Established in 1848, the University of Wisconsin – Madison is one of the country’s first land-grant universities, currently serving over 43,000 students and 21,000 faculty and staff. The main campus is comprised of over 939 acres of picturesque grounds along nearly 4.5 miles of Lake Mendota shoreline in Madison, Wisconsin. Approximately 300 acres of the main campus are defined as the Lakeshore Nature Preserve and are protected from development. The university is located in Dane County, less than a mile from the state Capitol. Inland lakes create a narrow isthmus where concentrated development patterns exist within a scenic setting.
This spectacular lakefront setting is its greatest physical asset. The natural areas, historic landscapes, and public spaces are the places that create astounding first impressions and lasting memories for those who visit, work, educate, and learn at this institution.
The 1850 campus plan, attributed to Architect John Rague and the university’s first chancellor, John H. Lathrop, proposed situating the campus on Madison’s “second hill”, facing the nearby state capital building which was located on the “first hill.” The hills overlook the city of Madison surrounded by beautiful lakes and natural areas, created by the glaciers some 15,000 years ago. The effigy mound, so prevalent on this campus and throughout the upper Midwest, also occurred over 1,000 years ago. These relationships have served as a structure for the physical development of the campus landscape for over the last 150 years.
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2015 Campus Master Plan
Every 10 years, Facilities Planning & Management works with a team of planning consultants and the university community to update the university’s Campus Master Plan. The Master Plan Update will serve as a tool to help establish a continuing framework to guide the orderly growth and development of the campus while protecting and enhancing important open spaces as well as historic and cultural landscapes. The Campus Master Plan is consistent with and supports the university’s current mission, vision and strategic plan.
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2015 Campus Master Plan Executive Summary
The 2015 Campus Master Plan Executive Summary is a full color 24-page report that summarizes the major goals and guiding principles for the Master Plan. The document includes the Chancellor’s vision and the major goals and initiatives for each of the identified focus topics. The Executive Summary also welcomes and sets the tone for users and viewers of the Master Plan document. It is both a marketing piece for the future development and a summary of the master planning process.
Master Plan Technical Report
The 2015 Campus Master Plan Update: Technical Report is the unabridged thought and support behind the goals and guiding principles for the Master Plan. This more than 250-page document presents a roadmap for campus development over the next 30-50 years by referencing what has come previously and embracing what the future holds. Together with the Campus Design Guidelines, the Technical Document strives to give physical form to the university’s mission, vision, and programs through the effective use of human, environmental and fiscal resources.
Landscape Master Plan
The 2015 Campus Master Plan Update: Landscape Master Plan establishes the vision for the campus landscape at the UW–Madison. As a major component of the 2015 update to the 2005 Campus Master Plan, this serves as the first landscape master plan for the university, marking a significant milestone in its history. Focused on fully using the spaces between the buildings, the plan determines an overall vision for growth of the campus landscape. Most importantly, this plan creates a framework of guiding principles for landscape architects and planners to ensure the cohesive integration of future expansion projects.
Utility Master Plan
The 2015 Campus Master Plan Update: Utility Master Plan report is an update to the 2005 plan and includes information regarding the existing utility distribution systems as well as recommendations as to how the campus utilities should be modified and expanded to accommodate the proposed ultimate campus build-out. The update specifically targeted the infrastructure of steam, chilled water, electrical power, and renewable energy in the context of the sanitary and domestic water analysis and recommendations. It is critical that all proposed utility infrastructure recommendations relate back to the future development phasing schedules to ensure capacity and physical space availability.
Long Range Transportation Plan
The 2015 Campus Master Plan Update: Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP) has been developed as an update to the 2005 plan. It both responds to and helps shape the overall development plan for the campus over the next 20 years and beyond. It is the university’s transportation vision and describes baseline conditions, travel behaviors, and trends for all modes. The vast majority of recommendations called for in this plan are strategies designed to make travel without a motor vehicle safer and more convenient.
Green Infrastructure & Stormwater Management Master Plan
The 2015 Campus Master Plan Update: Green Infrastructure & Stormwater Management Master Plan offers both opportunities for enhancing green infrastructure and challenges as the campus continues to densify and space for stormwater management is balanced with other programmatic needs. UW–Madison is not only a leader in sustainable stormwater practices, having implemented dozens of progressive practices from green roofs to wetlands throughout the 938-acre campus. However, increased sustainability awareness by students, faculty, staff, and the general public, as well as a more stringent regulatory climate, offer opportunities for UW–Madison to step up and be even more aggressive in greening its facilities.
Campus Design Guidelines & Standards
The Campus Design Guidelines & Standards are a site specific framework that has been established to create the ground rules for a fruitful dialogue between planners, architects, engineers, campus community, and city/state authorities. Divided into nine Campus Design Neighborhoods, the goal of the guidelines is to enhance the university’s sense of place by creating well-defined, functional, sustainable, beautiful and coherent campus environments that promote intellectual and social exchange.
Frequently Asked Questions
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What is the Campus Master Plan and how often is it updated?
The Master Plan Update serves as a tool to help establish a continuing framework to guide the orderly growth and development of the campus while protecting and enhancing important open spaces as well as historic and cultural landscapes. The Campus Master Plan is consistent with, and supports the university’s current mission, vision and strategic plan. The plan is also sufficiently flexible to accommodate ongoing change that is typical in a dynamic higher education learning environment during the next 10 years. The planning horizon looks out 20 years into the future to determine the appropriate level of future growth for the campus.
Every 10 years, Facilities Planning & Management works with a team of planning consultants and the university community to update the university’s Campus Master Plan.
Who do I contact with questions about the Campus Master Plan?
Contact Scott Utter, Director of Campus Planning & Landscape Architecture
Why is the Campus Master Plan important?
Campus Master Plans and campus planning in general (first plans date back to 1850) are extremely important to guiding the physical development of our 938 acres. They are the barometer with which planning, design, and implementation decisions are based. Not only are campus master plans required under Wisconsin State Statutes through the State Building Commission, they are also required by UW System Board of Regents policy. Furthermore, it is important for UW to have a City of Madison approved Campus-Institutional (C-I) District master plan per the zoning code (updated every 10 years), for the mutual benefit of each agency’s long-range planning initiatives.
What is the Campus-Institutional (C-I) District Master Plan?
The city of Madison’s 1966 zoning code was updated, becoming effective on January 2, 2013. One outcome of this rewrite came in section 28.096, the Campus Institutional (CI) District, established to recognize the City’s major educational and medical institutions as important activity centers & traffic generators, accommodate the growth & development needs of these institutions, and coordinate the master plans of these institutions with the City’s plans, policies and zoning standards. The district is also intended to:
- Permit appropriate institutional growth within boundaries while minimizing the adverse impacts associated with development and geographic expansion;
- Balance the ability of major institutions to change, and the public benefits derived from change, with the need to protect the livability and vitality of adjacent neighborhoods;
- Encourage the preparation of campus master plans that enable adjacent neighborhoods and the broader community to understand the levels of development being proposed, their likely impacts, and appropriate mitigation measures to be considered.
As such, the Campus Master Plan (50-year guiding document for development on campus) was abbreviated and adjusted to reflect the city zoning requirements in the creation of the UW-Madison Campus Institutional District Master Plan (10-year guiding document to meet zoning requirements).
What is the vision of the 2015 Campus Master Plan?
Extending Our History
The 2015 Campus Master Plan captures the best characteristics of our historic campus core, and extend and strengthen them throughout our evolving campus. These include: the careful balance of mixed-use buildings of architectural prominence surrounding and defining well-designed open spaces; the ease and safety of walking, biking, and busing with careful interaction with vehicles; the identifiable indoor and outdoor places for people to gather and exchange ideas; and the preservation and engagement of places of respite for humans and habitat, for flora and fauna.
Embracing Our Future
Continue to recreate ourselves in place, while reducing the impact of the campus and its activities on our environment. The physical campus shall support the university as a preeminent center for discovery, learning, and engagement. As the campus infiltrates and treats not only the stormwater that falls upon it, but also a portion of water from the region, the waters of Lakes Mendota and Monona will be cleaner. As we continue our national leadership in support of the region’s growth toward a more balanced and effective transportation system we will promote our resource stewardship and improve our delivery of service, efficiency, and sustainability.
How can I request a presentation of the Campus Master Plan, or specific areas contained within?
Contact Scott Utter, Director of Campus Planning & Landscape Architecture