Bollinger commissions master plan

The University has hired a prestigious architecture firm to create a "master plan" vision that will guide construction for the next 100 years.

The Philadelphia firm of Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, will work to create a common vision for the campus.

"Every university, city and civic entity from time to time needs to take a look at its buildings and growth," said Anne Knott, assistant development director. "(Each institution) needs to take a look at how it occupies space. They need to take a look at its students and anticipate the growth, so we are getting someone with a fresh eye to look."

Currently, the University has little physical unity and is spread out among several campuses, each existing independently.

"What exists for Michigan are plans for North Campus, Central Campus and the athletic area," Knott said. "One thing (University President) Lee Bollinger is worried about is the cohesion of the campus. We need to look at all of these together. We need some sort of cohesion and concentration."

Bollinger said the "unprecedented" construction that occurred on campus during the past 10 years has created great expansion, which leads to a sense of "centrifugal sprawl."

"We need to conceive of our campus as a whole and consider its place in the larger Ann Arbor community," Bollinger said in a letter released yesterday. "We need to look at things for the future - for a hundred years from now - to consider what our University campus might be like, what its character should be."

Ann Trowbridge, a senior associate at Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, said the master plan will serve as a building framework for the campus that will then be linked to the academic planning of the University.

"The intent is to provide a unified vision of all of the campus in a master plan form," Trowbridge said. "The initial buildings and landscaping designs become very critical in the success of the plan. The initial increments tend to be the sort of living example for the future. They set a direction and embody an identity of an institution."

Engineering sophomore Jay McMunn, who lives in Bursley residence hall on North Campus, said there is a great division between the campuses and he would welcome a plan to bring them together.

"I think uniting (the campus) would make it so people wouldn't mind living on North Campus," McMunn said. "It would obviously make people feel more similar to those on central campus."

Regent Olivia Maynard (D-Goodrich) said the master plan is an appropriate initiative at this time.

"The idea of how you bring campuses together, create unity, is certainly worth looking at," Maynard said. "Now that we're through some of the major building ... we need to see how the pieces work together."

Prof. Robert Beckley, dean emeritus of the College of Architecture and Urban Planning, is heading a University committee that will work with the architecture firm.

Beckely said the master plan also will focus on the symbiotic relationship between the campus and the city of Ann Arbor.

"The big question right now is how the University and the city of Ann Arbor will continue to maintain the identity of a university in a small town," Beckley said.

Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, founded by Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, has been in practice for 33 years. The internationally renowned firm is currently constructing a student center at Princeton University, laboratory buildings at the University of Pennsylvania and a campus plan and library at Dartmouth College. Bollinger first became familiar with the firm when he served as Dartmouth's provost.

The firm has been honored with more than 120 awards, including the American Institute of Architects highest corporate honor in 1985 and the National Medal of Arts.

Though there are not yet any specific proposals for what the master plan will entail, Trowbridge said projects of this size usually take between a year and a year and a half to complete.

"We're very enthusiastic about this project and are looking forward to get going," Trowbridge said.

- Daily Staff Reporter Janet Adamy contributed to this report.

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