Back in 2012, the University of Massachusetts Amherst Campus Planning department first unveiled a plan that called for a dramatic shift in the campus layout, function and atmosphere.
Fast forward to mid-November of this year, when David Dower, UMass's executive director of campus development, presented an update to the 13-year-old plan to local residents and university students.
The Massachusetts Daily Collegian, an independent student-run news source at UMass, reported that Dower began by reintroducing the original plan. Its core proposals called for complete streets, the removal of all roads in the core campus (except North Pleasant Street, Governors Drive and Massachusetts and Commonwealth avenues) and condensing nearly all parking lots into a few parking garages.
In addition, it called for the construction of dozens of buildings with a total of more than 1.84 million sq. ft. in phase one and the possible addition of another 2.14 million sq. ft. in the future.
One of the UMass Campus Planning office's biggest achievements is the development of Ellis Way, Hicks Way and Massachusetts Avenue.
"The first [vision] is Ellis Way, … a pedestrian path that carves its way through the campus," Dower said. "It becomes an organizing element as you're developing new buildings."
Hicks Way is a large thoroughfare currently designed for cars, which Campus Planning intends to change.
Dower explained that the work on South College and the Honors College buildings brings the edges of those structures closer to the road and pathways to create a narrower corridor. The goal for Hicks Way is to fully pedestrianize it and extend it in both directions.
For Massachusetts Avenue, the university's plan is to keep it open to cars, but like Hicks Way, bring the buildings closer to the pedestrian paths and narrow the road.
"It would not just be a four-lane road; it's a much more intimate space that theoretically should slow people down," Dower said.
Much Work Done, More On Horizon
Much of the UMass Amherst campus plan has come to fruition, according to the Daily Collegian.
For instance, the school's Isenberg School of Management acquired its Business Innovation Hub, Hills House was demolished for the Newman Catholic Center, an addition to South College was completed and the Sustainable Engineering Laboratories are nearing completion.
Many of these projects align with the visions for the three aforementioned pathways; among them are the Sustainable Engineering Laboratories, which are being built directly off Ellis Way and aim to continue the Engineering Quad to provide a more prominent entrance from Ellis.
Other ongoing projects include a computer science laboratory, a School of Public Health building, renovations to the Flint Laboratory and the Curry Hicks Cage and the installation of a new thermal energy infrastructure.
Dower noted that both the public health and computer science building at UMass Amherst are functionally completed but much of the landscaping work has been deferred to the spring due to the winter weather.
During the remainder of the November meeting, he laid out what additional projects are on the horizon at the Amherst campus.
They include work on the Center for Early Education and Care, the Water and Energy Technology Center, the Food Innovation Hub (FIH), an addition to Skinner Hall, a new loading dock for the Bromery Center for the Arts and a Central Academic Building (CAB).
Of those six projects, Dower noted that three of them are primarily student-facing buildings: FIH, the Skinner Hall addition and the CAB.
Two of the three planned efforts require the demolition of existing buildings, he said.
The Skinner Hall addition will be a space for students and house nursing simulation labs. According to the UMass Amherst Campus Planning website, the addition also will be able to meet the state's sustainability goals.
In discussing the high traffic paths where the addition is going to be built, Dower said, "We are going to parachute that thing right in there. [A lot of] people walk in these locations and [for any number of reasons] you can't just cut it off."
While the bridge at the Skinner Hall site is set to be removed, the new construction would take some cues from the original design. The addition also would be set low into the ground due to the elevation difference that necessitated the bridge in the first place.
In addition, the Food Innovation Hub will sit atop the existing Chenoweth and Cold Storage buildings, the Daily Collegian learned.
The final student-facing building will be the Central Academic Building, slated for construction at the current site of Bartlett Hall. Although the latter structure has been slated for demolition since the completion of the South College addition, it remains standing almost 10 years after the addition was finished in 2016.
"The reality is [the demolition] will be on the tail end of that five-year block," Dower said.
"We're the victim of our own success," he said. "We created this wonderful interior campus with Ellis Way. It feels really good so people want to use it, and that's the problem."
Housing availability, an issue for both residents and students in Amherst, was the final topic of the November presentation.
"The university announced in January 2025 that we issued a request for proposals to explore partnering with developers to create a comprehensive long-range plan to modernize campus housing and maintain affordability for decades," Dower noted in an email to the Daily Collegian.
