Master Plan: Press Release

Trent University
Peterborough

For Release from Noon, Thursday, 14 May, 1964.

TRENT UNIVERSITY UNVEILS SEVENTY MILLION DOLLAR
MASTER PLAN

A building programme for Trent University totalling $70 million dollars was announced today by the President and Vice-Chancellor, T.H.B. Symons. The proposals are contained in a Master Plan for the development over the next sixteen years of the University's permanent site on the Otonabee River near Peterborough. The Master Plan will be implemented in three phases, the first of which commences at once.

The first phase of the Master Plan, to cost approximately $17 million dollars, is aimed for completion by 1968 and designed to provide the University with the first residential college for men (named Champlain College), the first residential college for women, the first unit of the University library, the first unit of the science buildings, some athletic facilities, and the installation of roads and essential services at the new site of the University.

During the ensuing phases from 1968 to 1980, ten more residential colleges will be built, as well as additions to the University library and to the science buildings. Other buildings planned include a theatre, an art gallery and a museum, a chapel and religious studies centre, additional athletic facilities, health services, and a University village which will be developed on the campus to provide certain services for students and staff.

President Symons noted that the twelve residential and teaching colleges are the central element in the Master Plan. The colleges will provide facilities for an academic community of about 4,000 people, including more than 3,000 undergraduates and several hundred graduate students.

In addition to teaching and office accommodation, the colleges will provide residential accommodation for about 2,500 of these students, and will serve also as centres for students living at home or in rooms.

The President said that the University's Planning Committees and Board had from the beginning determined that Trent University would 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 separation of persons in different disciplines. This had been reflected in the brief to the Master Planning Architect, Mr. Ronald J. Thom, which had been prepared by Professor Denis Smith, the secretary of the Campus Planning Committee, and had been admirably interpreted by Mr. Thom in his specific proposals for the Master Plan.

The Otonabee River is the main feature of the University site, and it has therefore been made the centre of the campus. Two pedestrian bridges across the river will connect buildings located on both sides of the river, so that everyone in the University may be aware of the river's beauty and immediate presence.

The Plan is based on the principle of a walking campus, with almost no intrusion of vehicles. Traffic patterns for all automobiles and delivery vans have been so planned that they will not interfere with pedestrian traffic patterns within the University campus. Because the main movement within the campus will be on foot, all buildings have been kept within a half mile circle or a maximum ten-minute walking distance from one another. Most buildings are much closer together than this maximum. 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 parkland strip between themselves and the water.

The library has been placed at the confluence of all pedestrian traffic, making it the natural hub of the University. The main academic square, at the front door of the library, will be paved and large enough to accommodate assemblies and convocations. It may become the gathering point of the campus, occupying the same place in the life of the University community that a village square does in the life of its community.

The colleges are distributed as evenly as possible throughout the Plan, each one taking advantage of some special quality of the landscape to differentiate it from the others. Some are located at the riverside, others at the base of the "mountain" which rises on the western edge of the campus, others in the midst of a complex of buildings.

The three basic science disciplines, on the other hand, are grouped together in order that members of the science community may be able to consort with each other conveniently. The Plan allows space for almost unlimited growth of the science facilities.

A village at the edge of the campus will be planned to serve the needs of staff and students primarily. It is expected to contain a theatre, museum, and art gallery, and such things as shops, banks, bookstores, and a restaurant. It should provide a natural attraction for the City of Peterborough and neighbouring communities as well, and in the process become a meeting place of town and gown.

The University site is located at the base of the Pre-Cambrian Shield, close to the edge of the wild land of northern Ontario. One of the first undertakings of the University will be to preserve and enhance the special natural quality of the site by a programme of reforestation on the campus.

The entire site, which totals over 1,400 acres, offers ample space for playing fields as well as magnificent natural opportunities for athletics and recreation such as swimming, sailing, rowing and other water sports, skiing and skating in the winter, and at all times, walking. A small boathouse is situated in a strategic position for the use of the river.

The President said that no attempt has been made to establish a fully definitive design of a whole University at this stage in its creation. Instead a framework has been created that will allow for change and development. Some ideas expressed in the Plan will be modified as buildings are built and lived and worked in. Planning is now proceeding in detail for the first phase of the Plan. The design work for Champlain College, the first residential college for men, is underway and the college is expected to open in August, 1966.

President Symons noted that the University sees its campus as a public area and an addition to the river parklands of Peterborough. "The University wishes to work closely with the Otonabee Region Conservation Authority and other public bodies to make the area an even more attractive park area for the use of the public than it now is," he said. "The University has no desire to exclude the public from its campus, but will welcome their presence as an added source of life and activity in the University."

During the two weeks preceding publication of the Master Plan, members of the University staff have made detailed private presentations of the Plan to a number of public bodies representing the community, including the Councils of the City of Peterborough, the Village of Lakefield, the Townships of Smith and Douro, and the Suburban Roads Committee, the Otonabee Region Conservation Authority, and the Trent Canal Authority.

President Symons expressed his appreciation to the University's Architect, Mr. Thom, for his work upon the Trent Master Plan, and to the members of the staff of the University, nearly all of whom had shared in the planning and made some personal contribution to the shape of the Master Plan.

Peterborough,
Ontario