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UB officially launches physical planning process
By SUE WUETCHER
Reporter Editor
UB on Tuesday officially launched "Building UB," the comprehensive physical planning process that is designed, in concert with the UB 2020 strategic plan, to push the university into the top echelon of public research universities.
A crowd that included UB staff involved in the planning process, as well as officials from local municipalities and agencies, gathered in the Screening Room in the Center for the Arts to hear a welcome by James A. (Beau) Willis, executive vice president for university support services; remarks by President John B. Simpson and Provost Satish K. Tripathi; an introduction of the consultants who will be working on the project; and an update of the process thus far from "Building UB" project leader Robert G. Shibley, senior advisor to the president for campus planning and design, and professor of architecture and planning.
Although the CFA event was billed as the "official" kickoff of "Building UB," Shibley noted that the process already is under way with a facilities conditions audit by subcontractor VFA Inc. The Boston-based firm will assess the health and status of every building on UB's three campuses—North, South and downtown.
In his opening remarks, Simpson told audience members that this is a pivotal time for UB.
"If you start thinking about the future of any large operation, of any large city—like the university is—you very much need a physical environment, a built environment, a natural environment to support those aspirations, support those activities, to support the kinds of things the university does now and will do in its future," he said.
UB has a long and distinguished history in environmental sustainability, Simpson pointed out, and the master planning process offers an opportunity to "push this agenda."
"It is, indeed, a place where we can, as a university, make a major and significant mark among our peers in the United States," he said.
Simpson also noted that UB will have to find "creative ways" to finance the plan. "More and more entrepreneurship will have to enter into what we do, as will more partnerships with private sources," he said.
Moreover, now that UB has three campuses, the plan must focus on better connecting the campuses to each other, he said.
Simpson said he was encouraged by the large turnout at the kickoff.
"The fact that there are so many people here today with an interest in physical master planning—a topic that does not always generate the largest interest in our broad community—says a great deal about the excitement that has been generated on campus and in our surrounding community about the potential and the future of the University of Buffalo."
Tripathi noted that transforming its physical environment will help UB achieve its strategic vision for the future.
"The quality of our campus environments challenges us in the recruitment and retention of students, staff and faculty," Tripathi said, calling the North Campus "less than awe-inspiring from an aesthetic perspective and in terms of modern facilities," as well as being "geographically and socially isolated from its communities."
The South Campus, he added, has been "neglected and underinvested with the transition to the North Campus" and suffers from the "same lack of public realm" as the North Campus.
"In the end, we know that the quality of place is a major element in the recruiting of faculty, students and staff, and retaining them as well," he said. "Transforming the physical landscape provides us with the opportunity to imbue our campus centers with meaning and soul through the interpretation and celebration of our notable institutional history. Improving our university living and learning landscape is a central part of our strategy to make UB more competitive in the recruitment of faculty, staff and students," he said.
Shibley asked audience members to consider the 1968 master plan for the North Campus developed by Sasaki Associates. That plan, he said, included all the elements, like the learning landscape and pedestrian-friendly public realm, that UB administrators are seeking in the new plan. "That plan [Sasaki] has not delivered that promise; the plan we're about to produce has to," he said.
Shibley called the current restoration of Founders Plaza on the North Campus the first phase of the plan, and cited several "emerging projects that are already under way. These include a new building for the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences on the North Campus, a 600-unit housing complex south of the Ellicott Complex toward the academic spine, an expansion of the North Campus site of the UB Child Care Center and a renovation of the center's South Campus site, a renovation of Allen Hall to make "a new front door to Main Street," rehabilitation of Acheson Hall to house the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, and a rehabilitation of the Cary-Farber-Sherman complex, home of the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.
Shibley also introduced Frederick Bland and Elizabeth Leber, partners in charge for Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners, the firm that received the contract to lead development of the $4.5 million comprehensive physical plan.
Bland said he had no idea so many people would attend the kickoff. "Our team is incredibly moved. We've worked for some pretty great universities; we've never had a kickoff like this where so many people have come," Bland said. "We think there's a lot of opportunity here to make change and make positive change on the three campuses of this great university."
Beyer Blinder Belle will work in collaboration with Foit-Albert Associates of Buffalo, whose UB projects include the Alfiero Center at the School of Management and the South Lake Village apartment complex on the North Campus. The firm, headed by UB alumnae Bonnie Foit-Albert, will handle the environmental review process for the project.
Subcontractors working on the project also were introduced, including capital planning experts VFA; landscape architects Andropogon Associates; academic space designers DEGW; STV Inc., which will work on transportation, parking and security issues; Viridian Energy & Environmental LLC, which will focus on sustainable design goals; and 212 Harakawa, a signage and wayfinding firm.
Shibley concluded by citing some "strategic considerations" for the physical plan:
To create a much better living and learning landscape, both in and out of doors.
To take care of the public space and the public realm.
To make sure the three campuses are as seamless as possible-three campus centers, one UB-that are connected to the community, both suburban and urban.
To make UB a sustainable campus and reduce its ecological footprint.
"This is a big idea; this is an opportunity to make a really great University at Buffalo campus, a chance to transform this institution, both physically and through the process of inquiry, and have an influence on the institutional organization and a way to help our region grow," Shibley said.
The CFA event was one of several activities the consultants participated in during their time at UB, according to Bradshaw Hovey, associate director of the Urban Design project in the School of Architecture and Planning and a staff member for "Building UB." Earlier on Tuesday, they took a walking tour of UB's three campuses, traveling between campuses by subway, UB Stampede and shuttle bus. They also sat down with members of the UB planning team to "start to address major categories of issues," Hovey said.
"We're really ready to roll," he added.