, faculty, “place-making” professionals, and members of the general public assembled to review and critique the campus concepts.
Phase III: Draft Plan
Fall 2008
The current phase of work focuses on translating concepts and ideas into a specific plan for the long range development of UB campuses. It will still be a draft and still open to change. But it will also be a specific set of proposals based on an agreed-upon location of academic and support programs to specific campuses. It may include some alternatives that remain to be tested, but it will mainly include specific proposals for facilities to be located in specific places.
The draft plan will be delivered as a package of recommendations and presented to campus constituencies and the public at-large for a detailed review and critique at a major public event to be held on South Campus on November 19, 2008. The plan will address each of UB’s campus centers – North, South, and Downtown – and propose measures to deal with transportation connections among the campuses and between surrounding communities and UB locations.
November 19, 2008
Forum #3: Draft Plan | Sign up for a reminder using the box on the right
Phase IV: Final Plan and Implementation Launch
Spring 2009
The final Comprehensive Physical Plan will be produced as a document incorporating the fully-elaborated vision for the future of UB’s three campuses. It will encompass a full array of policies, projects and program to realize the vision as well as the enumeration of action items, responsible parties, implementation steps, phasing schedules, and funding mechanisms necessary to get the job done.
This final plan, however, will not merely be laid upon the table. It will be the subject of a concerted university-wide campaign to prioritize projects, focus resources, and monitor progress on implementation until the plan is fully realized. A fourth major public event is scheduled for April 22, 2009 at a location to be determined not only to present the plan but to formally inaugurate the implementation campaign.