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Planning Division

Facilities Planning guides and supports Northwestern’s near and long-term development of our Evanston and Chicago campuses. From spearheading a master plan to planning for a new building, our office helps schools and units resolve their space needs in the built environment.

Learn about Planning Division Units

The four units that comprise the Planning Division work together to provide programming, planning, and management services to the Northwestern community. 

Campus master planning

Responsibilities: 

  • Manages the Evanston Campus Framework Plan and the development of the Evanston Campus Master Plan ensuring that the built environment supports the Northwestern
  • Campus planning guides campus development through:
    • Site selection & campus development
    • City zoning compliance
    • Infrastructure master plan
    • Landscape planning
    • Accessibility compliance
    • Parking count management & zoning oversight
    • Building acquisitions and site disposition assessments
    • Historic and environmental preservation
  • Provides landscape design services for small campus projects and serves as the owner’s representative for large, capital construction projects
  • Consults on exterior spaces, artwork placement, garden oversight, and utility and infrastructure routes
  • Collaborates with grounds on landscape maintenance, irrigation, and the tree inventory
  • Engages with community programs in support of town/gown relationships

 

Building and space planning

Responsiblities:

  • Fulfills a crucial link between the Office of the Provost, Resource Planning Committee, Capital Facilities Committee, and other executive offices
  • Translates multi-dimensional requests from campus stakeholders into well-defined projects for execution
  • Produces analysis and context for decision making regarding allocation of facilities resources required to support teaching, research, administrative, and operational efforts
  • Building and space planning provides this service by:
    • Determining the type and quantity of space needed to support Strategic Initiatives
    • Understanding the inventory of space on all campuses and making recommendations on the highest and best occupation or re-deployment of that space
    • Translating research, teaching, administrative, and operational needs into detailed spatial and infrastructure program requirements
    • Overseeing the development of options for immediate space needs, school/unit master planning, and building assessments
    • Establishing rough-order-of magnitude total project budgets and milestone schedules
    • Advising on the sequence and logistics of project implementation
    • Defining project scopes and developing conceptual designs for execution

Space information

Space information provides planning tools and information to support planning, construction, and operations of Northwestern’s physical environment.

  • Space management
    • Develops and maintains an accurate inventory of campus, building, and space data in Facilities Connect (IBM Tririga), Northwestern’s space information system of record
    • Supports and provides technical expertise on the Federal & Administrative Rate Negotiations
    • Oversees the annual space validation process for over ~300 academic/administrative units
    • Maintains current AutoCAD floor plan records of all campus facilities
    • Produces tabular and graphic space reports and utilization assessments
    • Assigns building numbers and room numbers for all campus buildings and project
  • Campus mapping
    • Creates and maintains Northwestern maps
    • Produces graphic reports utilizing current and historic maps and aerial photography
  • Facilities archives
    • Collects, maintains and organizes historical and current documents generated by ongoing construction and renovation projects (~130k paper documents scanned; ~75% of collection)
    • Critical customer service link to consultants, shops, planners, and project managers at project inception through the operation of the building, researching project and asset records

Capital planning

Capital planning supports Northwestern’s long-range planning working closely with the Office of Budget and Planning and Financial Operations on the development of the 7-Year Capital Facilities Plan.