KU Campus Master Plan wins excellence award

LAWRENCE — The University of Kansas 2024 Campus Master Plan won an Excellence in Planning award from the Society for College and University Planning. KU’s Campus Master Plan will inform decisions on the management of buildings and physical spaces on the Lawrence campus in coming years, and it is designed to align the physical campus with institutional strategy to ensure buildings, facilities and infrastructure support KU’s mission, values and priorities.

KU shares the SCUP award with several partners the university worked with on the plan, including Perkins&Will, Multistudio, RMF Engineering, SK Design Group, Smith & Boucher and Introba Technology Planning.

“KU Facilities, Planning & Development worked hand-in-hand with our external partners to engage students, faculty and staff and gather feedback throughout the planning process. We are pleased that SCUP recognized this collaborative process and the outcome — a master plan that will guide our campus for years to come,” said Mark Reiske, director of Facilities, Planning & Development.

The campus and stakeholder engagement throughout the planning process included student, faculty and staff surveys generating thousands of responses, 51 group interviews with faculty and staff representatives from across the institution, multiple “Future of KU” workshops bringing students, faculty and staff together to discuss key topics, meetings with student groups and three all-campus town hall/open house listening sessions. Individual and group meetings were also held with representatives from KU Endowment, KU Innovation Park, KU Campus Historic Preservation Board and the city of Lawrence. In all, more than 5,000 persons from the KU community were involved in the master plan information gathering.

“The KU planning team and our external partners all understood the importance of engaging stakeholders and developing a plan that aligns with a shared vision for the future of the Lawrence campus,” said Callie Long, vice chancellor for operations.

The SCUP award jurists particularly noted the master planning team’s embrace of a data-driven approach in the planning process and data gathering — from campus assessment to stakeholder engagement — and a use of a Power BI dashboard to support current and future data analysis.

“We will rely heavily on the Power BI dashboard in planning and decision-making as we take a data-driven approach to implementing the Campus Master Plan,” Long said.

The SCUP awards are a juried competition honoring “achievement in strategic, integrated planning that results in exemplary buildings and grounds, institutional success and careers that inspire,” according to the organization’s website.

The Campus Master Plan is currently being finalized and will be presented to the Kansas Board of Regents for approval at the September meeting. The planning team focused on aligning the Campus Master Plan with KU’s Jayhawks Rising strategic plan, from making the right kind of space available for academic and research activities to creating a more walkable and accessible campus to address the health and wellness of the KU community. Information and updates are available at the Facilities Planning & Development 2024 Master Plan page.