Campus Planning
Vassar’s 1,000-acre campus, featuring over 50 buildings, requires thoughtful planning to balance preservation and growth. Maintaining the campus’s beauty and educational value necessitates careful planning that honors the institution’s mission while embracing the need for renewal and growth. The Campus Master Planning Committee (CMPC) advises and guides all planning projects.
"The elegance of Vassar’s buildings and courtyards is supported by a picturesque landscape of trees, lakes, and streams, making it a quintessentially American campus. Revered by students, faculty, and alumnae/i, the Vassar landscape cultivates connections to nature that contribute as much to the college’s “power of place” as its venerable buildings do."
—Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates Inc, 2011 Landscape Master Plan
Role
The CMPC provides a platform for review, discussion, and collaboration on issues related to the maintenance, improvement, and expansion of buildings, grounds, and infrastructure. The committee addresses immediate projects, such as renovations, as well as long-term goals, including growth, sustainability, and evolving campus needs.
Acting as a conduit between campus stakeholders and decision-making bodies, the CMPC advises the president, the senior officer team, facilities operations, and the board of trustees, ensuring that planning decisions reflect the values and mission of the College.
Through its work, the CMPC plays a crucial role in shaping the physical and functional aspects of the College, ensuring the campus remains a vibrant and nurturing environment for education, research, and community engagement.
Function
- Develops and maintains the campus master plan, incorporating feedback from faculty, staff, students, and other stakeholders.
- Provides guidance on architectural, environmental, and infrastructural projects to align with sustainability and accessibility goals.
- Evaluates proposed capital projects to ensure consistency with the long-term vision for campus development.
- Monitors and assesses the condition of campus facilities and grounds to prioritize future investments.
- Facilitates communication among various campus groups to ensure a unified approach to planning and decision-making.
Campus Master Planning Values
Created 2014–2015, Last Update on April 2, 2021
- The overriding consideration in the development of the campus over time should be the critical role of facilities in supporting and promoting the College’s educational mission, as described in the official Mission Statement. Thus, the programmatic needs of the College must always be primary in planning.
- The campus should reflect and embody Vassar’s commitment to excellence in all areas, including its facilities and landscape.
- The value of a residential community that fosters learning both within and outside of academic programs should be reflected in campus planning.
- Sustainable solutions should be explicitly addressed in the construction, renovation, and development of campus facilities, infrastructure, landscape, and organizational structures to maximize the utility of these resources for future generations of Vassar students and to conserve and preserve natural resources.
- Access, diversity, and equity, as shared values of the Vassar community, should be reflected in the selection of architects, design professionals, and planners, as well as in all aspects of campus planning.
- A diversity of landscapes and architecture is of intrinsic and academic value to the College.
- It is understood that the campus, along with the College’s academic programs, is vital to the local and regional communities—and vice versa; campus planning should reflect the value of promoting mutually beneficial relationships between the College and these communities.
- Because campus planning is grounded in an understanding of current uses as well as past and projected trends, it relies on the availability of accurate data on campus facilities, infrastructure, and resource allocation.