Campus Master Plan

The goal of the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus master plan is to guide development of top-notch teaching, research and student-service facilities during the next 20 years. It uses an integrated approach that will produce outstanding architecture framing inviting new spaces, preserve our history and replace obsolete facilities with new cost-effective ones that serve our mission.

Some of the plan’s highlights, spelled out in greater detail in the executive summary, include:

• More intense development of the west campus, creating a more traditional setting for the health sciences. Provide more student housing in the lakeshore residence hall area will serve the demand of first-year students for on-campus housing. And, adding more density in the near-west campus will help tie the west and central campuses together.
• Development of an Arts and Humanities District in the Lower Campus with an addition to the Chazen Museum of Art, a new Performing Arts Building and a new School of Music building. The East Campus Mall, a lively new pedestrian spine running through the district will connect Regent Street on the south to Lake Mendota on the north.
• Redevelopment along the south side of Linden Drive to meet campus needs and create a more pedestrian friendly area. Additionally, Union South and 1200 and 1300 blocks of University Avenue will be redeveloped to support the governor’s initiative for the Wisconsin Institute of Discovery.
• Construction of new academic buildings in the 900 block of Dayton and West Johnson streets and on the north side of the 1200 block of Spring Street. Removal of aging 1960s and 1970s-era buildings, including Van Hise Hall, Brogden Hall, Humanities, the Biotron, the Engineering Research Building and others, to make way for new academic facilities.
• Creation of more ramp parking to free up land for future development.
• Addition of hundreds of street trees to create a more green campus south of University Avenue and in an attempt to slow traffic as it traverses campus.