February 12, 2001

Efforts are under way in Farmington to develop a new facilities master plan - a document that will shepherd the Health Center through the first decade of the 21st century.

The master plan will describe the existing facility and prescribe what is to go where, when. The current master plan is 13 years old, published when John Casteen was president of the University.

"There's no time like the present to revise the plan," says Gretel Cote, associate vice president for capital budgets and projects and chair of the Master Plan Committee. "It's a key document and an exciting opportunity for us.

"The type of study we'll be doing will look at our buildings and their condition," she says. "We'll do a space utilization survey, and incorporate that into our clinical and strategic plan initiatives. We'll also look at our educational mission and the support services we might need going forward."

Cote says the document also could help with requests to the state for additional money for infrastructure repair and maintenance. "We've got a 30-year-old plant here that needs maintenance," she says.

The new master plan will coordinate, define, and make recommendations on:

• space utilization;
  
  
• campus land use patterns;
  
  
• approximate size and location of new buildings or additions;
  
  
• vehicular and pedestrian circulation systems;
  
  
• parking; and
  
  
• development in the environs.
  
  

The Master Plan Committee has 20 members, representing various interests, including facilities management (in Farmington and at Storrs), the schools of medicine and dental medicine, the hospital, finance, health affairs, communications, public safety, purchasing/warehouse, information technology, the Center for Laboratory Animal Care, and the state Department of Public Works.

The 1987 Master Plan forecast the addition of the Administrative Support Building in the lower campus; some supplemental hospital space, which became the Canzonetti Building; acquisition of ambulatory clinical space, which culminated in the purchase of Farm Hollow; and the construction of the Academic Research Building.

The committee is now drafting a request for proposals. Cote expects the space survey to take about six months and the plan to take about a year.

Patrick Keefe