2011 UAB Master Plan
The 2011 UAB Master Plan was a campus master plan created by KPS Group and intended to guide the development of UAB for the decade beginning with 2011.
One of the primary objectives of the plan was to show how the growing campus might integrate better into the city, with explicit connections to amenities like the newly-dedicated Railroad Park, and across structural barriers such as I-65. The plan called for encouraging mixed-use development and interconnection with public and private commercial developments in the Five Points South neighborhood.
The planners focused their work on how to implement the key points of UAB's updated strategic plan, of which it was considered a part. Those key points included increased undergraduate and graduate enrollment with enhanced living, learning and working environments; expanding research; and increasing services to the community and the state through the provision of health care and support for the arts. The planners also took into account the Blueprint Birmingham strategic economic development plan published by the Birmingham Business Alliance, which advised that "the impact and role of UAB...cannot be overstated." and drew from an economic impact report commissioned for UAB from Tripp Umbach & Associates of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Specific recommendations
- Student residences: The 2011 UAB Master Plan anticipated an undergraduate enrollment of more than 16,700 by 2020 with the overwhelming majority living on campus. The plan recommended constructing a three-building residential complex along 4th Avenue South, with an expansive green space occupying three blocks of a vacated 5th Avenue South.
- Research complex: The plan proposed focusing the expansion of research facilities to the west and south of the newly-opened Shelby Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research Building, extending along a tree-lined 18th Street South and incorporating a research plaza facing a new multi-level parking deck on Block 782.
- Athletics facilities: The 2011 plan was the first document to include an on-campus football stadium. It was depicted with 25,000 to 35,000 seats arrayed in a horseshoe shape, and was located on the west side of 13th Street South, between 4th Avenue South and 6th Avenue South, terminating the green space proposed as part of the new residential complex and anchoring a "gateway" adjoining I-65 with additional athletics fields and facilities extending southward across University Boulevard.
References
- "Tomorrow Land" (Spring 2011) UAB Magazine
- Erdreich, Jeremy (November 15, 2011) "Sharpening the edge." Bhamarchitect's Blog
External links
- Campus Planning at kpsplaprojects.blogspot.com