Strategic Facility Planning for the Academic Health Center

The 1998 AHC Strategic Facility Planning began to address the dissatisfaction, challenges and opportunities of planning and managing AHC facilities.These opportunities and challenges were that:

• Academic priorities needed to guide space assignment and use of facilities.
• A rational, understandable process for developing and prioritizing projects was needed.
• Interscholastic cooperation was required to solve a number of major  facilities challenges

Numerous guiding principles were developed during this planning effort which have been carried forward into subsequent planning activities:

• The AHC cares about its people.
• Facilities should aesthetically foster learning, collegiality and discovery. All facilities need to be aesthetic, clean and work properly
• The AHC’s students, staff, faculty and visitors need gathering spaces to create a sense of community.
• The AHC needs research spaces that can respond flexibly to program and grant requests.
• The AHC should have a sense of “here” provided by a common theme, circulation spaces, or identifiers….wayfinding needs to be simplified.
• Curriculum needs should drive the design of new and renovated educational spaces.
• Creating common areas for students near faculty office would make these offices more accessible to students.
• “Short streets” should link the AHC’s education, research, and clinical operations to enhance collaboration, synergy and faculty productivity.

An outgrowth of the 1998 Strategic Facility Plan, the 2000 District Plan focused on a small, four square block area and sought to maximize the built environment opportunities of this area. Although it is limited to the Minneapolis campus of the and excludes clinical facilities, it, nonetheless provides a solid base for current planning on the east bank campus of the Academic Health Center.

 Objectives of the 2000 District plan included:

1. Improve the visibility and ease of access to the AHC.
2. Transform its built environment into an attractive, intellectually energizing place.
3. Shorten links between collaborative programs and clarify circulation.
4. Replace obsolete facilities with ones that accommodate new educational, research and clinical technology and practice and that can easily be adapted to serve changing programs and interdisciplinary efforts.
5. Provide sufficient space with the district to support the future needs of a competitive AHC.

To accomplish these objectives -

• The plan assumes the eventual replacement of obsolete and inefficient structures and maximizes the available real estate.
• The plan creates a landscaped central square with a variety of functional areas for use by students, staff and patients.
• The plan organizes internal and external circulation networks around the new central square for efficient way finding. It also differentiates and extends pedestrian, vehicular and service circulation systems throughout the complex and into adjoining districts. A structure of spaces, landmarks and unifying architectural elements reinforces the new circulation concepts.
• The plan provides a framework, schedule, and locations for identified upcoming projects over the next 15-20 years. It replaces approximately 1 million square feet of obsolete and inefficient structures with 1.3 million square feet of new construction.

The 2006 Precinct Plan Task Force Report was both an update of the 1998 and 2000 plans and a specific charge of the University’s strategic positioning and planning efforts.  The plan updated the inventory of space, including all of the investments made since 2000, and analyzed this data in reference to strategic positioning.  The plan offered analysis and guidelines for development in the areas of patient care, research and education.