Master Plans

College and University directives targeting student life, engagement, knowledge transfer, discovery, and resource utilization are transforming capital project priorities and initiatives, space plans, and campus planning decisions on all types of buildings and space.  We’d like your opinion on the specific facility and campus initiatives that your institution (or your clients) will be investing in. We'll compile the survey results and return them to you so you can compare your priorities with the top issues that others are focusing on.

University professionals click here to begin the survey. 

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Colleges and universities across the US are struggling to provide necessary STEM-focused learning and research environments in facilities that were constructed decades before an acronym was created to unify the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines. Institutions are addressing this concern by creating comprehensive, vision-driven plans to identify the facility renovation, construction, and repurposing required to meet their objectives.

Ford Motor Company will begin construction in May of 2016 on a comprehensive redevelopment of its real estate portfolio in Dearborn, Mich. The project will include construction of a 700,000-sf design facility as well as the expansion and renovation of Ford's existing headquarters campus. Designed by SmithGroupJJR to promote collaboration and interaction, the updated buildings will feature open workspaces with unassigned seating.

Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital will begin construction in summer of 2016 on a 100,000-sf project in New Brunswick. Two new facilities totaling 50,000 sf will be constructed and 50,000 sf in the existing hospital will undergo renovation. The expansion will allow more space for emergency and intensive care as well as accommodating preoperative services. Completion is expected by summer of 2018. The project is part of a master facilities plan to strategically increase capacity on the academic medical center campus.

A new master space plan for the University of Texas at Austin’s College of Natural Sciences leverages program adjacencies and shared infrastructure to improve collaborative interdisciplinary research while maximizing space use. This “soft growth” renovation approach allows the college to increase capacity and improve efficiency without demolishing or adding new buildings.

While a traditional space planning document is often outdated as soon as it’s finished, Stanford University’s School of Medicine created its strategic facilities plan as a living document that in minutes can show the impact of even the slightest change in space usage, and can be constantly updated and changed. The medical school spent a year compiling faculty and space needs data into an Excel spreadsheet, and has found the effort well worth the payoffs.

The organizational structure of a master planning effort can be just as critical as the recommendations the plan ultimately presents. That was a driving principle behind the master plan formulated by the University of Chicago Medical Center in the fall of 2012, as it prepared for a major consolidation and strategic growth in 6 million sf of buildings, including the new 1.2 million-sf Center for Care & Discovery (CCD) clinical facility.

Boston Medical Center (BMC) is responding to the changing healthcare climate with a new facilities master plan that will redesign clinical campus space and shrink total square footage in a way that reduces capital and operating expenses while improving efficiency. The plan includes a $300 million construction and renovation project that will consolidate the hospital’s two existing campuses while maintaining the same level of services. It also provides flexibility to add 1.2 million sf of space in the future, as needs arise.

Just one year after Wellesley College trustees approved a long-term campus renewal plan, the college had three projects in construction and six in design. In all, some $137 million worth of work, roughly 25 percent of the total plan, is currently underway, thanks to Wellesley’s bold approach: At once sweeping and granular, the process departed from traditional master planning by employing multiple architecture firms and incorporating up front many activities typically not seen months or even years into the design workstream.

The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) has crafted a decision-making framework based on objective standards to identify and pursue the highest priorities in a massive building boom that has roughly 95 projects valued from $10,000 to $450 million currently under construction. While a large part of that activity stems from the university’s long-range master plan, a significant portion was necessitated by the devastation of Hurricane Ike, which took 1.2 million sf of the medical school’s Galveston campus out of service in 2008. 

Though it sounds counter-intuitive, trying to customize flexibility in research spaces may actually inhibit the intended outcome in the long term, according to Niraj Dangoria, associate dean of facilities planning and management at Stanford School of Medicine, and David Bendet, associate principal at Perkins+Will Architects. Designers should focus instead on the people and modularity, even when future research needs are uncertain and can change rapidly.

NASA Glenn Research Center opened the $20.5 million Mission Integration Center in Cleveland in July of 2014. The three-story, 90,000-sf facility provides collaborative research and office space to accommodate 300 employees. The project has attained LEED Gold sustainable design certification and will use 30 percent less energy and 40 percent less water than a conventional building. Construction began on the facility in September of 2010.