SCUP Excellence in Planning for an Established Campus,
Honor Award

University of California, Merced for the 2009 Long Range Development Plan with RACESTUDIO

Courtesy of RACESTUDIO

Rendering courtesy of Cliff Lowe Associates

Rendering courtesy of Douglas Jamieson

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The University of California, Merced’s 2009 Long Range Development Plan creates a 21st century urban framework for the University of California’s first new campus in 40 years.

The plan embraces economic, social and environmental sustainability in its built environment, operations and programming. It has interconnected visual overviews of systems for transit, bicycle, infrastructure, and vehicles. The plan has more than 200 discrete policies for mobility, sustainability, infrastructure, land use and community design.

The new plan maintains the goal of a 25,000-student research university but on a more compact, high-density footprint.

“UC Merced is committed to developing a physical presence that will model a healthier future for the region and the world . . . this approach will produce a campus whose urban planning, architecture, infrastructure, and landscape are uniquely regional in character and responses, while modeling sustainable design excellence on a global scale,” says Richard Cummings, principal planner.

The site is 5 miles from Merced near an adjacent effort to preserve 30,000 acres of vernal pool grasslands. Stormwater flows through campus open space and streets and into ponds and streams where it is detained and released downstream.

The landscape and open space plan creates outdoor rooms and interpretive signage. The plan sees the campus as a botanical teaching tool for native and low-water plants.

Implementation will occur in four phases over 40 years, based on enrollment. It establishes “block types” to illustrate potential building types outlining scale, site coverage, and block density. By using typologies, architectural design diversity is allowed while ensuring a coherent whole.

The jury said “ . . . this is an important sign that institutions are getting much more serious about the environmental side of planning . . . it shows layers of very thoughtful planning . . . they are building a sustainable community, not just a sustainable university . . .”

The campus uses 50% less energy and 40% less water than comparable developments and is the first US campus to achieve 10 LEED base points in USGBC’s Multiple-Building Program. It generates 20% of its annual power and 60% of its peak needs through an on-site photovoltaic solar farm. Every building is certified LEED and most achieve gold.

The unifying thread is leadership in sustainability through architecture, landscape, materials and practices so the campus can reach its goal of zero waste, zero net energy and zero net emissions by 2020.

Project Team: University of California, Merced with RACESTUDIO; also Plescia & Co.; Impact Sciences; Cliff Lowe Associates, Stantec Engineering; Business Place Strategies; Fehr & Peers Associates