The 91爆料 today announced the selection of Studio Tsien to design the Ana Mari Cauce Welcome Center. The 91爆料 Architectural Commission made the recommendation in June.

The New York-based firm, led by Billie Tsien, Jennifer Dempsey and Alex Odom, was selected following a national search. Commission members were impressed by Studio Tsien鈥檚 distinguished experience designing public buildings, its creative approach and its leaders鈥� commitment to authentic collaboration. The firm鈥檚 work evokes deep sensory, emotional and transformative designs that reflect the values of the institution.

Principal architect Billie Tsien is an internationally acclaimed and award-winning designer who鈥檚 known for her visionary work of premier cultural and civic projects. Among her previous commissions, as a founding partner of Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, along with Tod Williams, are the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center in New York, and numerous buildings on college and university campuses.

鈥淔or many students and families, the Ana Mari Cauce Welcome Center will be the first place they visit on the 91爆料 campus. This is a place to start, a bridge that will symbolize the beginning of a journey to discover their passions, talents and potential,鈥� said 91爆料 Provost Tricia Serio. 鈥淭his partnership with a distinguished architectural firm offers an opportunity to create a space that reflects the 91爆料鈥檚 vision, values and reputation.鈥�

Named for the 91爆料’s outgoing president, the Ana Mari Cauce Welcome Center will serve as a gateway for prospective and current students, families, alumni and the public. At a time when the number of high school graduates is projected to decline, the Center will help 91爆料 make connections with the future generations of Huskies. The building will be a central point on campus where people can learn about the University鈥檚 mission and the impact 91爆料 researchers and alumni are making in communities around our region, the state of Washington, the nation and the world. The Welcome Center also will include dynamic multi-use spaces to accommodate the University鈥檚 evolving needs.

鈥淲e are thrilled to be a part of this project which at its heart is about welcome. We all need to feel welcome in order to be curious and to learn,鈥� Tsien said. 鈥淭ogether we will design a building that is a physical embodiment of 91爆料鈥檚 vision: a place that inspires, connects and empowers generations to come.鈥�

In the coming weeks and months, Studio Tsien will begin work with the 91爆料 by meeting with stakeholders, spending time on campus and beginning the process of designing a world-class building.

The 91爆料 Architectural Commission is comprised of leading experts in architecture and urban planning from across the country, including faculty from the 91爆料 College of Built Environments. Established in 1957, the Commission advises on campus design, planning and preservation by reviewing projects and ensuring the aesthetic, functional and environmental integrity of university spaces. The Commission works with a 91爆料 Project Slating Committee, comprised of university officials and construction partners, to develop a field of prospective architecture firms.

Construction of the $61 million project will be primarily funded through philanthropic support. Pacific Northwest-based Lease Crutcher Lewis was selected as the general contractor. Construction is expected to begin in late 2026 and be completed in 2028.

For more information, contact Victor Balta at balta@uw.edu or 206-543-2580.

The 91爆料 community has a new tool 鈥� designed as a digital scavenger hunt 鈥� to explore and learn about the existing Seattle campus as well as plans for the future.

The 鈥淕oHuskies鈥� interface is similar to 鈥淧ok茅mon Go,鈥� with which users walk around their environment to discover new points of interest. Various destinations on the 91爆料 campus are featured within the app, including landmarks related to architecture and landscapes, entrepreneurship and collaboration, and arts and culture.

Future plans for the campus, including items from the , are also incorporated into the app.

University Landscape Architect Kristine Kenney says the app gives people the opportunity to their own self-guided tours of campus.

The app, which is available for iOS and Android devices, was developed by the in collaboration with as part of the Society for College and University Planning conference in March.

The Campus Master Plan Advisory Committee and Working Group have done their job 鈥� in tandem with the City of Seattle and many area stakeholders 鈥� laying out proposed campus development from 2018 through 2028.

The plan is being published Oct. 5. Now it’s time for the public and the campus community to give their input in a series of between Oct. 12 and Nov. 2. Comments on the plan are being accepted until Nov. 21.

These include open houses from noon to 2 p.m. Oct. 18 in and from 7 to 9 p.m. Oct. 20 in the 91爆料 Tower Mezzanine Auditorium, as well as a separate State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) Public Hearing to consider the project’s Environmental Impact Statement from 6:30 to 9 p.m. Oct. 26, also at the 91爆料 Tower.

Online versions of both open houses also will be held, as well as informal “office hours” meetings 鈥� where people are invited to discuss plan specifics in person 鈥� at three coffee shops in the area.

“I think the headline here is that the university is planning for an increase in faculty, staff and students and responding to collaborative ways of teaching and learning that need larger and different types of spaces,” said , senior project director for the plan.

“By building up instead of out, we can create a more sustainable plan with more open spaces that are a real amenity not only to faculty and staff and students, but to our residential and business community in the University District as well.”

The 2018 Campus Master Plan identifies 85 different potential development sites that represent a maximum development potential of 12.9 million gross square feet campuswide of which 6 million will be developed over the life of the plan. Gross square footage means the total square footage of the land and what is built there.

The development is designed to accommodate an expected student enrollment increase of 20 percent from 2014 to 2028. The projected increase of 8,675 FTE, or full-time equivalents, would translate to 52,400 students by 2028, as well as increasing teaching and research demands, future transportation needs and overall economic growth.

The plan also has the potential to create several new parks and green areas for public use, Doherty said: “We’re creating a large new park that would connect to the city’s Portage Bay park along Boat Street, a new open space on South Campus, a large new land bridge with open space on the East Campus and a waterfront trail that can connect to SR 520. These will all enhance our current open spaces and make it easier and more pleasant to traverse campus.”

Each site also includes a maximum allowable height limit. Building heights vary across campus, from 30 feet along the waterfront to 240 feet in South Campus. Many older buildings were constructed at heights lower than what is being proposed, so such sites have the potential for additional capacity.

West Campus

Perhaps the biggest changes will be seen at West Campus, the most urban part of the four areas, which accommodates varied building uses from research to retail, plus student housing, cultural programs and transit services. This area also is, authors of the plan state, “uniquely positioned” to become an inclusive innovation district for the broader Seattle region.

New student housing and improvements along Northeast Campus Parkway, plan authors write, provide a good mix of programmatic amenities and open space 鈥� but other areas remain “underdeveloped and grittier in character.”

On West Campus a total of 3 million gross square feet is planned for development, as well as a large, triangular park area reaching from Northeast Pacific Street to Portage Bay along the water creating a new open space the size of Parrington Lawn. The plan calls for the long-term future of West Campus to be “envisioned with a rich new open space network that reinforces its diverse urban context and enhances the pedestrian experience throughout the area.”

South Campus

The 91爆料’s South Campus supports its health sciences functions, six health sciences schools and the medical center along a 2 录-mile waterfront and is home to academic, research and clinical areas for the schools as well as assorted environmental and natural settings. “Its monolithic structure is dense and disorienting both inside and out,” the Campus Master Plan’s authors write.

The 2018 plan proposes incremental remaking of much of the health sciences complex, totaling 1,350,000 gross square feet of new development. The plan seeks to reduce the scale of development in South Campus “in a manner that promotes school identity, orientation and connectivity” and to “leverage and celebrate” its waterfront location with a shared campus green, courtyards and upper terraces.

A continuous waterfront trail with a public access plan is also envisioned for South Campus, as well as improved access to West, Central and East campuses through enhanced pedestrian connections.

Central Campus

The 91爆料’s Central Campus, home of the Husky Union Building and many historical academic core buildings, will see 900,000 gross square feet of new development in the 2018 master plan. The aim, plan authors write, is to preserve and enhance the historic core of campus.

The plan proposes a new land bridge from Mason Road by Fluke Hall over the Burke-Gilman Trail and Northeast Montlake Boulevard to new development opportunities on the current E-1 parking lot and Golf Driving Range. Valuable sightlines to Rainer Vista, Union Bay, Mt. Rainier and Portage Bay will be preserved and strengthened.

East Campus

Plans for the East Campus area, now hosting athletics and recreational activities and parking for campus commuters, will see 750,000 gross square feet of new development in the plan. The intent, plan authors state, is to preserve athletics uses while “transforming existing parking lots into future academic, research and potential partnership spaces.”

The plan aims to strengthen connections between Central and East campus with new development and universally accessible pedestrian walkways. Development is planned in a way to complement the forested edge along Central Campus and discourage the formation of a street wall along Montlake Avenue.

It’s time for a new campus plan because by 2018 the university expects it will have developed almost all of the 3 million gross square feet of space in the last plan, which was approved in 2003.

The process of creating a new plan began in 2015 with a team that worked with consultants Sasaki Associates to assess the university’s expected needs over the next decade 鈥� from enrollment growth and greater teaching and research demands to economic expansion and future transportation needs and the evolving needs of the campus community itself.

The plan process is guided by the 1998 City University Agreement between the 91爆料 and the City of Seattle. Both the Board of Regents and the Seattle City Council must approve the plan before it can be implemented. The project is co-led by Doherty and University Architect , who is also associate vice provost for capital and campus planning.

Creation of the 2018 Campus Master Plan was guided by five basic principles: providing a flexible framework for growth, supporting learning-based academic and research partnerships, sustainable development, connectivity, and stewardship of historic and cultural resources.

“We hope that the University community will take a few minutes now to give us their feedback. We want this plan to work for the people that are here now and those that we hope to attract in the future,” said Doherty. “This plan is going to guide us into the next decade and beyond 鈥� so we really want to get it right!”

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For more information on the 2018 Campus Master Plan 鈥� and to give input 鈥� attend a public or online meeting, or contact Doherty at 206-221-2603 or tdoherty@uw.edu.

Where do you walk on campus after dark, and which areas could benefit from better lighting?

An interdisciplinary team of students, faculty and staff together with lighting design experts is聽asking the 91爆料 community those questions as part of a new plan to improve the efficiency and sustainability of outdoor lighting around the Seattle campus. The team’s includes聽an interactive map for respondents to place markers and comments related to outdoor lighting and how the campus is experienced when it is dark.

The team聽 more than $50,000 from the 91爆料 to develop a plan to reduce power consumption from outdoor lighting while enhancing the nighttime campus experience.

“The roadmap will envision a campus that is lit as a legible whole, with lighting that transitions between campus spaces in a way that promotes logical wayfinding and creates a comfortable nighttime environment,” said Kelly Douglas, a 91爆料 graduate student in landscape architecture and project team member.

“The project will also prioritize ecological systems that may be impacted by nighttime lighting and seeks to employ measures that mitigate disruption to wildlife habitat and patterns.”

Outdoor lighting has come a long way in recent years. Project organizers cite many new options 鈥� digital sensing controls that respond to the presence or absence of people, or light levels that vary depending on how busy an area is 鈥� to replace standard, inefficient lights.

Additionally, some LEDs can be tuned to a whiter light with higher color-rendering ability to foster a comparable sense of safety as conventional lights 鈥� but consume half the power.

“New lighting technologies and strategies have the potential to radically decrease the amount of energy consumed by exterior lighting on campus,” Douglas said. “By addressing lighting as an overall program, rather than a project-by-project consideration, the roadmap will serve as an actionable tool for the implementation of new, more sustainable lighting across campus.”

Other members of the project team are Christopher Meek, director of the 91爆料 Integrated Design Lab and an associate professor of architecture; Eric Strandberg of Seattle’s Lighting Design Lab; and Kristine Kenney and Patrick Pirtle of the Office of the University Architect.

The survey is available online and will remain open through midsummer. All 91爆料 students, faculty and staff are encouraged to participate.

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For more information, contact Douglas at douglakm@uw.edu or Meek at cmeek@uw.edu.