Last modified: Friday, February 20, 2009
IU trustees approve plans to guide development of IU Bloomington, IUPUI
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Feb. 20, 2008
NEW ALBANY, Ind. -- The Indiana University Board of Trustees today approved new master plans for IU Bloomington and Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, endorsing flexible frameworks for guiding the growth and shaping the future of the university's two largest campuses.
The plans were produced over the past year by SmithGroup/JJR, a Washington, D.C., architectural and design firm. Planning processes for both campuses included extensive input by faculty, staff, students and other stakeholders.
"This is a critical step in laying the foundation for our future," said IU President Michael A. McRobbie. "In the next several years, it is our hope to undertake several major new construction projects to meet our space and facilities needs at IUPUI and IU Bloomington. These master plans will help ensure that the development of these campuses takes place thoughtfully and efficiently, and that it always serves the purpose of academic excellence."
The IU Bloomington plan envisions a tree-lined Woodlawn Avenue (shown looking south), linking academic and athletics precincts and providing a locale for future construction north of 10th Street.
With the IU Bloomington and IUPUI plans approved, SmithGroup/JJR will begin updating master plans for IU campuses in Gary, Kokomo, New Albany, Richmond and South Bend.
The plans approved today provide a vision for the future, including the location and design of buildings, the need for utilities and storm water management and the circulation of transit, automotive, bicycle and pedestrian traffic.
They point out that both IU Bloomington and IUPUI trail peer institutions in academic and research space per student -- the plans identify a need for adding or replacing 4 million square feet of academic and auxiliary space at IU Bloomington and 3.3 million square feet at IUPUI.
The plans assume stable enrollment over 20 years at IU Bloomington and enrollment growth to 35,000 students at IUPUI.
The charge to SmithGroup/JJR was to create master plans that would help the university:
- Manage future development
- Plan exemplary facilities for learning and research
- Improve the quality of the learning and living environment
- Strengthen the life-sciences economy of the state
- Ensure that IU will be "one of the greatest universities of the 21st century"
- Fire the imagination of donors and university supporters
A restored Jordan River could provide a quiet path for walking east of Jordan Avenue.
For IU Bloomington, the plan guides the addition of classroom and research space while preserving the beauty and character of the campus and finding opportunities for improvement.
It calls for protecting the historic core of campus, augmenting the Seventh Street corridor as the campus' academic-cultural "Main Street," establishing a Woodlawn Avenue boulevard linking academic and athletics precincts, opening a new east-west connector street using Law Lane and 14th Street and restoring the Jordan River corridor.
The plan includes "student life" neighborhoods with mixed housing types on the north and east sides of campus, enhanced gateways along Indiana Avenue and from the Ind. 46 Bypass, and more efficient redistribution of parking spaces while maintaining a compact, walkable campus.
The IUPUI master plan seeks to better integrate the campus with downtown Indianapolis and the White River while addressing challenges with building size and design, traffic, parking, housing and student life.
It envisions converting Michigan and New York streets from one-way thoroughfares to two-way streets with central medians, with traffic movement augmented by improved north-south connector streets and developing Vermont Street as a vibrant urban streetscape. It points to better integrating medical, research and academic space at the central core of the campus; extending the Ball Gardens green-space project; and developing the Blackford Street area as an extension of a downtown cultural trail.
The planning process was overseen for the university by J. Terry Clapacs, vice president and chief administrative officer.
The master plans create a vision for the future of each campus and identify the systems necessary to support the vision. They will be complemented by detailed sector planning, including landscape plans; detailed academic planning; traffic and parking implementation planning; and building assessments.
To see a slide show with highlights from the master plan presentation, go to https://newsinfo.iu.edu/asset/page/normal/6299.html.
To download the entire presention, go to https://www.indiana.edu/~iunews/IUmasterplan.ppt. (Note: You must have PowerPoint installed on your computer, and the 82-megabyte file may take a long time to download, depending on your computer and Internet connection.)
