Thursday, December 16, 2010

ANU Campus Master Plan 2030

The Australian National University has issues a Campus Master Plan 2030 Exposure Draft for comment (13 December 2010). Available is the executive summary and each chapter as a separate PDF document, or the full report in one file. I have suggested the summary be provided as an easy to read web page. In the interim, here is a text version I created from the PDF (without images):

Contents

Themes
  1. Academic intent
  2. Functional elements
  3. Campus structure
  4. Built form
  5. Heritage
  6. Landscape
  7. Transport movement
  8. Infrastructure
  9. A living campus
  10. Sustainability and environment
Appendices
  1. Implementation Strategy
  2. Assessment Tables

Executive summary

Our campus, our future The University is a delightful place set in a beautiful landscape that functions well. Research indicates that people are very satisfied with the existing amenity. This situation is the starting point for the development of The Campus Master Plan.

Over the last six decades the Australian National University (ANU) has grown from the seed of an idea into a major national asset that engages thousands of academics, students, staff and people from the wider community every day.

In 2010, the ANU is implementing Campus Master Plan 2030 to shape the growth of the University’s main campus in Canberra.

Projected increases in the size of the campus population over the next 20 years present an opportunity to develop ANU into a physical and social space of a quality that matches its intensive education and research.

The success of the Master Plan will be measured by how well people relate to the campus and how well it supports the values that are important to our community, including academic interaction, environmental resilience, sustainability, heritage, access and social inclusion.

The Master Plan sets out the development objectives and principles that will guide campus development until 2030. It doesn’t include designs for individual buildings, although it does discuss preferred sites for major developments.

The plan is concerned with the big picture and has been designed to create a campus that attracts, delights and encourages people to perform at the very highest standards. The plan has also been created in consultation with key people from across the University. Further feedback will be invited and considered every five years.

This summary document provides insights into the Campus Master Plan 2030. For more detailed information, visit: www.anu.edu.au/campusmasterplan2030.

The ANU campus is a place that actively facilitates world leading research and education.

By 2030

In two decades time, the main ANU campus in Canberra will be:

  • A suitable setting for world class research and teaching;
  • A place with more undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as the academic and general staff to support them;
  • A place with more residential accommodation for students;
  • A place where ageing buildings and those no longer fit for purpose have been adapted or replaced;
  • A place where it is easy and safe for everyone to walk and ride;
  • A smarter place, with more technologically enabled facilities;
  • A meeting place, with more mixed-use facilities bringing a diverse mix of people and endeavours together;
  • A generator of renewable energy, user of recycled water and a carbon neutral asset with a minimal ecological footprint; and
  • A greener place, with an even greater emphasis on biodiversity, recreation and open space.

Building blocks

The Campus Master Plan 2030 has been designed around 10 themes that capture what is important to the ANU community, now and into the future.

Academic intent - Supporting intensive research and education that engages with real issues and fosters leadership is at the heart of the Master Plan.

Functional elements - How primary land uses are allocated across the campus.

Campus structure - The major ordering, physical and planning components of the University site.

Built form - The architectural and urban design qualities and distribution of buildings on the campus.

Heritage - The historical context, connecting us with the past.

Landscape - The grounds, spaces and trees and their importance to campus identity.

Transport and movement - How pedestrians, cyclists and motor vehicle users access the campus. This theme includes internal and external access.

Infrastructure - Covering data and communications, pavements, electrical, lighting, water, gas, supply, stormwater, sewage and other services networks.

A living campus - The social and commercial aspects of the campus including facilities that provide for living, working and recreation.

Sustainability and the environment - The ways our campus advances goals of sustainability.

Key sites

The Campus Master Plan 2030 doesn’t include details of specific building designs, but it does guide how major sites should change in the coming decades. Here are snapshots of how the plan incorporates five areas that are used by the campus community.

University Avenue

The plan proposes developing a ‘main street’ concept for University Avenue, reinforcing this axis that runs through the campus from the city to Black Mountain.

Developments at the city end will create a clear gateway to the campus. Along the street new spaces will improve mobility and access and provide spaces for celebrations and meetings.

New buildings will incorporate more commercial and retail development plus restaurants and cafes.

Other new additions will include more residential accommodation (such as short stay) administrative services and health facilities.

Sullivans Creek linear park

This green strip that runs through the campus to the lake is acknowledged in the plan as a welcome contrast to the formal built edge of the city.

Sullivans Creek is to be developed into a linear park that also provides pedestrian and cycle access between the lake in the south and the northern part of the city.

New bridges will improve access across the campus and developments at the water gate where the creek joins Lake Burley Griffin will provide better access and recreation spaces.

Acton Ridge Walk

The existing pathway will be developed into a shared formal walkway linking the heritage precinct at Acton past South Oval to a new bridge over Sullivans Creek that finishes at the new Pryor Place.

New developments and formal landscapes will link to the walkway and a formal edge will be provided to South Oval. Traffic calming will be introduced to the Garran Road crossing.

Baldessin Square

The plan describes this site at the city end of University Avenue as having formal and ceremonial characteristics.

Under the plan it will be developed to form a more visible entry point to the campus from the city, as well as a space for major ceremonial events, more underground car parking and improved access to Llewellyn Hall.

Clunies Ross Street

Clunies Ross Street will be upgraded in the future to increase its capacity, affecting connections with the CSIRO.

In the plan, Daley Road will be extended to a new entrance to the campus from Clunies Ross Street.

There will be a new pedestrian bridge to the CSIRO site to the west that takes advantage of existing level changes to lower Clunies Ross Street from Barry Drive.

Implementation

The Campus Master Plan 2030 has already begun.

The principles it sets out form part of the framework for all current and future development on campus.

This means that even projects under way will be influenced by the plan and some have been tested against it.

The plan also lists a number of major objectives to be achieved during the next 20 years. Here are some of the proposals.

Short term

  • Program the development of strategic public realm elements that will create the links, paths and cycleways to unify the university’s structure, such as Acton Ridge Walk and the Sullivans Creek Linear Park;
  • Design and deliver the pedestrian and cycle network throughout the campus;
  • Develop a campus wide bike hire facility available to registered campus users;
  • Develop a campus information model to predict development impacts and assess policy directions;
  • Complete a plan for new signage including e-way finding;
  • Design and start delivering the pedestrian and cycle network throughout the campus;
  • Reinvigorate the Union Court precinct by creating new and refurbished spaces for eateries and bars facing an improved Sullivans Creek, and by building new live-in academic accommodation, conferencing facilities and commercial buildings that frame the courtyard;
Medium Term
  • Adapt existing buildings at the centre of the campus for student accommodation;
  • Build a new above-ground commercial car park facility on Daley Road;
  • Build twin entrance buildings at city end of University Avenue;
  • Open additional child care facilities; and
  • Construct Sullivans Creek park, paths and water elements.
Long term
  • Deliver a new joint ANU-CSIRO facility that unites the Black Mountain and Acton campuses;
  • Open two more child care facilities;
  • Consider a swimming pool complex;
  • Develop a distinct ceremonial building within the University Avenue Gateway and Baldessin precinct that spills onto the new ceremonial landscape in time for 100th anniversary of ANU; and
  • Complete the bulk of University Avenue redevelopment.

Leadership

The Campus Master Plan 2030 design and implementation process is being led by the University’s Facilities and Services Division.

A. CMP 2030 Structure

Figure omitted

B. CMP 2030 Master Plan

Figure omitted ...

From: Campus Master Plan 2030, Exposure 23/13579/62185, Draft Australian National University, 13 December 2010

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