1. Executive Summary
INTRODUCTION
The campus master plan is designed to guide and shape the physical environment of the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) main campus and to present a model for planning throughout UAF's branch campuses and remote facilities. It is the culmination of a year of participatory planning involving members of the university and larger Fairbanks communities. The master plan will guide campus growth and change and govern all future decisions related to the physical environment of the Fairbanks campus.
The master plan is an integral part of broader planning efforts at UAF that include the university's academic plan, strategic plan and accreditation self-study. The master plan strengthens UAF's distinctive role as the nation's northernmost Land, Sea and Space Grant university and international research center. It furthers the university's mission to advance and disseminate knowledge through creative teaching, research and public service with an emphasis on Alaska, the North and their diverse peoples.
The master plan represents an important shift toward comprehensive, long-term planning for the campus. Past decisions were often made in response to opportunity or convenience, without recognizing the effects of these individual moves on the total campus environment. The result is a campus that lacks order. The university's previous campus master plan, completed in 1991, offered a vision for the campus but gave no specific recommendations for change. The charge of the current master plan is to establish a vision for the campus that is practical, achievable and tied to a clear implementation schedule.
The master plan builds on UAF's unique location in the far North and the special challenges and opportunities that this presents. The Fairbanks campus consists of nearly 2,250 acres of boreal forest, hillsides, lakes and fields. It has a distinctive cultural history as Troth Yeddha', an Athabascan Indian meeting place. Today, people of Interior Alaska look to UAF as a cornerstone of community life in a myriad of ways: intellectual challenges, athletics, fine arts, public service, research and economic development. UAF shares with the Fairbanks community a distinctive Alaskan spirit of independence and self-reliance. That spirit opens doors for innovation and opportunity in all aspects of the university's work. This plan builds on that spirit and the university's distinctive geographic location in fulfilling its mission in the areas of teaching, research and public service.
VISION
The campus master plan strives to create a collegial environment that supports the institutional mission of UAF. It envisions an attractive and well-ordered campus that takes advantage of its unique northern location and the extraordinary resources of its natural and community setting. The plan creates an order for the campus to be reflected in all its interrelated parts: the continuity of its landscape and architecture, the streamlining of vehicle circulation and parking, the enhancement of the campus' natural environment, and the concentration of development in core areas linked by transit and pedestrian paths to create a more integrated and efficient campus.
PURPOSE
The master plan is a guide for logical growth and change. It is a living document that results from a dynamic process of addressing both existing and anticipated conditions, desires, programs and space demands. It will be used by the Chancellor’s Cabinet, the Master Planning Committee and others in developing and evaluating capital funding requests, designing and constructing new facilities and enhancing the built and natural campus environments.
The intent is to gather and reassess data regularly and to refine design criteria to accommodate change, provide permanence, and allow the university to evolve with grace. It is anticipated that the UAF Master Planning Committee will review the plan at least annually, updates will be made every five years, and a full review of the master plan will be required in 10 years. Future decisions can, of course, vary from the direction of this plan. However, they should be made carefully so that the implications of variance can be fully understood regarding the vision that this master plan represents.
Aerial view of the campus - looking east
GOALS
The goals of the campus master plan are designed to achieve the vision of a well-ordered and attractive campus. The success of one goal may depend upon the success of others. These goals are:
- Create an efficient and attractive campus environment conducive to learning
- Improve community access to the UAF campus
- Make vehicle circulation and parking simple and direct
- Promote safe and efficient travel throughout campus for pedestrians and non-motorized uses
- Highlight natural assets of campus and the unique northern environment
ACTIONS
A set of actions was developed that best achieves the goals for the campus. Since the goals are interrelated, one action can address several goals at once. Furthermore, these actions will have a much greater impact if they occur concurrently rather than individually. As an example, completing Tanana Loop is an important action, but it alone cannot make the campus more accessible to the community or improve the pedestrian environment. Other complementary actions—providing convenient parking on the perimeter of campus and improving shuttle service, walkways and signage—need to be undertaken at the same time if the vision of the master plan is to be achieved.
The following matrix states the specific actions of the master plan and identifies the goals to which each contributes. The actions are described in detail in Section 8 of the report, and specific implementation steps and phasing are detailed in Section 9.
[ Section 1 | Section 2 | Section 3 | Section 4 | Section 5 | Section 6 | Section 7 | Section 8 | Section 9 | Section 10 ]
