The board considering expanding the University of Central Florida to a downtown campus has set its sights on space allocation, construction and design.
On March 26, the UCF Downtown Executive Council at UCF met with CannonDesign, a global design team, in Millican Hall, to discuss possibilities for the downtown expansion.
“We need to figure out what programs will be in what buildings to keep coherence and synergy,” said Mark Whitley, master plan consultant at CannonDesign.
Whitley referenced this stage of design as “capturing the ethos of the campus.” While the plan is still in the conceptual phase, Whitley gave a visual demonstration of schools he previously designed and made a block demonstration of the campus to show the board.
“We want this to standout and have a very different feel from everything else downtown,” said Bill Merck, UCF Vice President for Administration and Finance.
Merck described the proposed environment to Whitley as “work-like and flexible.”
While the design of the buildings was the topic of the meeting, other business included what programs were to be transferred to the new campus and what programs were going to be put in spaces together.
As of now, according to UCF’s plan, degree programs that will be affected include the College of Arts and Humanities, Sciences, Health and Public Affairs, Education and Human Performance, Engineering and Computer Science, Nicholson School of Communication and the School of Visual Arts and Performance. Also, the campus will be shared by a handful of programs from Valencia College.
However, as far as the final result, students will have to wait to see how the plan comes together because this project, according to Whitley, is “too early in to tell.”
