AUGUST 2021: Planning and development orientations
Mandate Objectives Approach & phases Activities Results
Concordia's Campus Master Plan is intended as a decision-making tool for planning the real estate development of the Loyola and Sir George Williams campuses over a 15-year time frame.
The university anticipates a space deficit of 115,000 square metres within 10 years.1 Meeting this demand will involve large-scale development projects on both campuses, addressing various urban, planning and regulatory contexts with unique challenges.
The overall vision reflects a sensitive planning approach to campus heritage and identity and to Concordia’s educational legacy. The plan must take a historical perspective in the development of the campuses and the surrounding urban environments in which they take shape.
1. Estimation based on forecasts of additional student enrolment (500 FTES/year) and calculated according to the current MES admissible space standard
In summary, the objectives of the plan are as follows:
The recommended approach for implementing the Campus Master Plan is part of a strategic, concerted and integrated process with the City of Montreal’s regulatory and planning mechanisms.
Close collaboration with the city was established at the outset of the project to align Concordia’s strategy and policies with those of Montreal regarding development projects, planning initiatives and regulations. In addition, a consultation and communication process will support the Campus Master Plan at every stage to ensure a collective vision consistent with the ambitions of the Concordia community is formulated.
The plan's development process has four main phases, the second of which has just been completed:
(August 2020 to March 2021)
(March to August 2021)
(August to October 2021)
(October 2021 to September 2022)
The approach calls for constant and productive collaboration between both internal and external partners affected by the project and draws on best consulting practices to promote social acceptability by the partners and their endorsement of the plan.
2. IDP: Integrated Design Process
With a consistent focus on progress, research and excellence, Concordia has established nine strategic directions that define its vision of the future.
These directions provide sound guidance for Concordia’s development. They relate to all of the university's different, and their implementation unfolds at many different levels.
These directions represent and guide fundamental issues in the overall development of the institution. Through its physical and spatial approach, the master plan will respond to these issues. As such, they constitute the prism through which the vision, guiding principles and filters presented in this report have been addressed and developed.
To create places of learning, research and community in an inclusive, shared and dynamic environment that meets the needs of members, through a lasting focus on the Indigenization, heritage, community engagement and innovation.
To provide a concrete spatial vision of Concordia’s next-generation university, five guiding principles in the language of urban design and five filters representing major issues have been identified as the fundamental components that form the basis of the master plan.
The guiding principles establish objectives that justify actions and determine their scope. Each guiding principle is comprised of multiple issues, with intentions that can be spatialized through efforts in multiple areas.
The actions taken in the context of the master plan must be able to respond to the issues covered by one or more guiding principles.
These filters are fundamental considerations that will need to be applied to all of the different themes in the development plan for each campus. These considerations thus act as essential filters to guarantee the quality and precision of the actions proposed to achieve the objectives that the institution has set for itself.
The development plans respond to the different issues that emerge from the strategic orientations, the vision of the Concordia Campus Master Plan and the guiding principles. They also spatialize the potential responses to issues raised in the profile and IDP workshops.
The development plan for each campus is designed around six themes:
master.plan@concordia.ca 514-848-2424, ext. 2400
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