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I. Executive Summary
In Fall 2000, President Mote appointed a Facilities Master Plan Steering Committee, co-chaired by the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost and the Vice President for Administrative Affairs, with broad representation from key university groups and the College Park community. The committee was charged with developing a plan that meets Maryland Higher Education Commission and Board of Regents requirements; that defines the principles and lays the foundation for the orderly development and growth of the campus over the next twenty years; and that addresses current campus needs and goals while being sufficiently flexible to respond to future changes. The plan presented in this document lays the foundation for a first-class physical campus that is appropriate for a world-class university. It stresses thoughtful stewardship of the built environment that we have inherited, and it envisions a campus that both teaches and exemplifies concern for the natural environment. The plan supports the mission of the university to provide educational programs of the highest quality; to produce cutting-edge research, scholarship, and performing arts; and to promote connections and partnerships that contribute to the economic and social well-being of the citizenry of Maryland. The 2001-2020 Facilities Master Plan builds on the work of the 1991 Facilities Master Plan and its 1996 update, but it advances a new vision for the development of the campus. Previous plans concerned themselves with the placement of physical facilities but did not consider much beyond the need to address the urgent requirements for space at a large, thriving, and complex university. The university continues to have great demands for space. However, this plan, in contrast to previous ones, puts the siting of buildings and the development of the campus in a wider context. The committee considered ways to preserve our architectural heritage and extend the aesthetic appeal of the grounds and buildings. It looked at problems of balancing appropriate density of buildings with accessibility and attractiveness, and it advocated environmental stewardship. The planning committee established four principles or goals to guide future development: 1) plan the built and natural environment in a way that preserves the beauty of the campus and protects the environment; 2) reduce the number of automobiles on campus and eliminate vehicular congestion to the extent possible while promoting unimpeded movement across the campus; 3) reinforce the campus's role as a good neighbor in the larger community by the careful development of sites on the campus periphery or in outlying areas that link us to the community; and 4) preserve the architectural heritage of the campus and enhance it through open spaces, gathering places, vistas of green lawn and trees, and groupings of buildings that promote a sense of community. These principles will determine how space is used at the university as demands for buildings and facilities increases. This plan reflects and is consistent with the concepts of "Smart Growth," in which the State of Maryland has been a leader. The University of Maryland is a partner in the state's initiative, providing the highest caliber research and educational programs through its National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education. This plan provides an assessment of current facilities and projections for the development of campus districts and outlying areas. The plan also includes goals and proposed actions for protecting and enhancing the natural environment and recommends an interconnecting system of shuttles to convey students, faculty, and staff to, from, and around the campus. It calls for a restriction of the number of automobiles on campus and the redirection of regular vehicular traffic from the center of the campus to its periphery. It suggests appropriate development and uses of university properties that reach into other neighborhoods in the larger community. The plan concludes with a list of the projects and activities that will be pursued over the next twenty years and the projected timetable for their completion. Process In the Fall of 2000, the University of Maryland began a comprehensive effort to update the 1991 Facilities Master Plan. The membership list of the committee appointed by President Mote is included in the appendix of this document. The Facilities Master Plan steering committee met weekly during the fall semester, reviewed the current status and proposals for each of the campus districts, and discussed the facilities needs in the context of growing and planned academic programs and research activities. At the conclusion of the semester, committee members identified the major issues to be addressed in a new plan as the context for the siting of projected physical facilities. The three most important issues were environmental stewardship, transportation and parking, and development of outlying areas. Consultants with expertise in university planning were sought to provide advice and proposals for dealing with these complex issues. The firm of Ayers/Saint/Gross, a nationally known campus and architecture planning firm, was hired. Ayers/Saint/Gross brought in specialists from Biohabitats, Inc., ecological consultants, and Martin/Alexiou/Bryson, a transportation planning and traffic engineering firm. The consultants met with stakeholders from across campus and the community, analyzed the current state of the campus, and presented a vision of the campus and a series of recommendations to implement that vision. Following many intensive discussions of the consultants' recommendations, the Facilities Master Planning Committee, working with the university Department of Facilities Planning, crafted its vision of the campus for the next twenty years, developed a draft plan, and disseminated it widely among the campus community and to the citizens of College Park. A final plan was submitted to the President's Cabinet and the Board of Regents for consideration. The President and his Cabinet monitored the planning progress and approved the final recommendations. Planning is an ongoing process. Any planning document should be viewed as a snapshot of the institution, capturing a particular moment in time. The plans, principles, and projections must be continuously and systematically reviewed and updated. In the future, the university administration will adjust the plan in response to new issues or programmatic changes. This Facilities Master Plan is flexible and general in its scope. It is not a detailed implementation, operations, logistical or budgetary blueprint for projects. The university will continue to improve and refine the Master Plan as a community-wide effort. As projects are carried out, university planners will be guided by the spirit and vision of this plan with its emphasis on creating a place of natural and architectural beauty, collegiality and community, and utility. In implementing the vision of a modern first-class university campus, planners will be expected to balance a variety of complex systems and their interactions in a manner that takes into consideration special concerns of all members of the university community. (See Section V: Implementation.) The coordinating university agency for the Facilities Master Plan is the Department of Facilities Planning. Timing Time periods for the Facilities Master Plan are as follows:
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