University of New Orleans Master Plan
Stitching tenuously connected aspects of a university campus together for future growth.
Category
Education & Institutional
Location
New Orleans, LA
Size
200 Acres
Year
2021
The University of New Orleans Master Plan was commissioned to address both near-term planning and construction needs, while also embracing longer-term interests in better understanding how the 200-acre campus should evolve to address changing trends in higher education, the shifting demographics of the student body, and the changing urban fabric of the City of New Orleans. The scope was simultaneously focused on discreet interventions to aid in establishing a prioritized list of proposed investments for today while also setting an aspirational tone for the University’s expansion over the next 20+ years.
Trapolin-Peer and our joint venture partner, VMDO Architects, collaborated with a team of nationally recognized urban designers, landscape architects, and strategic planners to craft a master plan that emphasizes growth and the interrelated and interdependent natural and cultural systems at play.
The design process, intentionally created to front-load the planning effort with an exhaustive investigation of the existing conditions on campus, was followed by an intensive series of engagement workshops, casting a broad net in hopes of soliciting as much input as the school and its surrounding neighbors were willing to share. Following the robust analytical and engagement phases of the process, the design team turned its focus to translating the data and perspectives into a viable plan to address the challenges that were beginning to surface.
The message of the master plan is simple: to intentionally create, “One U.N.O.”. A mantra that repeatedly came up as the team collaborated on a set of priorities. “One U.N.O.” suggests that, at its simplest, the university is one community made up of a wildly diverse set of individuals with unique perspectives, needs and desires. It also reinforces the imperative that to excel, all parts of the community must be in dialog and working towards the same goals. Stitching tenuously connected aspects of a university campus together for future growth.