NC State has been in the process of updating its Physical Master Plan since 2021. This initiative provides a guideline for development and renovations on and around campus. 

Thomas Skolnicki, university landscape architect and project manager of the Physical Master Plan, said the Physical Master Plan is an initiative the University is required by the Board of Governors to update every 5-7 years. The plan closely aligns with the goals stated in NC State’s Strategic Plan among other important plans implemented across campus. 

“It’s really to try to align the strategic planning with the academic planning and with space planning, and then bring all those things together through this framework of plans about where do you add new buildings, how do you think about moving people and how do you think about the challenges of having a spread out campus,” Skolnicki said.

Skolnicki said the Physical Master Plan helps plan out projects like the development of Centennial Campus. It troubleshoots issues on these projects before they start and takes into account changes that could occur in the future. 

“It gives us a roadmap that we can follow and make sure, as opportunities come up, we have the right thinking to deal with them,” Skolnicki said. “If you could look at what existed on campus 20 years ago, there were only a handful of buildings on Centennial, and now, all those [new] buildings are out there. Without that master plan, you maybe don’t make the best decisions about these things. So, it’s identifying a framework that’s flexible enough, that gives you opportunities for things you can’t anticipate.”

McKenzy Heavlin, a graduate student in electrical engineering and student body president and chief executive officer for Student Government, has been heavily involved in the planning of the Physical Master Plan. 

“I’ve done a lot of the engagement aspect of it just because I also sit on the [Board of Trustees],” Heavlin said. “So in my capacity as a trustee, on our buildings and properties committee, I’ve been at a lot of different levels of this conversation.”

Heavlin said the Physical Master Plan includes increasing the aesthetic cohesiveness across campus. 

“They’re cognitively developing a way to make sure campus, as it grows, is cohesive,” Heavlin said. “I think it’s the one thing, as a student, that I’ve found very eclectic about NC State is that you’ll just have little pockets of areas where it’s like, whoever was the architect or designer for this was like, ‘Yeah, this can be a good idea.’ So it leads to a very disjointed feel across campus, in my opinion.”

Heavlin said the plan also takes the renovation of older buildings into consideration to make sure all areas of NC State are getting the upgrades and attention they need. 

“It’s also looking at how do we not rely on new space that we’re building, but how do we update and revitalize our older buildings so students have a good experience in those buildings as well,” Heavlin said. “I think they’re trying to approach it from an equitable lens about how do we make sure north campus and main campus are getting the same love as Centennial Campus, which I think is always a point that students are aware of, especially if they spend a lot of time on north campus.”

Skolnicki said he enjoyed working with an outside source for the Physical Master Plan.

“I’m most excited that we’ve had the benefit of having some outside perspective on this more than we’ve had in the past,” Skolnicki said. “The past Physical Master Plans I’ve been involved with, we did the bulk of the work those in house, and that’s just the way NC State had been doing its master plan since the year 2000. And with this plan, we have our consultant team, SmithGroup, who are bringing a different perspective.”

Heavlin said the SmithGroup has also been great at including students in the planning process. One way students have been able to engage with the Physical Master Plan is through attending their open forums. The group has also talked directly to students on campus to get their opinions. 

“They’ve done a lot of listening forums where they’re just presenting all the ideas to students in the campus community to really say ‘What does [the plan] look like?’” Heavlin said. “One of the early things they did is they went out into different locations on campus and were like, ‘What do you like about campus? Where do you spend your time? Where do you feel unsafe? Where do you feel safe? What would you like to see change?’ And so, it was really cool, because they compiled all that data that they got from students, faculty and staff and put it into maps these committees looked at and they were like, ‘Here are all the patterns that we’re seeing around campus.’ So, I think they’ve done a fantastic job with this process of including students and really using the student experience as the fundamental base for building this process and this plan.”

Heavlin said he also created committees within Student Government to get more student input and discussion started around the Physical Master Plan. 

“Student engagement-wise, that’s primarily how students have been involved is through those committees and talking about what is the student’s perspective on this topic as we’re looking at how to change campus and the changes that we would like to see on campus or students’ thoughts on that,” Heavlin said. “Those ended last year.”

Skolnicki said they’ve also gotten a lot of student input from pop-up events and through meeting with groups on campus. 

“We’ve had 23 of these pop-up events where we just took boards and asked people questions, and that was a way we’ve gotten a lot of student input,” Skolnicki said. “We’ve met with student-athletes, we’ve met with various centers, like the Women’s Center, the GLBT Center, African American Cultural Center and the Graduates Student Association.

Skolnicki said there are still opportunities available for students to participate in planning for the Physical Master Plan.

“We’re thinking about another set of meetings in January,” Skolnicki said. “We’ll have another set of those open forums and maybe pop-ups as well so, again, we can be presenting this kind of refined plan. So I hope that people stay involved, stay interested and give us that feedback. Because then that’ll be kind of the last touch point before we’re hopefully buttoning things up to present to the Trustees for approval.”

Students can learn more about the Physical Master plan on its website.