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	Architecture...is the attempt to make what is originally a strange and alien environment more of our own, to trans-form space into place, so that instead of being cast into a strange and alien world we are allowed to dwell - K. Harries
	The Next Step is an appropriate name for the new campus facilities plan. As we move into the new millennium, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte is set to become a distinctive place to dwell. The Next Step master development plan addresses campus growth over the next twenty years.
	Enrollment is projected to exceed 30,000 students. Over four million assignable square feet of facilities are sited. A new research and technology complex is proposed for the west campus. These projections include needs for academic programs, student support, administration, residential, recreational, and parking components.

	A distinctly attractive university campus that encourages the development of new knowledge and the exchange of ideas requires thoughtful, comprehensive planning. A university's values and visions, unique site conditions and history, together with program assumptions are the touchstones of campus planning. The Next Step builds upon the 1995 campus plan which emphasized academic quadrangles in a dense academic core, a campus edge no more than a ten minute walk from the campus center, and the vision of a “City for Learning” for 25,000 students and 1500 faculty. The earlier document also includes a brief but excellent historical account of earlier master plan efforts beginning in 1961 with the work by A. G. Odell (enrollment = 881 FTE) and ending in 1986 with the CRS Associates Master Plan (enrollment = 11,753).

	The centerpiece of the 1995 plan was the development of ten visions and values that underpin the campus planning criteria. Underlying each of the tenets is the concept of duality - a synergistic tension between inverse values which create a stimulating, yet stable environment for learning, living, and working. These visions and values
	capture in a special way the complementary needs and aspirations of a wide assortment of constituencies who view the campus as their place to dwell, their place to learn, live, and work. The visions and values continue to guide the 2000 plan - The Next Step. The Next Step is more than a logical continuation of the themes articulated in the City for Learning plan; it is a bold and innovative stride beyond. New initiatives in planning and design are required to meet the genuine and verifiable needs of our growing campus. Some of these elements were unavailable for the 1995 plan, others conjectural in nature or insufficiently explored.

	Clearly, the most significant element contributing to the urgency associated with the 2000 Campus Facilities Plan is growth. The challenge relates not only to aggregate growth but also to the rate of growth. UNC Charlotte will nearly double in size within the next 20 years. Planned growth is not merely an institutional aspiration; given statewide enrollment projections, it is a UNC General Administration mandate. UNC Charlotte will become one of the largest campuses in the UNC System. The University has already achieved Carnegie Class II research designation offering an array of new doctoral programs. UNC Charlotte will be a major site for the preparation of professionals whose plans and aspirations generally focus on urban specific interests and needs. This Next Step will truly mark UNC Charlotte's entry into the top ranks of large, public, urban, research and teaching centers in the country.

	The Next Step offers a new vision of how the campus will look and function in the 21st century. The 2000 plan will be actualized in a four-phase construction plan to be implemented over 20 years. For the first time, changes will impact every part of the campus and reflect an aggressive agenda for meeting the facilities needs for a student body of 30,000 students plus the infrastructure to support doctoral level research and study. These initiatives will exhibit a strong applied emphasis with facilities geared to viable and mutually beneficial liaisons with business entities, civic enterprises, and professional organizations. Thus, conceived, The Next Step in campus planning for UNC Charlotte represents a promise kept, namely, the institutional promise to provide the campus community and the public with this special place to dwell.

The University of North Carolina at Charlotte - Facilities Management
9201 University City Blvd • Charlotte, NC 28223-0001
(704) 687-2154