UConn Will Create A Master Plan For Storrs Campus

The University of Connecticut does not have the signature gothic towers or arches of Yale or Michigan, or the brick walkways or gates of Harvard, or the brownstones of Wesleyan.

When you arrive on campus, no gate or arch signals that you are at UConn.

That might change, however, as the university embarks on a $2 million effort to create a new master plan, prompted partly by the taxpayer-financed $1.5 billion Next Generation Connecticut plan that will bring with it extensive development and renovation, including at least one new science building and residence hall.

"We don't want to put a science building down in the wrong location," said Laura Cruickshank, who was hired away from Yale in February as UConn's master planner. "That needs to be supported by transportation. It certainly must be supported by utilities, certainly supported by landscape a landscape that knits the campus together."

The plan will address the location of new buildings, traffic and pedestrian patterns, open spaces, utilities and environmental issues and the finer details that have to do with establishing a sense of place.

"It's definitely something I'm concerned about 'look and feel' and that's in quotes," said Cruickshank. "'Look and feel' is a really important thing for any university campus, and coming here from Yale [There's] a definite 'look and feel' at Yale. You knew where you were. I think that's definitely something we can improve upon here."

About a dozen firms presented proposals to create the plan, and the school has narrowed it to three: NBBJ; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP; and Michael Dennis & Associates.

University officials hope to choose one of the three in January and go forward with the plan expected to cost $1 million to $1.5 million and to be completed by December.

Cruickshank, who earns $225,750 as the university's master planner and chief university architect, said that she envisions an open process, with public meetings at which university professors and staff, students and community members will be able to participate in shaping the plan.

The new plan will come at a time when UConn is embarking on significant development. Next Generation Connecticut is the centerpiece of that effort, which is a decadelong project aimed at transforming the university's science, technology and math programs. The plan includes increasing faculty by 259 and students by 5,000.

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UConn Will Create A Master Plan For Storrs Campus