UVic Campus Plan
What is a Campus Plan?
A Campus Plan provides direction for the physical development of campus, guiding decisions relating primarily to buildings and land use, open spaces and natural areas, and transportation and parking. It influences not only the functioning of campus, but also the experience of being on and moving through it. It impacts quality of life, ecological health, campus character, and more. The Campus Plan helps to implement the university’s academic mission and guides development in accordance with its strategic priorities and its teaching and research needs.
UVic's Campus Plan
How our campus evolves depends on the insights shared by our campus community - students, faculty, staff, alumni and community members.
The Campus Plan is the culmination of comprehensive planning and year-long stakeholder engagement process that took place in 2015. It reflects information-gathering, background research, analysis, planning, and extensive engagement of diverse campus and broader community stakeholders. It was approved by the Board of Governors on January 26th 2016.
The plan builds upon the university’s 2003 Campus Plan and previous planning initiatives dating back to the defining elements and legacy of the first Campus Plan in 1961.
Vision
Our extraordinary academic environment inspires and nurtures discovery, creativity, and innovation, and fuels our commitment to sustainability, health, and well-being. The campus supports UVic in making a vital impact on people, places, and the planet.
The campus of the future will experience new development while preserving the spirit of place inherited from the past, and respecting First Nations history and continued presence, and the commitments to environmental stewardship that are so widely shared in our community and our culture.
Our Gordon Head home will be a compact campus within a verdant setting. Natural areas will be maintained and restored, respecting the widely-shared desire for a campus that creatively blends nature with built environments.
Ours is a community to be walked, and it should become increasingly so. Open spaces, physical connections, and new buildings and facilities will be designed at a pedestrian-friendly scale, with safe and open access to all, in the spirit of an intimate and welcoming landscape.
Goals
Flowing from the Vision, the four main Goals of the campus plan describe desired end-states for open space, land use and buildings, mobility, and engagement:
Big Moves
Bringing the Vision, Goals, and Principles to life are a number of design strategies or "Big Moves" that comprise the key physical elements of the Campus Plan:
Implementation
The Campus Plan sets out a framework for thoughtful growth and change at the Gordon Head campus. Owing to limitations on financial and human resources, as well as need and demand for new buildings, not all actions can be implemented immediately or concurrently.
Generally, as resources become available, the timing of future studies, initiatives, buildings, and public realm improvements will be based upon:
- immediate need;
- available resources; and
- projects that have multiple benefits across open space, mobility, and built form frameworks
We want to hear from you!
What are your priorities for implementation? What insights can you share about the campus? Your ideas will be incorporated into future implementation actions, so please send them to planning@uvic.ca
Contact
For more information contact Mike Wilson, Director of Campus Planning and Sustainability at 250-472-5433 or planning@uvic.ca
An inclusive and collaborative process
Beginning in 2014, UVic undertook a once-in-a-decade process to shape the future of the campus. It was guided by the Campus Planning Committee which is comprised of representation from a range of key stakeholders across the campus. Extensive engagement was undertaken to seek broad and diverse input through more than 1650+ individual engagements in a range of consultation and communication activities that included surveys, interviews, a speaker's event, ideas forum, open house sessions, social media, and meetings. Learn more from our FAQs and Milestones pages.
Related pages
Milestones & Documents
Visit our Milestones & Documents page to see all content relevant to the 2015 Campus Plan Update. Listed are the events and relevant documents produced over the Plan Update process.
