The University of Utah for the Campus Master Plan, with Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP; also Hargreaves Associates; Fehr & Peers; Van Boerum & Frank Associates, Inc.; Ken Garner Engineering; Psomas; Ira Fink & Associates; Parametrix; Reaveley Engineering & Associates; Norm Kondy

rendering by Norm Kundy

   
renderings by Norm Kundy

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The goal of the 25-year campus master plan for The University of Utah was to transform the 1500‐acre, 30,000 student institution into an integrated, walkable, sustainable, energized and energizing campus aimed at helping the university become a world‐class institution with a variety of disciplines and the “magnetic” pull to attract outstanding students and faculty.

The project’s physical challenge centered on a widely disbursed campus with a reliance on automobiles, and an outward focus toward parking lots that were visitors’ first and last campus experience.

The 2008 Master Plan was President Michael K. Young’s vision based on qualities of “engagement, preparation, and partnership.”

Planners helped the university agree on underlying principles and create a powerful action program that drew strength from relationships between campus buildings, infrastructure, transportation, housing, ecology and spatial requirements.

The plan relies on four basic implementation strategies: smart sequencing, enabling projects, creative project grouping, and infill development. Combined, these strategies have been critical to implementing immediate and long‐term project goals.

“The plan provides a comprehensive and thoughtful framework for current and future development that embodies excellence in strategic educational, service and programmatic initiatives,” says Associate Vice President Michael G. Perez.

Infill building blocks to reshape a vital, compact campus “heart” are critical to transform the institution into an intensified, exciting, ‘round‐the‐clock learning center. Similarly transformative is the reactivation of four TRAX Light Rail stations. In 2008, the plan was recognized by the Utah Governor’s Office and State Legislature as a model of exceptional campus planning.

The jury said, “ . . . very smart practical land use strategy . . . created an open space resource for everyone . . . institutionalized sustainability . . . put their money where their mouth is . . .”

Project Team: The University of Utah with Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP; also Hargreaves Associates; Fehr & Peers; Van Boerum & Frank Associates, Inc.; Ken Garner Engineering; Psomas; Ira Fink & Associates; Parametrix; Reaveley Engineering & Associates; Norm Kondy