2007 Campus Master Plan
(June 2007)

 

The full Master Plan is available
in print-ready PDF

 

Executive Summary


The 2007 Campus Master Plan builds upon similar planning exercises which have characterized the major stages of campus development and expansion at The University of Western Ontario.  From the 1922 move to the “new campus” on North Richmond Street, Western has tied its physical expansion to the academic priorities and aspirations of the University. 

The current Plan outlines a specific building and renovation program which will see the University’s facilities expand to accommodate projected teaching and research requirements over the next decade.  It is not a site plan for future development.

This Plan is as much about conservation as expansion – the thoughtful and responsible use of all Western’s space to preserve the beauty and integrity of one of Canada’s truly distinctive university campuses.  With that purpose in mind, the Campus Master Plan formulates a series of master planning principles that reflect the value we place on the landscape, the architectural quality of our buildings, and the ways in which we seek to ensure an environment that facilitates and enhances academic work.  Western is a residential university, with a central campus dedicated to the interaction of faculty, staff,  students and alumni who share a commitment to intellectual, social and personal development that is best achieved in a functioning community.  Our built environment is organized to facilitate that sense of community, with open space and structures that are accessible, safe, and flexible in purpose, allowing for adaptation as new paradigms for teaching and research evolve.

In addition to master planning principles, the Campus Master Plan articulates space planning principles governing the allocation of space across the University, stressing the intention to focus academic activities at the centre of the campus and locate administrative and support functions at the campus periphery.   The Plan also seeks to define the precincts of future campus development and suggest possible uses for lands currently held or potentially to be acquired by the University.

Following the University’s Strategic Plan, Engaging the Future (2006), this Plan expands on Western’s relationship with the City of London and the neighbourhoods immediately adjoining the campus.  It reaffirms the University’s commitments to support the established character of surrounding residential neighbourhoods, to oppose requests for zoning changes that would alter that character and be contrary to the City’s Official Plan, and to work in concert with the City to develop traffic and transit planning strategies that respect the intention to reduce vehicular traffic on the campus.  In addressing these latter concerns, the Campus Master Plan outlines a strategy for controlling traffic on and through the campus, enhancing service provided by the London Transit Commission, and confronting the need for adequate and appropriate parking facilities to best serve the University community.

This Campus Master Plan provides a guideline for the maintenance and future growth of a university campus that actively contributes to the teaching, learning, and working experience of all members of the Western community.