While the institutional master plan includes many components, the physical master plan outlines the development opportunities for buildings and land in a rational and lasting way. The physical framework principles developed as guidelines for the physical campus design will facilitate the successful implementation of goals and objectives supporting the vision of the academic medical campus of the future.

This section includes the proposed physical master plan concept for the Anschutz Medical Campus, as well as the principles used in developing this plan. As with any development, existing conditions, external influences, and phasing are integral parts of the facilities plan.

The physical planning for the new Anschutz Medical Campus of the University of Colorado Denver and University Hospital seeks to translate the institutional vision described in Section I and II into a physical form. The Anschutz Medical Campus, once constructed, should embody the themes that run through the vision statements developed by the seven vision teams.

Most aspects of the vision statements revolve around the research, education, clinical and public service missions of the University of Colorado Denver and University Hospital. These easily translate into themes for the facilities and campus components. The campus plan focuses primarily on the themes of:

Interdisciplinary Work. Discovery and innovation will increasingly be based upon interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary work, including academic disciplines not traditionally part of health sciences education and research.

Integration. Greater degrees of integration amongst research, education and clinical activities will encourage and facilitate increased synergy in education, discovery in research, and application of new knowledge in clinical arenas.

Access. The new University of Colorado Denver and University Hospital must be accessible to all potential users. This includes physical access for pedestrians as well as vehicles; access via telecommunications for learning, information, and resource sharing; and, friendly and welcoming access to the campus for all who visit, work, and study there.

External Partners. Alliances, affiliations and partnerships with outside entities will be essential. These will include a broad spectrum of groups such as business and industry, government agencies, colleges and universities, and others in all areas of research, education, and clinical activity.

Core Support Services. Consolidation of scarce or costly resources for shared access by the entire campus will become increasingly important. These resources include equipment, technology, scholarly resources, as well as people.

Technology. Future developments in technology will both drive and enable new opportunities in all aspects of research, education and clinical activities. Technology encompasses all systems that use electronic voice, video, and data so that resources and ideas can be shared over a regional, national, and global network.

Flexibility. Given the dynamic and changing environment in which an academic health center must learn to thrive, the new campus framework as well as the buildings and infrastructure must be designed with inherent flexibility to accommodate the future.

These vision themes have been incorporated into the physical framework principles and woven into the fabric of the campus development plan and the concept of how buildings will be designed.

PHYSICAL FRAMEWORK PRINCIPLES

In conjunction with the vision themes, physical framework principles were developed as part of the master plan process. The physical zoning and planning of the campus is based upon these principles, the proposed development plans of the Fitzsimons Redevelopment Authority (FRA) and the redevelopment plans of the City of Aurora. These principles embody fundamentals that will serve to shape the development of the campus in ways that further the mission and purpose and, provide a coherent and definable campus ambience. These principles include:

Create a campus organized around the concept of planned open spaces and groupings of buildings that has a unified image and identity beyond the importance, identity, or function of any single component. It is important to achieve this quality as early as possible in the development of the new Anschutz Medical Campus.

Define overall campus zones for research, education and clinical facilities that overlap to promote interdisciplinary development and activities, and sharing of resources.

Create a pedestrian oriented campus to enhance access to open space and offer greater opportunities for informal interaction between faculty, students and staff.

Provide connections to community amenities and resources, such as the adjacent open space of Sand Creek, as natural extensions of the open space of the campus.

Maintain the historic "symbolic gateway" to the campus off Colfax Avenue to provide a recognizable entrance to the campus that is easily accessible.

Enhance the image and identity of the campus edge with a landscape transition zone along Colfax Avenue and at entry points to the campus. This maintains the historic green zone of Anschutz Medical Campus along Colfax Avenue and extends the park like quality of the campus to the surrounding community.

Create a pedestrian circulation system, that is integrated with the series of open spaces of the campus, to promote interaction within the campus community and between the campus and the surrounding public/private communities.

Provide an integrated framework of defined open spaces that gives identity to campus precincts, promotes pedestrian circulation, establishes a memorable campus movement sequence, and promotes orderly development of the campus.
Provide multiple points of vehicular entry to the campus to increase accessibility for patients, faculty, staff, students and visitors. This will avoid congestion and will better accommodate the volume and variety of traffic generated by the academic health center.

Create an internal campus vehicular circulation network to facilitate access from one area of the campus to another without utilizing neighboring public streets.

Create a variety of building heights and forms that integrate and de-emphasize Building 500. New buildings should create an image for the University of Colorado Denver and University Hospital that is differentiated from the historic image of Anschutz Medical Campus and conveys the future of an academic health science community.

Preserve opportunities for future development by creating "land bank" areas on the site.

Provide inherent flexibility to accommodate changes and new opportunities in both the campus plan and for individual buildings. The master plan framework should allow for the future expansion of buildings and the placement new buildings at logical sites.

Provide for a logical, cost-effective sequence of development of the campus that maximizes the utilization of existing resources.

These physical framework principles are the guidelines for the campus development and have been incorporated into the proposed Anschutz Medical Campus Plan.