Campus Master Plan

HOUSING AND DINING INITIATIVES:

Create a “best in class” student experience in housing through College Town Magic™ Initiatives.

• Benchmark housing quality, satisfaction and resident outcomes against peer institutions.
• Ensure a balanced mix of dorm-, suite- and apartment-style housing options and student rental rates.
• Support belonging, community, wellness and academic achievement.

Have a total of 8,500 undergraduate beds and 1,050 family and graduate apartments by Fall 2030.

• Add an additional 1,500 undergraduate beds by Fall 2029, with accompanied processes and policies that support increasing housing demand/occupancy.
• Keep on-campus living accessible by refining rate-setting methodologies, improving occupancy management, leveraging auxiliary partnerships and implementing data-informed budgeting and performance metrics.

Create a “best in class” unified, dining experience for students, faculty and staff on campus through retail and university dining options.

• Expand dining capacity in high-demand zones with an emphasis on flexible concepts and dining plans.

Provide 24-hour access on campus to food for all students.

Introduce special interest housing in repurposed Fort Douglas buildings.

• Future master planning effort of Fort Douglas to include repurposed buildings to become housing for special interest groups that currently reside off campus.

STUDENT LIFE INITIATIVES:

Add and distribute student life space across campus.

• Deliver approximately 1 million GSF of new student life space to support student environments: study, lounge, gaming area, student organization meeting rooms, meditation spaces, recreation, and demonstration spaces.
• Co-locate student life space as connected “centers of activity” within neighborhoods, so dailylife, gathering, and support are within reach of where students are.

Expand recreation and wellness to peer levels.

• Build a new indoor recreation and wellness facility, add multi-use fields, courts, and distributed outdoor fitness across campus.
• Include fitness space in each new housing project- closing the recreation-space gap and supporting intramurals, sport clubs, and informal recreation.

Anchor campus life with two complementary student unions.

• Build a new union in the heart of the student village as the welcome center and activity hub (bookstore, event and conference space, College Town Magic™ hub, outdoor entertainment.)
• Reposition an expanded A. Ray Olpin Union as the memorial union — honoring history and tradition while serving central-campus event demand and providing adequate proximate event parking.

Strengthen everyday spaces for study, gathering, and belonging.

• Add lounges, study spaces, and flexible gathering areas — distributed through housing, academic, and union buildings —that support how students spend their days, individually and in community.
• Incorporate mental health, wellbeing, and student support services within student life spaces.

OPEN SPACE INITIATIVES:

Protect the State Arboretum in perpetuity.

• Strengthen and expand policies and practices that support the protection and long-term stewardship of the campus arboretum.

Preserve signature cultural landscapes in perpetuity

• Develop specialized design and management standards for the culturally significant landscapes identified in this document.
• Improve the quality, consistency, and functionality of lighting, signage, and site furnishings.
• Define and preserve the boundaries of signature open spaces.

Maintain at least 50% of campus as open space.

• Maintain a diverse range of open space types to meet the varied needs of students, faculty, staff, and visitors.

Maintain at least 40% tree canopy coverage throughout open space.

• Prioritize the planting of new trees in locations that allow them to grow to maturity.
• Work to retain mature trees, existing groves, and trees of special significance.

Create a stronger campus identity and sense of arrival through gateway enhancements.

• Procure professional design services to develop a cohesive gateway plan, including design intent for each identified campus gateway.
• Develop a phased implementation strategy to construct each identified gateway over the next 10 years.

Enhance existing outdoor spaces.

• Establish campus standards for lighting, furnishings, and other outdoor elements to strengthen campus identity, enhance sense of place, and improve the campus experience.
• Develop a strategy for the phased removal and replacement of outdated lighting and site furnishings.
• Enhance outdoor spaces with seating, landscaping, and lighting to support both programmed activities and everyday student needs.
• Outdoor landscaping should balance beauty and function with water-wise design suited to the region’s climate.

Enhance access to natural open spaces for year-round use.

• Introduce new facilities to support programming that improves access to the foothills surrounding campus, Red Butte Creek, and other regional outdoor recreation spaces.

Introduce new high-quality outdoor spaces and connections

• Study and define the extents, functions, and needs of identified new open spaces.
• Preserve land for the future implementation of new open spaces in Research Park, the health care campus, Red Butte Creek, and College Town Magic™.

ACCESS, MOBILITY AND PARKING INITIATIVES:

Increase access to parking throughout campus.

• Construct new parking facilities to address growth.
• Replace surface parking stalls displaced from building projects in proximate locations, prior to construction.
• Ensure a 10-minute walkshed for students, faculty, and staff from all occupied buildings to a parking facility with reasonably sufficient number of stalls to address the need.
• Ensure sufficient proximate parking to support community, performance and event programming of facilities, including central campus.
• Update the parking system structure including parking policies to balance parking demand across campus.

Preserve reasonable vehicle access to campus.

• Work with agency partners to strategize improvements on main vehicular arterial roadways around campus that will maintain a reasonable level of vehicular service for Foothill Drive, 1300 East, 100 South, 500 South, and Sunnyside Avenue.

Reduce average single occupancy vehicle trips from the current 53% drive alone rate to 44% over the next 10 years.

• Improve transit capacity, frequency, and span of service.
• Enhance active transportation infrastructure to provide for a safe and connected network.
• Implement Transportation Demand Management (TDM) strategies, programs, and policies designed to redistribute transportation mode share.
• Utilize a mobility management software platform to manage and monitor programs, policies, and incentives that provide commuters with alternatives to driving alone.

ACADEMICS AND RESEARCH INITIATIVES:

Support student enrollment of 45,000+ students with new and revitalized academic spaces

• Revitalize and repurpose existing buildings to meet programmatic needs.
• Strategically locate new academic buildings to enhance academic quads.
• Co-locate academic research programming within current and future academic buildings when it makes sense.
• Study development of a new research neighborhood in Research Park.

Improve space utilization and classroom and teaching lab space efficiency by aspiring to meet, and exceed, USHE standards.

• Improve efficiency of classrooms, class labs, and offices within existing buildings through scheduling practices.
• Repurpose underutilized spaces to meet programmatic needs.

Develop U of U space standards as they apply to offices, academic, and research/lab spaces.

• Further study and benchmarking of peer and aspirational institutions space standards to be conducted.

Prioritize infill development opportunities within the academic core to maximize land use efficiency, strengthen campus connectivity and support institutional growth.

• Potential building sites identified in the Academic and Research Plan will be evaluated through detailed feasibility and planning studies as part of the Capital Development review process for each proposed project.

Preserve a strong student experience on the main campus while broadening opportunities to extend our reach through satellite locations.

U HEALTH CLINICAL CARE INITIATIVES:

Expand inpatient, surgical, emergency and ambulatory capacity in a manner that supports patient care, academic programs and operational and financial sustainability over time.

• Focus on access expansion with the addition of 505 inpatient beds, 47 operating rooms, 1,300 exam rooms and 80 emergency department treatment bays deployed through multiple expansion projects strategically positioned across existing and new facilities to best support market and community needs.

Relieve space pressure on the main health care campus while preserving and improving patient access to clinics off major vehicular corridors.

• Relocate strategic ambulatory clinical functions to Foothill Drive.
• Coordinate roadway improvements and transit enhancements with transportation partners to ensure reasonable travel times and traffic flow.

Support projected growth in clinical demand, complexity and access needs across the region.

• Geographically distribute health care growth along the Wasatch Front.

U HEALTH ACADEMIC AND RESEARCH INITIATIVES:

Create spaces that strengthen strategic alignment and growth of academic, research and clinical missions and support the University’s goal of $1.5 billion in research funding

• Establishment of a Research Neighborhood concept at the corner of Wakara Way and Chipeta Way in Research Park.
• New research building at the former Medical Towers site.

Optimize existing wet and dry research space.

• Remodel the fourth floor of 295 Chipeta Way to provide an opportunity to consolidate and grow key dry research departments and divisions within Health Sciences.

Plan for the removal and replacement of aging research infrastructure.

• Demolition and replacement of the Wintrobe Building and the Comparative Medicine Center.

Plan for exterior spaces that bring together students, faculty, researchers, clinicians.

• Construction of the U Health Central Greenspace.

Provide key infrastructure to support the exploration of AI and medical engineering initiatives.

ATHLETICS INITIATIVES:

Designate two athletics neighborhoods for use by Athletics to accommodate future growth and program needs.

• Guardsman Way Athletics Neighborhood – new athletic facilities, including administrative and shared student-athlete support.
• Upper Campus Athletics Neighborhood –multi-sport facilities support serving soccer, lacrosse, ski, track and softball.

Enhance the student-athlete experience by providing safe, functional and holistic environments that support student-athlete health, wellness and academic success.

• Investing in the environments, resources and experiences that allow our students-athletes, coaches and programs to perform and thrive at the highest level.
• Invest in facilities that provide consolidated administrative and shared student-athlete support services.

Enhance the fan experience through targeted game day infrastructure and operational improvements.

• Create engaging, modern venues that amplify the energy and atmosphere.
• Enhance the overall fan experience.

RESEARCH PARK INITIATIVES:

Establish a vibrant and interdisciplinary mixed-use environment.

• Provide a balanced mix of uses within Research Park to enhance the experience of employees and visitors while attracting new tenants to the area.

Facilitate partnerships that will enable a dynamic innovation ecosystem responsive to new technologies and market demands.

Establish a strong sense of place and identity for Research Park through high-quality design, public spaces and branding.

• Establish gateway signage at main entrances to Research Park identify it as a place of innovation and a part of the university.
• Develop open spaces and connected plazas.

Preserve needed spaces to introduce Light Rail Transit (LRT) to Research Park.

Foster industry-university connections with new and repurposed Research Park facilities.

• Foster private research and university collaboration.
• Attract industry partners seeking proximity to world-class research.

PREAMBLE

The Campus Master Plan gives physical form to the University's mission, vision and strategic plan and provides the long-term framework for campus development decisions, so the campus can serve today's strategy while preserving opportunities for the next. The seven principles below are the standards every capital proposal, land decision and infrastructure investment is judged against for the life of the plan. Conflicts between principles are resolved openly in review, not by setting one aside. The 2035 Planning Targets hold the numerical targets and the peer set that comparatives such as "best in class" and "exceptional" are measured against; the Campus Master Plan Committee's Project Review Procedures describe how each proposal demonstrates that it meets the principles. Before programming or design begins, each investment states the outcomes it is expected to produce. Once in use, it is measured against those outcomes, and the results inform the next decision. The plan is Board-overseen: the appropriate Board committee reviews it annually and reports to the Board of Trustees, which approves changes.

1. ADVANCE THE ACADEMIC AND RESEARCH MISSION
   The campus exists for teaching, learning and discovery.
   • Locate new academic and research space where adjacency strengthens the work:
     laboratories next to the departments and partners that use them, and teaching space near where students live and gather.
   • Develop Research Park and the downtown presence as places where research becomes practice; the revenue they generate supports the mission.
   • The mission depends on the people who deliver it: address the housing, transportation,parking and daily-life pressures that determine whether faculty, staff and health care providers can, and want to, build careers here.
2. BEST-IN-CLASS STUDENT EXPERIENCE
   Daily campus life and learning are one experience.
   • Size housing and dining to demand: a bed for every first-year student who wants one.
   • Design the campus for the commuter as well as the resident: a clear arrival; a place to stay, belong and engage between classes; and a safe route home after dark.
   • Bring student services — advising, tutoring, counseling, wellness — to where students already are: residence halls, dining and the spaces where residents and commuters gather, alongside the central offices.
   • Students who live on and off campus share in College Town Magic: every neighborhood a student uses — the Fort and upper campus included — offers intentionally designed, comparable amenities, support and engagement opportunities.
   • Plan dining, event and assembly space as campus-wide systems: a new venue is added where the system has a gap, not because a building or donor wants one.
   • Students are who the mission serves: address the housing, transportation, parking and daily-life pressures that make, and keep, the U their school of choice.
3. EXCEPTIONAL PATIENT EXPERIENCE
   For a patient, excellent care begins at the freeway exit and ends at the bedside.
   • Plan U Health's sites — on campus, in the valley and in the region — as one system, with each site sized and located for the care it delivers best.
   • Build hospital and clinical environments that patients and their families can find, reach, heal and sustain their care within.
   • Give patients, families and providers the same certainty the campus gives students: a clear arrival, easy parking, a short, clearly marked walk to the door.
4. ACCESS AND MOBILITY
   Reaching campus is reliable however you come, and people choose the alternatives to driving alone because they are better.
   • Make transit, walking and cycling faster, safer and more reliable, so more people choose an alternative to driving alone.
   • Work with the city and state to protect the main vehicular arteries to campus so that driving there has reliable and reasonable travel times.
   • Provide sufficient, convenient parking for everyone who drives to campus — planned as one campus system and funded alongside the growth that creates the demand.
   • Make arrival unmistakable: every campus gateway and distributed location announces the University consistently, and a first-time visitor knows where to go next.
5. HIGHEST AND BEST USE OF LAND
   Land is the one asset the University cannot make more of.
   • Share, schedule and renew the space the University already has before building new, unless new construction is shown to serve the mission better or to be the better wholelife value.
   • Build space to be flexible and reconfigurable wherever the program allows, so that a building outlives the program it was built for.
   • Plan every University location as part of one portfolio with defined roles and holdstrategic sites for uses not yet known rather than for the first project that asks.
   • Every building arrives with its systems: utilities, transportation and any needed parking are funded — by the project or the campus system that serves it — before approval and in place when the building opens.
6. STEWARDSHIP OF THE NATURAL AND CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT
   Growth should strengthen what makes this campus distinctive.
   • Treat the foothills, the State Arboretum canopy, view corridors, open space and the buildings and landscapes that carry the University's history as the campus's defining elements; new buildings fit with them.
   • Design buildings and landscapes so that their architecture, materials, scale and setting complement the character of the rest of campus.
   • Every new building meets or exceeds the efficiency standard for its type; conservation measures beyond it are judged on whole-life cost like any other investment.
7. ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES AND RESILIENCE
   Financial discipline is what makes strategy durable.
   • Let mission set priority and funding set feasibility: an available donor, partner or lease does not by itself adjust priorities.
   • Judge every project by its whole-life cost and by whether the University can staff, program and maintain it; do not build what future generations cannot afford to operate and renew.
   • Weigh renewal of what the University owns against adding to what it must maintain; the deferred-maintenance backlog is a liability the plan reduces.
   • Use public-private partnerships where they are the better whole-life value for the student and the University — compared openly with conventional alternatives, and with the University in control of its land, programming, design, character and mission

The 2008 master plan guided development for more than 15 years, but it is now time to look toward the next era of campus. The new Campus Master plan will offer a vision for growth and evolution in line with the university’s Impact 2030 goals around student success, research and innovation, and service and patient care. As a cornerstone of Salt Lake City, the university is also mindful of its broader role in the community, from addressing urban challenges to preparing for the 2034 Olympic Games.

Campus Master Plans are designed to guide planning, constructing, and facility maintenance for 10-20 years. They have a long-term lens that should buffer the need for major annual changes but should be maintained from year to year to stay in alignment with university goals. A master plan, approved by the Board of Trustees, is required by Utah Board of Higher Education Policy R706.

The master plan is a guide to steer the development of campus toward one unified mission and vision. It helps ensure the highest and best use of our limited real estate and financial resources. “Whatever you are doing, you should answer this question, ‘Is this consistent with the master plan?’” says Jim Russell, chief facilities officer. “That is how we ensure we’re taking the best path forward, with the best use of space and real estate. The master plan should tell us what each part of campus is being reserved for.”

In 1901, the University of Utah followed a master plan as it moved to its current location and built the first buildings on Presidents Circle. That plan was a strategy for what campus would look like for nearly a century. Updated master plans for the U were created in 1981, and then again in 2008. This is the fourth Campus Master Plan we have record of.

A Board of Trustees Campus Master Planning committee has been created to ensure that the plan is followed as individual building projects arise. The committee will have eyes on the master plan at all times and make sure that campus changes are consistent with the guidelines. In addition, last year, the university established a new Capital Approval Process for campus development projects that engages stakeholders earlier and ensures stronger project oversight. Every capital project ultimately must have the approval of the Senior Leadership Team, Board of Trustees, and the state.

This iteration of the master plan was started in 2023, beginning with a collaborative 14-month period of data gathering and community outreach. The campus planning team engaged more than 14,000 stakeholders including students, faculty, staff, alumni and community members. They hosted open houses and workshops, distributed surveys, and conducted transportation studies and analyses. The plan then went through extensive reviews for more than a year with senior leaders and the Board of Trustees Campus Master Planning committee, culminating in the plan getting approved at the August 2026 Board of Trustees Meeting. After that, it was shared with the Office of the Commissioner of Higher Education.

A city’s master plan—also referred to as a general plan or long-range plan—establishes a vision for future land use. It helps align zoning regulations with current and anticipated development patterns, providing a framework for understanding and planning for the city’s growth needs.

A campus master plan serves as the physical expression of an institution’s vision, mission, and long-term goals. While the University of Utah functions in many ways like a small city, its Campus Master Plan has a more specialized purpose due to the University’s unique role as the owner, developer, and end user of its buildings, infrastructure, and open spaces.

The Campus Master Plan evaluates future development and how it will support mission-critical functions and strategic initiatives. It considers transportation systems, parking, utilities, stormwater infrastructure, sewers, building use, facility condition, and long-term space needs. Decisions about what the University may build are guided by state requirements as well as campus policies and standards. As a state entity, the University of Utah is exempt from zoning regulations.

The Campus Master Plan is a physical embodiment of the U’s growth strategies and growth targets. It includes what is above ground, below ground, parking, roadways, and more. Because the plan includes all of campus, it affects everyone, and that can create a lot of opinions on what paths should or shouldn’t be taken. Master plans generally don’t dictate what buildings will look like, or exactly how it will sit on a site, but they will determine how physical space can be used to meet the needs of the university. “It can be difficult to gain alignment on those goals and targets,” said Andrew King, director of campus planning. “Sticking to that plan is hard because desires can change quickly.”

The planning team looked at what differentiates the U, and the type of students we attract, from other institutions. This master plan takes the best of those differentiators and creates or enhances access to them. For example, one of our greatest assets is our access to world class recreation, including access to 100+ miles of trails from our own back yard.

Improving access to recreation, dining, entertainment and other student life activities are just some of the ways this plan helps to enhance the experience of students, faculty, staff, patients and visitors.

For 150 years the U has been a leader in providing worldclass learning, healthcare, and research. The implementation of this plan, and its subsequent updates, will pave the way for equally exceptional on-campus living, learning and working experiences.