"Building UB" Posterboards on Exhibit on North, South Campuses

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Twenty-nine different posterboards relating to "Building UB," the University at Buffalo's comprehensive physical plan, are on exhibit at three sites on the North and South campuses to provide members of the university community with another opportunity to see the information and offer their feedback.

The posterboards will be on view in the lobby of Hayes Hall, South Campus, through Feb. 14, and in the Undergraduate Library in Capen Hall, North Campus, and in the Health Sciences Library, South Campus, through March 1.

"We want to make sure people get a chance to take a look at them," Bradshaw Hovey, associate director of the Urban Design Project in the School of Architecture and Planning and a staff member for "Building UB," says of the posterboards. "We would like ever more and more focused and detailed feedback on Phase 1 as we move toward Phase 2."

Hovey calls the work in Phase 1 of the plan, formally titled "Establishing Context and Vision," "descriptive and diagnostic."

"We're not talking about what we're going to do," he says. "We're talking about what is, what our assets are and what the problems and challenges are."

Phase 2, "Campus Concepts," is the conceptual development phase of the plan. During this phase, the university's constituents, administration and the public will have the opportunity to offer input on different visualizations of how each of UB's three campuses—North, South and downtown—could look in the future.

The posterboards currently on display cover a myriad of topics, including an overview and explanation of the planning process, a review of current capital projects, and a summary of the project to date, as well as issues related to land and environment, urban design, the learning landscape, and transportation and way-finding.

A PC has been set up near the exhibits so that those viewing the exhibits can offer input on the spot, Hovey says.

The exhibitions are the latest in a series of events designed to gather reaction, ideas and comments on the master planning process from faculty, staff, students and the greater Western New York community. The first of four public forums on the plan was held Dec. 4 at the UB Downtown Gateway—the former M. Wile Building near the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus that recently was purchased by the university. Prior to that, feedback had been gathered through 115 meetings between UB representatives and individuals and organizations. More than 2,000 people have participated in those meetings.

The second public forum, which will focus on "campus concepts," will take place on April 22 on the North Campus.

"Building UB" is an integral part of the UB 2020 initiative that will transform UB into a model 21st-century public university that will rise among the ranks of the nation's public research universities. The plan will accommodate UB's plans to grow by 40 percent, increasing enrollment by 10,000 and faculty and staff ranks by more than 2,300. The goal is to create three distinctive campus environments tailored to their respective suburban, urban and downtown settings, better connecting them with one another and integrating them with their surrounding neighborhoods.

For more information, go to http://www.buffalo.edu/ub2020/plan/forum_event.html.