The Master Plan initiated by University President Lee Bollinger is an attempt to make the physical campus of the University more cohesive as the University continues to grow during the next 100 years.
The firm of Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates has been hired by the University to carry out the Master Plan project.
During the past year, the firm has been developing the plan by studying areas such as student residential life, the Huron River and the city of Ann Arbor.
"Our scope in time has been from 1817 to 1998 ... from a very mythical founding ... to this great swath of development," said Denise Scott Brown at a presentation of the Phase I report this past spring.
"You can tell much about a University in the way its faculty and administration react to a plan," Brown said.
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| The firm of Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates presented Phase I of the Master Plan this past spring to the University community. Included were maps such as student housing and first class relationships. |
Included in the report are comparison maps of student residences and the location of their first class of the day and also topographical maps of the Huron River Watershed.
There are also suggestions for an express bus route for Engineering students.
"No busy engineer should have to go more than four stops" to get to class, Brown said.
Brown said the report is meant to be a variety of options, rather than concrete plans.
"In actual fact the format that we've used is to go over a broad a scope as we can," Brown said. "We're not at a point yet where we must choose between these options."
Brown also discussed the growth of the University to the north and the division of land to the east of Central Campus.
"There has been a debate over the years about should the campus grow into Ann Arbor," Brown said. "Very quickly people said, we don't have an east campus."
Other discussions have included mixing the medical center into the Engineering and life sciences areas on campus, closing streets to create community in the University and complaints about crossing Washtenaw Avenue.
"We can discuss the fact that the center of gravity may be shifting on Central Campus," Brown said.
The Philadelphia firm has now moved into Phase II of the Master Plan which will involve the examination of how space can be allotted to interdisciplinary initiatives to enhance teaching abilities.
"The challenge is to emerge ultimately with a framework and a set of principles that will not help also guide future decision-making about the physical character of the University and it's relation to out intellectual and artistic pursuits," Bollinger said in a written statement.
University community members who have comments on the Phase I report can send them to CAMPUS PLAN, Office of the President, 2074 Fleming Building, Ann Arbor 48109-1340 or comments can be e-mailed to CAMPUSPLAN@umich.edu.
09-08-98
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