Facilities Management initiates annual update to campus master plan

It’s happened to many of us: while walking around campus or catching a ride on Cambus, you notice something different about the University of Iowa campus. Orange construction fences line an area’s perimeter. Scaffolding abuts a building. An excavator creates a mountain of dirt.

And that’s when you ask, “I wonder what that’s all about?” (Or something along those lines.)

In an effort to keep the UI community informed about campus growth and development, Facilities Management has initiated an annual update to the University’s campus master plan, putting forth what progress has been made since the last master plan submission in 2006, and detailing what issues are fast approaching.

“We promised ourselves not to do what happens at other institutions and what has happened here in the past: end up with a master plan that becomes a dusty volume sitting on a shelf,” says Rod Lehnertz, director of campus and facilities planning. “We wanted to commit to it as a living document, and we came up with the idea to do an annual snapshot.”

	Work has begun on the Campus Recreation and Wellness Center, which will open at the intersection of Burlington and Madison streets. The facility, which will open in spring 2010, will have no shortage of amenities for UI students, faculty, and staff seeking a place to exercise or a place to convene. Rendering by RDG Planning & Design.

The updates are presented through a brochure categorized by geographical location: east campus, arts campus, health sciences/UIHC campus, Oakdale campus, and so on. Each section details recent and ongoing projects, along with future planning projects. The brochure includes a foldout map that outlines each section of campus covered in the update.

“This allows people to get a glimpse of what is in the works and to understand the principles behind these actions without plunging too deep into a much thicker document,” says Lehnertz, adding that future updates will be released early in the fall semester as a sort of “welcome message” from Facilities Management.

The update preserves the plan’s vitality throughout the campus master plan cycle. Every four years, Facilities Management must formally submit a campus master plan to the Board of Regents, State of Iowa, outlining how the University plans to adapt to the increasing demands of academic and research activity while keeping intact the University’s identity.

There’s no shortage of content for the initial update document. Within the last two years, restoration of the Old Capitol was completed, the Iowa Memorial Union was renovated, a new river terrace was built along the Iowa River, the architectural wonder of Art Building West was dedicated, and Kinnick Stadium renovation reached completion.

In addition, work has started on a 216,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art recreational facility at the corner of Burlington and Madison streets. The Campus Recreation Wellness Center (CRWC) will have 20,000 square feet of cardiovascular and free weight space, a 56-foot climbing wall, three multipurpose gyms, an indoor jogging track, three rooms for aerobics, dance, and spinning classes, and an indoor Olympic-size swimming pool among its amenities.

Harry Ostrander, director of UI Recreational Services, says the new facility, slated to open in spring 2010, will offer programming that will serve as an alternative to the bar scene for students seeking late-night entertainment, and will have ample space for students who are looking for a place to hang out.

“The CRWC has been designed with a café and plenty of lounge space throughout the building in order to encourage students to spend some of their study and relaxation time in the facility,” Ostrander says. “The facility will also have portable computer stations at various locations where students could check their e-mail or go online.”

Consideration of land use along the Iowa River remains a priority for campus planners. The update notes that modifications to the UI Museum of Art will include elimination of the brick plaza and a new riverside entrance to improve campus connections to the river.

“The plaza never worked out as a gathering place, and it served as a visual roadblock to the Iowa River,” Lehnertz says. “We are doing work to take out the plaza, landscape anew, and lead people to the river.”

Facilities Management also is monitoring the pedestrian bridges that cross the Iowa River. “Footbridges near the Iowa Memorial Union and Hancher Auditorium are showing signs of aging,” Lehnertz says. “We monitor them for safety—and they are safe—but we’re also considering them from a visual standpoint. We’d like these areas to become potential gathering spaces as well.”

The University has been doing master plans for campus since 1905. Ahead of the 2006 release of the new plan, the University departed from its former plan—“in effect, we started over,” Lehnertz says. Sasaki Associates Inc., an international planning and design firm, was employed to help develop the plan, and the resulting process was very participative.

“We interviewed 125 leaders around campus and the communities: deans, administrative heads, student leadership, faculty, staff, and students,” Lehnertz says. “Our aim was to create a program-based master plan, as opposed to a strictly land-use plan as used before. We found out where our colleges where heading from a programming standpoint, and combined this information with land-use planning to consider where growth would best suit campus needs.”

To see the campus master plan update, contact Facilities Management at 335-1205 or visit http://masterplan.facilities.uiowa.edu/Docs/CMPbrochure07.pdf. For a more comprehensive look at the campus master plan, visit http://masterplan.facilities.uiowa.edu.

by Christopher Clair