2025 Theses Master's

Systematizing the Campus Planning Process: A Model for University Spatial Decision Making

Emslie, Otis

This thesis presents a novel, replicable, standardized model for understanding how universities approach campus planning initiatives. The model accounts for a range of internal decision-making factors, including academic priorities, spatial demand pressures, and institutional strategy, and it aims to systematize the spatial decision-making process across higher education.

Rather than focusing exclusively on a single project, the study uses Columbia University’s Manhattanville expansion as an illustrative case to test and iterate the proposed framework. The project draws from qualitative interviews with experts directly involved with the field of campus planning including but not limited to: campus planners, real estate professionals, architects, and facilities managers to understand how universities negotiate long-term growth considerate to a variety of external market forces and internal institutional demands.

The Manhattanville case serves as a lens through which the thesis examines how a major urban university integrates real estate acquisition, programmatic planning, and architectural implementation within a constrained and politically sensitive environment. The goal is not to evaluate the outcomes of the expansion, but to use it to better understand the conditions and considerations that shape university development patterns. Ultimately, this thesis contributes a transferable planning model that illustrates the typical sequencing, inputs, and feedback loops involved in campus expansion and redevelopment.