Ron Thom's Master Plan for Trent

Master Plan, Trent University

23 April, 1964

Trent University will be situated in a wide valley on either side of the Otonabee River, three miles north of the City of Peterborough. It is to be a residential university based on the college system, designed to encourage the mixing together of many kinds of scholars and to avoid as far as possible the stratification of people in different disciplines. It is being planned with the benefit of hindsight - the examples of the old universities like Oxford and Cambridge, which enjoyed the advantages of the college system but had to suffer the consequences of not having anticipated the modern requirements of science studies, special faculties, and so on.

The university site is located at the base of the Pre-Cambrian Shield, close to the edge of the still wild land of northern Ontario. Its character has been changed by a century of farming, and one of the first undertakings of the university will be to restore its immediate environs to their natural state of reforestation.

The Otonabee River is the main feature of the University site. A vital feature of such importance could hardly fail to be considered as the centre of the campus. Therefore the main internal traffic of the campus has been set to run at right angles to it, and because it is necessary to cross the river, everyone in the University will be constantly aware of it.

It is necessary to create a new environment within this natural environment, to take a fine line between creating a university which becomes part of this larger landscape, and yet one which produces its own more urban landscape within, such as is essential to produce an academic concentration. It should be possible for people in the University to enjoy the best of both of these different worlds without either one being compromised to allow for the presence of the other. The plan is based on the principle of a walking campus with almost no intrusion of vehicles other than those used for intramural services. All automobiles, delivery vans and so on have been relegated to their own traffic patterns that never interfere with the pedestrian traffic patterns. On the east bank this is accomplished by placing service routes on the opposite sides of buildings from the main pedestrian routes. On the west bank, where this simple solution is not possible, a vertical separation of roads and walkways has been used. Because the main movement within the campus is foot traffic, al the buildings have been kept within a half mile circle or a 10-minute walking distance. Since the river forces such a wide opening through the centre of the campus, a close grouping of buildings on either side has been necessary in order to maintain this 10-minute walking limit. This, however, is in keeping with the idea of a concentrated academic environment. Buildings on the west bank are planned close to the river, in some cases arising out of the river, whereas on the east bank they are set back to allow a landscaped strip and a tow-path between themselves and the water.

While each building is to have its own special character, each owes something to the University's overall character. While the plans and the requirements will differ from building to building, they must still be tied together to form a cohesive whole. One obvious means of doing this is through the use of a consistent approach to building techniques and materials. Studies and field trips have been made throughout the entire Trent Valley because it has been felt that the University must respect and reflect the regional qualities that have been developed for over a hundred years. These studies established that the basic materials in this area were brick, stone, wood and copper. The black wood and the verdigris copper and the gray stone and the reddy-brown brick create between them a natural palette of great richness and one of adequate scope to account for this entire University. Investigations are now proceeding at a local quarry that produces a subtle variety of limestone which appears to be adaptable to the most modern concrete techniques. It is obviously essential for a university today to avail itself of these latest techniques which were unknown to our forefathers. It would be preposterous to consider building structures with today's infinite variety of demands with methods commonly in use a hundred years ago. To incorporate the colour of brick found in this region it is suggested that special paving be used, derived as far as possible from local brick clays,and further that in the outer reaches of the campus where paved areas become pathways, that these be covered with crushed chips of the same material.

The library is considered to be the central building of the campus, the one building used by all members of the University. It has therefore been placed at the confluence of all pedestrian traffic, making it the proper hub of the University. Everyone has to pass it in his normal to and fro. The main academic square, which is paved and of a size to accommodate assemblies, convocations and outdoor gatherings of all sorts, is at the front door of this main building and will become the gathering point of the campus. It will occupy the same place in the lives of the University community that the village square does in the lives of its community. It not only falls in the approximate geographical centre of the plan, but also on the main topographical prominence of the river.

Colleges are distributed as evenly as possible throughout the plan. It is important that each one achieves a special and particular quality that differentiates it from the others. Some are located in immediate contact with the river, others with the mountain, still others in the very midst of the building complex. The site has many charms and there is a danger of overlooking them by being preoccupied with the most obvious, the river.

The three basic science disciplines, on the other hand, have been grouped together. Here there was a danger of stratifying the three disciplines by separating them. Their boundaries are nebulous and ever-changing and during the working hours it is most essential that the various members of the science community be able to consort with each other conveniently.

A village shown at the edge of the campus will be planned and stocked to serve the needs of staff and students primarily. It should contain such things as banks, clothing shops, book stores, restaurants, cleaners, barbers, photographic suppliers, etc., as well as a theatre, museum and gallery. It should provide a natural attraction for the City of Peterborough as well and in the process become a meeting place of town and gown.

The entire site offers magnificent natural opportunities for athletics such as rowing, swimming and other water sports, skiing and skating in the winter, and at all times walking. In addition to these the plan provides for five major sports fields (one with a track), tennis courts, lacrosse boxes, hockey rinks, and in the colleges squash courts. It is considered that athletics are to be participated in as an important part of everybody's university career and not simply indulged in by the few and watched by the many.

The Otonabee Conservation Authority has indicated interest in developing the Trent Canal land to the south of the University as a public picnic site. This development is in the best interests of the University as it provides one form of link between town and gown. It will be an area contiguous with the tow-path on the east bank and should encourage walking along the river through the campus. It provides another recreational area for the members of the University close at hand. Furthermore, this becomes the logical areas as the site for an inn. This normally would be an adjunct of the village, but in this case, because of the natural beauty of this part of the site and relationship to a major recreational area, every advantage and few disadvantages are realized by placing it here.

The boathouse is situated in the most strategic position for rowing. The other field house, the gymnasium, is located beside it so that common facilities could be shared and because the site at this point affords a flat area for such things as track that also require the facilities of a field house.

Administration has been deliberately held aloof from the campus owing to the autonomous nature of the colleges.

The various faculties, as yet undefined, have been distributed amongst the colleges, consistent with the overall attitude of the University concerning the infusion of disciplines.

It is now possible to consider electricity as an economical and desirable source of energy for a complex as large as a university. It has been demonstrated in studies that electrical energy can result in less cost and few of the encumbrances associated with liquid and gaseous fuel systems, such as the generation of smoke and dirt, the need for great chimneys, large central power plants, tunnels and pipes which are in a constant state of decay and need of repair and replacement. As it is a basic need of a university to grow and develop freely and to change as change is required, the more flexible and adaptable distribution system made possible by the use of electrical energy becomes an obvious and logical mechanical adjunct. Furthermore, the same electrical system required in any case for lighting and power is also used for heating by simply enlarging the already existing installation. Also, it is the one system of all that can in the future avail itself of the benefits of such new developments as solar and atomic energy sources.

No attempt has been made to establish a fully definitive design of an entire university as was done with Scarborough College and Simon Fraser University. Instead a major framework is being constructed that will allow change and development. Ideas will modify as buildings are built and lived and worked in. This is a healthy condition that must be facilitated. At present the plan has not explored everything in enough detail to ensure the character that the academic staff intends will necessarily grow out of it. This can only be assured when each part is studied until its exact needs are revealed. Only then can a meaningful program be written for each building. The attempt now is to find a method of building which will not be outdated, which will be consistent with modern technology and which will be sufficiently flexible to satisfy a variety of different conditions for the foreseeable future. Ultimately the planning should produce harmony without rigidity.

Respectfully submitted,

R. J. Thom