William & Mary Campus Comprehensive Plan

The Plan focuses on the main Williamsburg campus as well as the resilience goals and needs of the Batten School, a center for marine science located along the York River in Gloucester Point, VA. 

The Campus Comprehensive Plan is composed of three focused plans: the Framework Plan, the Learning Space Plan, and the Landscape Plan. Initiated in Spring 2024, the 18-month planning process brought together over 1,500 stakeholder voices and detailed analyses conducted across scales and contexts to craft a holistic plan that encompasses the university’s diverse facilities and campus neighborhoods.

The Framework Plan

As the foundational element of the Campus Comprehensive Plan, the Framework Plan provides an overall structure to guide future decision-making for investment in the campus’ physical assets.

The plan identifies strategic opportunities for physical expansion and infill on the Williamsburg campus. The recommendations outlined for these areas focus on reinforcing existing campus neighborhoods, enhancing campus character, improving wayfinding and mobility, and promoting efficient and sustainable campus development

Among the opportunity sites, the Plan focuses on three key areas: the site of the current Boswell and Jones Buildings, Corner Campus, and Green & Gold Village, These areas are largely located at the campus edges, where improvements can help establish new gateways, as well as more welcoming and efficient corridors that lead into and integrate with the well-established historic campus core.  

The Boswell and Jones site offers an opportunity to build a new academic hub, at a key campus gateway, to replace two aging buildings and develop an entry plaza at the eastern corner of campus that will feature upgraded pedestrian-friendly infrastructure. At the Corner Campus, recommendations focus on strengthening the link between the university and Colonial Williamsburg through public-facing resources. The Green & Gold Village proposes a new model for a neighborhood of student-life buildings that focus on enhancing connections with the surrounding woods and natural landscapes.

The 10-Year Learning Space Plan

Guided by the Framework Plan, the Learning Space Plan codifies principles and guidelines, leverages capital investment, and establishes instructional neighborhoods to optimize the quality and quantity of learning space on campus over the next ten years.

The plan is shaped by input from faculty, students and staff across departments, using data gathered from interactive surveys. Classroom condition assessments and utilization analysis were also conducted to develop both quantitative and qualitative evaluations of existing limitations and teaching and learning needs. 

Analysis findings reveal that while William & Mary has a sufficient overall quantity of classrooms, the size, configuration, and quality of those rooms does not align with current and desired section sizes. The current rooms also struggle to flexibly accommodate a range of pedagogical styles. 

The 100-Year Landscape Plan

The Landscape Plan provides guidance to steward the university’s landscape and open spaces on the Williamsburg and Gloucester Point campuses over the next 100 years.

The Plan takes a cohesive approach to understanding the landscape through cultural, natural and social lenses, drawing from community members’ relationship to the historical elements of campus, its environmental features, and the ways in which people move through and learn across the landscape. 

The recommendations weave together these three threads to develop unity and improve accessibility across the campus without sacrificing the unique character of the diverse neighborhoods and environments that comprise it. A preliminary carbon footprint assessment was also conducted using Carbon Conscience to identify areas of high carbon embodiment, as well as those with the greatest sequestration potential, to help guide the course of future development. The plan also focuses on protecting and improving connections to ecologically dense areas like the Central Woods and Matoaka Edge to help recenter the campus’ natural assets in the orbit of student life.  

Overall, the Framework Plan and the associated detailed plans for learning spaces and landscape provide William & Mary with an actionable implementation plan. Over the next several years, the university will advance capital projects that align with the values and principles articulated in these documents. In addition, Sasaki is currently working with the university to update a set of design guidelines that will provide recommendations for maintaining quality and consistency throughout William & Mary’s built and open space environments.