Campus Master Plan
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The campus master plan is a comprehensive guide for the development of the University of Wisconsin campus. The current plan, announced in 2005, proposes priorities for building and redevelopment on campus for a 20 year period.
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History
The current plan is only the most recent in a long history of large-scale campus development proposals. These range from the 1875 plan that included nine buildings to the 1996 plan that accounts for most of the recently constructed and renovated buildings today.
2005 plan
Beginning in 2004, UW officials began meeting to brainstorm a followup to the 1996 campus master plan. After a year and a half of planning, town hall meetings and input from other stakeholders, a guiding document was produced that included a series of proposals for buildings, open space, transportation and utility systems on campus. While these are split into six goals that hope to bring the physical aspects of campus in line with student life and other facets of the university's operations, major physical development goals include:
- More Lakeshore dormitories
- Development of west campus and in other key places to tie east and west sides together
- Construction of Chazen addition, performing arts building, school of music building and East Campus Mall to produce a humanities and arts district
- Redevelopment of parts of Linden Drive and University Avenue
- Construction of new academic buildings and removal of structures such as Van Hise Hall, Brogden Hall and Humanities
- Shift to ramp parking structures instead of lots
- Planting of trees along streets
The 2005 plan is partially inspired by a 1908 master plan that was never fully implemented. The 1908 proposal focused on building clusters that made segments of campus feel cohesive and connected to one another, and included a grand pedestrian mall that is being developed today in the form of East Campus Mall.
Controversy
To make way for buildings, UW is allowed to invoke eminent domain rights to seize property. This has most notably been contested by Brothers Bar & Grill, which sits at the corner of University Avenue and Lake Street--the future site of the new music school building.
