Campus Master Plan becomes official

The University will begin carrying out the long-term framework following approval by Board of Trustees

The Campus Master Plan has been in the works for 15 months.
Image supplied by: Graphic by Jonah Eisen
The Campus Master Plan has been in the works for 15 months.

The new Campus Master Plan has been approved after almost a year and a half of consultation and development.

The Board of Trustees approved the plan at a meeting on March 7.

The plan, which sets out a framework for the physical landscape of the University, was developed by the Campus Master Plan Advisory Committee (CMPAC) in partnership with Urban Strategies Inc., the University’s primary planning consultant, beginning in December 2012. It replaces the previous plan created in 2002.

Laeeque Daneshmend, deputy provost and chair of the CMPAC, said that the new plan responds to the ways the University has changed in the last 12 years.

“The University as a whole has changed in the past decade and a half, and so this reflects both changes in the institution and changes in terms of design practices and thinking,” he said.

The plan includes recommendations on issues such as redevelopment, transit between campuses and landscaping. The plan takes a closer look at West Campus at as there are more substantial opportunities for development there.

“The Campus Master Plan doesn’t have recommendations for specific building projects. Rather, it’s providing us guidelines and frameworks within which we can evaluate new projects that are brought forward,” Daneshmend said.

“Its value for us as an institution is going to be that we will now have a well-defined, well-documented framework within which to evaluate new project proposals.”

The CMPAC reports to the Queen’s University Planning Committee (QUPC), a joint Board of Trustees-Senate committee. The Board of Trustees must approve projects before they can proceed.

Daneshmend stressed the effort that the CMPAC had put into contacting everyone with a stake in the plan.

“We put in a lot of effort … to really engage with all of the stakeholders, and that’s all the varied segments of the on-campus community as well as the off-campus community,” he said.

“Yet even towards the latter stages of the process, we were still finding people both on and off campus … who had a perception that they hadn’t been consulted.”

He said that it was difficult to maximize outreach, but was ultimately satisfied that CMPAC had done a good job.

He added that the CMPAC had seen “very active participation from student representatives” in developing the plan, including AMS President Eril Berkok, who sat on the committee.

“There’s student representation both at the Campus Planning Advisory Committee and at QUPC,” Daneshmend said.

Representatives from Physical Plant Services, Campus Planning and Communications participated in the process of developing the plan.

The City also took part in the development of the plan.

“In certain aspects of the Campus Master Plan, the City was consulted very heavily, for example, on the transportation links between main and West Campuses,” Daneshmend said.

He said that both the Engineering Department of the City and Planning & Development were involved.

Ultimately, Daneshmend said he sees the Campus Master Plan as important to the future of the University.

“The Campus Master Plan is going to become an integral part of the overall decision-making process of the University around capital projects,” he said.

Tags

Administration, Campus, plan

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