More often than not, this much abused term refers to a plan that is simply large, or to a plan that is simply starting. Implicit in the term, in fact at its very core, is a plan that controls and directs other plans. A master plan is not just a large or nascent plan but a controlling code; a key that interlocks many plans into an integrated holistic system. It must at once be broad enough to encompass individual plan agendas, specific enough to control and direct those agendas, and flexible enough to adapt in time and circumstance. Applied to an institution or governmental entity, we maintain that a true, fully integrated master plan combines strategic planning with analysis of context into a flexible spatial, temporal and fiscal plan. That is, the broad based strategic (sometimes called a long-range) plan of an institution or municipality, tempered by its context, is translated through the agency of the planning process into an interlocked series of sub-plans that address space, time and finance.
The fully integrated master plan has tremendous benefits, both short and long term, when compared to the more frequently used methods of sub-plans. At an educational institution, included among the many sub-plans one might find are the academic facilities plan, the deferred maintenance plan, the landscape plan and the student life plan. We seek to interlock these plans through the master planning process, drawing out overlaps and moments of commonality between differing objectives. We often employ a methodology of options management that is less physically oriented than many prior planning methodologies. Included in this concept is the recognition of uncertainty as to the precise sequence or even the occurrence of individual details of the plan. Strategies may be organized into scenarios that provide multiple paths toward the accommodation of strategic objectives. No two such paths accomplish the objectives in the same way, but taken together, they offer a planning approach that provides flexibility without obviating the value of the plan itself.
By unifying sub-plans, such as capital maintenance, ADA compliance, landscape, image and program initiatives within a true master plan, decision makers can accurately assess the full benefits of specific scenarios. How many objectives does a particular scenario address? The more objectives a single act accomplishes, the better the value.
Select Master Plan and Feasibility Projects
School of Information and Library Science, University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC
Undergraduate Housing Study, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
Residential and Dining Programming and Feasibility Study, The University
of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Student Activity Space Master Plan, Stanford University, Stanford, CA
West Campus Residential Initiative, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Hamilton Village, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Sidwell Friends School, Washington, DC, and Bethesda, MD
Residential College Studies, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
Residential Commons Study, Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT
Residential Study, Duke University, Durham, NC
Grand Rapids Public Library, Grand Rapids, MI
The Free Library of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA
Woodberry Forest School, Woodberry Forest, VA
Boathouse Row-Assessment Study, Philadelphia, PA
Comprehensive Master Plans
Friends Seminary, New York, NY
Connecticut College, New London, CT
Durham Academy, Durham, NC
Springfield College, Springfield, MA
Rider College, Lawrenceville, NJ
The Shipley School, Bryn Mawr, PA
© 2007 KieranTimberlake
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