Planning Division

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

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 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 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.