TL;DR

The University’s next master plan will be a living, actionable roadmap that sets the development of Rochester’s campuses in alignment with its strategic vision and goals. A Strat Chat with the master plan project team offered insight into some of the plan’s biggest ideas, including a dramatic repurposing of Intercampus Drive. They also answered questions—which are summarized—on how decisions are made and informed, how they will work with the community, and how the University is thinking about the medical center.

Jump to: Grow a spine, Rochester!; Meliora Mile; Campus ‘bones’ and the value of aspiration; Stewardship and short-term decisions; Relationship with the community; Medical Rubik’s cube

In higher education, a “master plan” is a comprehensive, long-term strategy for the physical development of a university, including its infrastructure, facilities, and land use. Creating a master plan is a tactic within Boundless Possibility’s sustainable growth goal that is critical to our ability to achieve the other four.

Elizabeth Milavec, the executive vice president of administration and finance, CFO, and treasurer, explains the University intentionally waited to start work on the master plan until the strategic plan was complete. “The master plan is the physical manifestation of our strategies across University campuses,” says Liz, who is the initiative’s executive sponsor. “It’s taking items within the strategic plan and asking, ‘How do we use our physical assets to help execute those strategies?’”

The University’s master plan will be a living, actionable roadmap that sets the development of Rochester’s campuses in alignment with its strategic vision and goals. It will guide the University’s use of its physical environment to support both short-term and aspirational goals of Boundless Possibility. But don’t think of this as a prescriptive document that outlines specific buildings’ exact size and placement; it’s really a framework for future decision-making that goes far beyond brick-and-mortar planning and allows for multiple possibilities. The scope of this project includes—but isn’t limited to—academic, research, and clinical spaces; student life and housing; transportation and parking; and sustainability initiatives.

If we haven’t yet adequately conveyed how comprehensive this document is, know that the process has engaged more than 9,300 stakeholders in the form of interviews, focus groups, surveys, and other information and data-gathering exercises. So far—the University is still gathering input, as it works toward a draft of the plan.

Strategic plan tracker

Unlocked

• Objective: Create plans and strategies for long-term sustainable infrastructure needs.

In progress

• Tactic: Create a University-wide stakeholder-informed master plan draft.

The master plan will build on 175 years of thoughtful long-term planning that has shaped today’s University campuses, beginning with the visionary designs of renowned landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted.

In a December Strat Chat, three consultants from the master plan project team shared some of their vision for the University’s future. The consultants:

• Matt Noblett from Behnisch Architekten, an international architectural and urban design practice that has undertaken challenging and innovative projects at some of the top universities in the country
• Ricardo Dumont and Gregory Janks of DumontJanks, one of the country’s leading campus planning and design firms whose work includes master plans for more than 100 institutions

We’ve boiled the session—including the Q&A—down to some (some—it was a lengthy discussion) of its most noteworthy topics and discussion points, starting with the consultants calling out how “not great” the connections between the University’s campuses are—consequences of geography and the University’s evolution.

Through the master plan, the University is developing a long-term vision that intends to improve adjacencies and redesign spaces in ways that create a stronger community and greater sense of place moving forward. One place to start is the River Campus’s eastern edge.

Grow a spine, Rochester!

The River Campus has two major thoroughfares: Wilson Boulevard and Intercampus Drive. Wilson Boulevard carries you past historic façades, quadrangles, and beautiful scenery, including a postcard view of Rush Rhees, as it follows the bend of the Genesee River; it’s a quintessential campus road. Meanwhile, Intercampus Drive is all business, providing a connecting route that runs along the backside of buildings like Taylor and Gavett Hall and flanked by about 40 percent of the University’s parking lots.

But what if Intercampus Drive were to be reimagined as a new, livelier face of the campus?

Tapping into Intercampus Drive’s enormous potential and reimagining it as a premier University drive that is true to its name is one of the key ideas being considered for the master plan. The idea would turn the corridor—extending as far as South Campus—into a spine that promotes vibrancy and supports connectivity between the academic and health sciences (medical center) campuses. Doing this would enable several changes to campus transit, which includes connecting Crittenden Boulevard, Lattimore Road, and Westmoreland Drive to Intercampus Drive and imagine them as corridors to the riverfront, with greenways, amphitheaters, terrace gardens, and boardwalks or overlooks.

Meliora Mile

A long-term vision for Intercampus Drive would be something in the spirit of Broadway or Michigan Avenue. Imagine this:

• An actual “main street” as a future home for blended research, residential, and retail space needs
• Multi-modal stops for transit that include amenities such as bike racks, covered waiting areas, or ride-sharing zones
• A welcome center at the north end of the strip
• Where the academic and health sciences campuses meet (see large blue circle above), an “Innovation District” to help facilitate collaboration and expedite our research goals
• New green gathering spaces
• Several new parking structures

We feel you raising an eyebrow. If the “how” of it all seems dubious, know that it would take 25 to 50 years to fully realize this vision. And we’re using the word “would” because this is only a guiding idea for potential future growth. No guarantees are being made here.

Building out the “Meliora Mile” would require a series of enabling projects that provide the necessary space or infrastructure. For example, the electric station currently occupying the site near the Intercampus Drive and Trustee Road intersection needs to be relocated. And, of course, a ton of parking spaces would need to be replaced. (See below; blue boxes signify potential parking or transit facilities).

The project team is also giving serious thought to the Eastman School and Memorial Art Gallery campuses. One exciting idea is closing Gibbs Street to vehicular traffic and turning it into a plaza that could serve as a performance, event, or gathering space.

Campus ‘bones’ and the value of aspiration

Many of the University’s most beloved spaces are the product of its original plan, which put elegant buildings around simple quads. Over the course of 175 years, the University has not always followed that model, primarily out of necessity, in ways that have amplified some of the fundamental differences between its campuses. Hospitals and schools serve very different purposes and elicit very different emotions. Still, there’s a palpable sense of history and legacy we can learn from, and which can guide future development.

The ideas being proposed focus on the University’s heritage in excellence and innovation. They require investment in the distinctive ‘bones’ of the physical environment. Some of these ideas are aspirational and may never come to fruition, but they help ask important questions:

Where do we construct the next building?

Where do we lay new streets?

What are the critical infrastructure needs?

These questions become part of a flexible framework for planning, prioritizing, and building over time. In this way, our plan’s aspirations become actionable.

Stewardship and short-term decisions

That palpable sense of history we mentioned in the previous section makes campus stewardship an imperative.

Although renovating and reimagining existing buildings has the appeal of a Tim Duncan bank shot—compared to the Vince Carter-dunking energy of new construction—it’s the most sustainable action the University can take, when appropriate. Doing it properly and efficiently requires that we take several data into consideration:

• Building condition. It’s crucial to have a solid understanding of what systems or features need attention and the level of investment that is required.
• Suitability. Let’s use an example here. Hutchison Hall is a grizzled veteran of the River Campus and an architectural gem. Do we renovate, allowing it to continue functioning as a lab-based building, or do we downcycle it for less intensive use?
• Real estate value. Suppose there was a one- or two-story building on a strategically important part of campus. Are we getting the most out of the space, or might we be better served by a building with three, four, or five stories?
• Energy use. WWGTS—What would Greta Thunberg Say?

Having a matrix like this allows the University to classify existing buildings in one of three ways: stay the course (Love this building. No notes!), renovate and repurpose (This could be better. Let’s make it better.), or retire (Time to join the great quad in the sky.).

Post-master plan approval, the University will spend the early days identifying critical infrastructure needs so we can start budgeting for and scheduling work. And when the work starts, it will be stuff like burying high-voltage lines, a.k.a. enabling projects that are the nuts and bolts of the big projects we’re all eagerly anticipating.

Relationship with the community

The key takeaways from this part of the session are rooted in three things:

• Great universities have great relationships with their host communities
• Gathering input and feedback has been one of the hallmarks of the master plan’s development, and the Rochester community will be no exception
• Great relationships are maintained through great communication, defined by two-way conversations, where both sides are listening and sharing ideas

So, with those three things in mind, you could probably guess what will happen next. But here’s the gist.

Overall, the University has maintained a good relationship with the city and surrounding Rochester communities by focusing on transparency, as it is key in building trust and finding areas where there are opportunities for win-win situations.

If you want to get in the weeds a bit, some of these conversations will be about zoning requirements. The University has to submit the master plan to Rochester communities for zoning approvals. This process is smoother if the master plan accounts for common interests, priorities, and goals. That’s what makes transparency and open dialogue so important.

Medical Rubik’s cube

As the team begins to engage more deeply in planning for the medical center, the consultants provided some insights into that process. Any plan that is put forward will account for education, clinical needs, and research.

On the education side, the focus is on further facilitating interprofessional training, which would entail creating learning environments—potentially relocating some facilities to do so—that bring doctors, nurses, and other care providers together to more closely model real-world collaborative experiences.

As for research, the key idea is an innovation district that encourages stronger connections to private sector partners.

The approach to the clinical environment is complex. There’s the challenge of striking the right balance between ambulatory, outpatient, and specialized services (e.g., neurosurgery and cardiac procedures). The biggest challenge is modernizing buildings. Renovating spaces that are past a certain age is critically important and often difficult due to issues like swing space. Properly revitalizing areas of the clinical enterprise will be complex and time-intensive and needs to be approached through long-term goals that preserve efficiency and quality of care.

The consultants are also working on ways to introduce more civic space and a more robust street network to make navigation easier. Both project types tie back to how the University thinks about its relationship with the community, and particularly in this case, our patients.

Want to attend the next Strat Chat? You can find dates and topics for upcoming sessions on the Boundless Possibility events page. Also be sure to check @Rochester for reminders to register. Have unanswered questions? Want to recommend a speaker? Let us know through our feedback form.