UA Campus Master Plan Receives Award for Outstanding Urban Design

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The University of Alabama has received the Franklin M. Setzer Outstanding Urban Design Award for 2009 from the Alabama Chapter of the American Planning Association for the UA Campus Master Plan and Design Guide.

The award is given to the top project for which design is an integral part of the planning process and is a major concern of the built environment. The award is named in memory of Frank Setzer, former director of the Auburn University Architecture and Urban Studies Center in Birmingham.

The Campus Master Plan has enabled the University to return to its position as one of the most successful examples of an American campus tradition by preserving and enhancing a campus that provides: an academic village, pedestrian accessibility, a strong sense of legibility, traditional building location and relationships, and prominent outdoor spaces to support student life.

“In this time of unprecedented growth, the Campus Master Plan and Design Guide are working documents that are guiding the University well,” says Dan Wolfe, University planner and designer who accepted the Setzer Award.

“The University of Alabama is proud to have our plan recognized for the prestigious Setzer Award,” he said. “Darrell Meyer, the staff at KPS Group, and their consultants did a magnificent job crafting and compiling all of the various facets of our current master plan. Input was considered from faculty, staff, students, alumni and the administration.  From those early and numerous conversations, the master plan was shaped by including the ideas that were shared.

“From the beginning creation of the guiding principles, throughout the process to the finished plan, the feedback from the campus community was always foremost in creating what is now an award-winning Campus Master Plan,” Wolfe commented.

The Setzer Award criteria included concept application and transferability, illustrating how the project may serve as a model process for others and how application of the plan would further the cause of good planning.

The University’s Campus Master Plan was based on a goal to build upon recent major building and development while recapturing the principles upon which the campus was planned and designed – even as the university responds to new needs and demands. The plan was based on four guiding principles, including keeping the campus unique, logical, respectful and customer-oriented.