Queen’s University’s Campus Master Plan (CMP) has won a prestigious national award from the Canadian Institute of Planners (CIP).

At its annual conference later this month, the CIP will present the 2014 Award for Planning Excellence in the urban design category to Queen’s and Urban Strategies Inc., the lead planning consultants who worked on the CMP.

“Queen’s is extremely fortunate to have a remarkable campus that is both steeped in history and continually evolving,” says Daniel Woolf, Principal and Vice-Chancellor. “Urban Strategies did a remarkable job in guiding the university through the process of creating a vision for how that evolution can happen over the coming years to best meet the needs of our students, staff and faculty, while respecting the university’s heritage and its situation within the Kingston community.”

The CMP was approved by the university’s Board of Trustees in March 2014 after more than a year of consultation with stakeholders. The plan provides a vision and framework for how the university’s physical campus can evolve over the next 10-15 years, and replaces the previous master plan developed in 2002. The plan will help facilitate a vibrant campus life, while sustaining the best parts of the Queen’s experience.

“Queen’s benefited tremendously throughout the CMP process from the insight of the entire team at Urban Strategies,” says Yvonne Holland, Director of Planning and Development at Queen’s. “They brought not only a deep knowledge and experience in planning to the process, but also a commitment to listening to views and priorities of a wide range of stakeholders, both on campus and in the wider community.”

Joe Berridge is a Partner with Urban Strategies, the Toronto-based planning and urban design firm.

“It is very gratifying to be honoured with this highly competitive award. As one of Canada’s oldest universities, Queen’s has an extraordinary quality. This was a unique assignment, figuring out how that quality can best evolve as educational needs change” says Joe Berridge.  

The Award for Planning Excellence is the CIP’s highest honour for work by Canadian planners.