With resilience as a key driver, the Long Range Development Plan (LRDP) for Oregon State University - Cascades guides future growth of Central Oregon’s first four-year university. Located in Bend, the vision for the campus focuses on integrating it into the local community while promoting arts, culture, enrichment, health, wellness and sustainability. The plan takes a broad approach to resilience, which includes integrated economic, cultural, social, as well as environmental sustainability.
The 128-acre campus is sited on a former pumice mine and landfill in need of extensive environmental remediation and site engineering to allow for development. Respecting the dramatic site conditions and rehabilitating the high-desert ecosystem led to a carefully crafted plan that is uniquely of its place.
The focus on resiliency and sustainability is manifested in the design with infrastructure for renewable energy generation, water management and waste sorting integrated into the campus experience, which is designed to achieve triple net zero water, energy and waste goals as the institution grows.
In order to deliver the need for community facilities and services in concert with the university’s own needs, the plan establishes a creative framework for public-private partnerships. This unique approach is especially evident in the plans for the Innovation District.
The Innovation District is a vibrant, mixed-use district that blends housing, small scale retail and academic space with industry-partner office and research space. Industries and organizations with complementary missions are invited to develop in partnership with the university. Co-locating these partners leverages proximity to university resources and innovation and enriches the university’s academic and experiential learning opportunities.
The plan supports the university’s vision for interdisciplinary academics and integrated campus life through flexible, shared spaces such as collaboration, study, social and maker spaces. Weaving these elements throughout the campus will celebrate the diversity of the community while also bring people and ideas together.
The ongoing LRDP process involves close collaboration with the diverse constituent groups of the university and community, as well as an extensive team of technical consultants. The result of the effort will be a framework for university growth to 5,000 students, a Net Zero strategy, design guidelines and a phasing approach.
Page is providing master planning services. Page partnered with SERA Architects to collaborate on the campus design, SERA is also providing strategic sustainability consulting services. The project team includes MEP engineering consultant PAE; integrated water strategies by Biohabitats; landscape architecture by Walker Macy; structural engineering consultant ABHT; civil engineering consultant DOWL; and accessibility compliance by Karen Braitmayer.
