Gathered behind a scale model of the University of Wyoming campus made of tiny plastic buildings covering a table-sized satellite image, members of the consulting firm Sasaki presented the fruits of the first phase of campus master planning to a Union East Ballroom audience Thursday.
The consultants gave the highlights of a 360-slide report on their analysis of campus history and current usage. The goal of this initial phase was to identify priorities for the next 20 years of campus development.
“We’re at the point where we’ll start to pivot from the analysis phase to the implementation,” said Caitlyn Clauson, Sasaki chair of interdisciplinary initiatives.
The master planning process has been broken into three phases, with the “Discovery & Analysis” phase running from January to May, “Concept Alternatives” from May to July and “Implementation & Documentation” from August to December.
The first phase involved stakeholder interviews and surveys, a review of current and previous planning documentation, and analysis of existing conditions on campus. One aspect of this was researching the history of how campus has grown.
“The campus is in a very exciting place,” said landscape architect Ian Scherling. “For us as campus planners and for people who live here, it’s important to understand how we got here.”
Since its founding in 1886, the University has grown steadily eastward from a dense core of 20 acres at 9th Street, now extending to 30th Street and encompassing more than 700 acres statewide.
With the invention of the automobile and improved interior heating methods, the scale and size of new buildings also expanded. However, the sandstone aesthetic of the buildings, begun after a senator donated a sandstone quarry to the University in the 1920s, has been largely retained. Modern UW also has its “boulderscapes” tying the local environment to campus architecture, a feature Clauson said she hasn’t seen on any other college campus.
In addition to the appearance of the buildings, Sasaki also analyzed their orientation. That original core of buildings aligned with the street grid of Laramie, with welcoming front doors facing outward to the city. In the mid to late 20th century, new buildings were positioned to face inward and located with less consideration for the city grid.
“The idea of the campus as a community crossroads is an important one,” said lead urban designer Paul Schlapobersky. “In the latter part of the century there was a sort of citadel mentality that had to with hunkering down from the city. Now we’re living in a new era where there is that desire to bring the community on the campus again.”
The consultants also presented the results of the MyCampus survey given out as part of the project’s first phase. The survey’s 940 respondents placed 11,661 icons and mapped 707 routes on the map showing how they use campus.
The survey showed students’ favorite classrooms and study spots are clustered on the northwest part of campus and at Coe library. Favorite open spaces and places to recreate included Prexy’s Pasture and sorority and fraternity mall.
The survey also asked where respondents feel is the heart of campus. The most respondents named the space between the Union and Ross Hall, with other clusters at Prexy’s, Coe library, and a few at War Memorial Stadium.
That means the heart of campus has largely held steady in UW’s 133-year history. The challenge to future development will be to maintain that spirit while upgrading facilities and improving access from the periphery of campus as the next phases of master planning move toward implementation.
