Long-range Facilities Planning

Ever walked around campus and wondered how everything here came to be? It all started with the Facilities Master Plan, the blueprint for campus development that is produced every 10 years and updated every 5 years.

The Facilities Master Plan guides the university’s Capital Improvement Plan, which is submitted annually to the University of Colorado Board of Regents and the Colorado Department of Higher Education and provides a multi-year snapshot of projects the university is seeking to fund and construct.

Program Plans are documents that outline the details of a project: the site, users, budget, funding and the need that is being met. These are required before a project can be approved to move into design and construction.

OIP manages the production, approval, and updating of these documents. OIP also represents the university in broader community planning efforts, provides graphic support for site plans and campus maps, and collects historical information related to the development of the campus. Contact us to share or access historic documents, images, and artifacts!

An outline created every 10 years that charts a vision for the physical development of the campus. Driven by the university’s strategic plan, the Campus Master Plan establishes overall goals, objectives, and design principles, as well as long-range planning for architecture, land use, space use, landscape, transportation, parking, and utilities. A campus master plan is required by the Colorado Department of Higher Education (CDHE).

Each new building, renovation, and infrastructure requires a Program Plan, which provides more information than what is typically found in a Facilities Master Plan. It’s the second step for a project. The program plan addresses the following elements of a project: need that is being addressed with the project, occupants or user group, site or location, budget, funding source, and projected schedule.

Capital Improvement plans are required annually by all Colorado state institutions of higher education. They provide a multi-year view of projects that institutions are intending to design and construct over a 1- to 5-year period. They are reviewed by the University of Colorado Board of Regents, the Colorado Department of Higher Education, and by legislative committees of the Colorado General Assembly.

Tools & Resources

Schools & Colleges

CU Denver

CU Anschutz Medical Campus

CU Campuses

Institutional Planning

Long-range Facilities Planning

Long-range Facilities Planning

Facilities Master Plan:

Program Plan:

Concept Plan:

Micro-master Plan:

Capital Improvement Plan: