Campus master plan addresses implementation

Thursday, April 12, 2007

The OSU Master Plan 2025 was approved in January, and more than $825 million in projects are underway in various stages of design and construction throughout the OSU System. These projects will transform campuses and enhance academics, student life, athletics and infrastructure.

While the plan contains detailed maps, sketches, three-dimensional renditions and other documentation of infrastructural and architectural concepts to guide long-range development, an essential implementation component, unprecedented in all previous OSU campus master plans, is also included.

Development of the 2025 plan began in mid-2006 and involved virtually every group on campus, as well as representatives of the Stillwater city planner’s office. According to Joe Weaver, OSU associate vice president and chief budget planning officer who led the effort, invaluable input was provided by the OSU Faculty Council and a group specially formed within its Campus Facilities, Safety and Security committee.

“They had representation from all aspects of campus facilities — parking, landscaping, design, mechanical systems, traffic and transit — so we gave them the plan and asked for their input,” Weaver said. “In the executive summary of the 2025 plan, there is an entirely new section on plan implementation, and a lot of those recommendations originated with an ad hoc committee they put together just to evaluate the plan.

“We essentially asked for constructive criticism and received something that will be extremely important for carrying the plan forward.”

The implementation component has already given rise to a Long Range Facilities Planning Group formed within Weaver’s office that will function much like a city planning commission and manage the 2025 vision and its evolution. Architectural, engineering, mechanical systems and construction management representatives on the group will provide oversight on all campus construction projects with budgets exceeding $2 million.

“Oversight by the Long Range Facilities Planning Group will include all major construction projects throughout all stages of conceptualization, design and construction,” said OSU architecture Professor Nigel Jones, who has joined the group.

“We’re at a point of change in terms of the campus scale and entering a time when the master plan becomes extremely important in helping us accommodate growth while maintaining the qualities that have made our campus beautiful. The master plan should be considered as a guide for future development, and as new projects are decided upon, the planning group will interpret the plan so that it is evolving with the campus’s needs.”

The implementation component calls for yearly reviews, frequent forums to allow campus groups to weigh in on the plan and collaboration between the facilities planning group and City of Stillwater planners on developing neighborhoods adjacent to campus. It also includes several specific recommendations for expansion and enhancement of the 2025 plan, such as a capital improvements program and appendices to address landscaping, utilities, transportation, art, architectural guidelines and way-finding.  

The implementation component emphatically states that the 2025 plan should be a living document, and with their recommendations, the Faculty Council has helped ensure that it will be, according to Weaver.

“They are adamant about sustaining this plan and ensuring that it can evolve and continue to serve as a guide over the years as contexts, leadership or anything else changes on this campus,” he said.