South Campus Revitalization Plan to be discussed

With all the excitement generated by the opening of the new downtown home for the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, one major university project has gone largely unnoticed. A large-scale effort to revitalize UB’s South Campus has been underway for several years, and this summer a major phase in the plan will get underway.

To update members of the UB and University Heights communities about next steps in the revitalization of the university’s historic Main Street campus, a public forum will held Wednesday, May 23, at 5:30 p.m. in 114 Wende Hall.

The event, organized by UB’s offices of Community Relations and Facilities, will outline progress and plans to transform the South Campus into the home for UB’s graduate and professional education programs, and restore the campus’s classic beauty.

UB’s plans for the South Campus have been of great interest to the university community and to people who live near the campus, particularly as the Jacobs School has moved downtown, relocating from a cluster of South Campus buildings.

"UB is committed to the South Campus and to being a good neighbor to the community,” says Tess Morrissey, UB’s director of community relations. “This forum provides a great opportunity for the community to get updates on the work that has happened on the South Campus as part of the UB 2020 Comprehensive Master Plan, as well as learn about the plans for the future.”

Among the details of the revitalization plan to be discussed at the forum include the future move from the North Campus to the South Campus of the School of Social Work and Graduate School of Education; the creation of a health sciences complex in buildings formerly occupied by the Jacobs School to accommodate the growing needs of the schools of Dental Medicine and Public Health and Health Professions; and the demolition of unsightly temporary and vacant buildings to make way for new greenspaces, landscaped campus entrances and future construction.

The plan also builds on completed projects to improve the campus-life experience on the South Campus — with new spaces to study, socialize and learn — as part of the Heart of the Campus initiative for UB’s three campuses.  

The overall goal of revitalization plan is to transform the South Campus into a professional studies campus while preserving and enhancing its historic beauty. “We are excited for the ways in which the university and the community will benefit from having UB’s professional schools on the South Campus,” Morrissey says.