Master Plan
Read the 2014 Master Plan (PDF)
Our future as a health sciences research campus includes working in partnership with the region’s health care community and private and public partnerships in the expansion of a four-year medical school.
Recent changes on campus include approval and preliminary accreditation of a 4 year medical school and construction of the Spokane Teaching Health Clinic comprising a consortium of WSU, Providence Health Care and Empire Health Foundation.
Off campus, recent growth of retail, mixed-use, and housing development along West Main Avenue and on East Sprague Avenue, groundbreaking of the University District Gateway Bridge, and the extension of Riverside Avenue/Martin Luther King Jr. Way along the south side of campus, enable major arterial traffic to bypass the center of campus.
During the period of November of 2013 through October of 2014, WSU Spokane senior leadership, along with academic deans, campus administration, campus academic partners and the selected master planning consultant, NBBJ, led a collaborative effort to update the 2009 campus Master Plan. The update takes into account the Board of Regents’ 2010 proclamation designating WSU Spokane as the University’s Health Sciences campus, and the University’s ambitious investment in health science academic, research and clinical plans to create a world class academic health science campus.
The Master Plan Update provides a structured framework for reaching informed decisions when determining short and long term capital planning and growth of the campus for the next ten years and beyond. Since the Master Plan was updated, the University received legislative approval to start a medical school on campus. This and other changes will result in a refreshing of the 2014 Master Plan in the coming months to more adequately address the ever changing academic and research needs of our Schools of Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy programs.
The following themes are promoted in the 2014 Master Plan Update:
• Continue to build a world-class Health Sciences Education and Research Campus.
• Create an integrated campus community, with a clear identity.
• Prioritize campus open space.
• Connect with greater Spokane, and specifically the University District.
• Create a meaningful connection with the Spokane River.
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The 2014 Master Plan Update:
• Acknowledges the University’s pursuit to secure an accredited Medical School on the campus.
• Accounts for the transfer of the Innovate Washington Building and the Innovate Washington Spokane Technology Center.
• Addresses the transferred exclusive use of the Phase I building to Eastern Washington University.
• Addresses campus branding and signage to enhance visibility within the City of Spokane’s University District.
• Creates a plan to develop the Jensen-Byrd building and immediate surrounding property into a viable heart of the campus for student amenities and services. The revitalized area of campus promotes a new campus front door entrance that serves as a greater connection to the City and region to promote health education, research and build healthier
The next Master Plan Update:
- Revisit the 2014 Master Plan themes.
- Focus on critical infrastructure upgrades in support of long term facilities capital growth.
- Identify and compliment pedestrian, bicycle and traffic flows with adjacent developments.
- Identify near term technology needs in support of active learning and simulated classroom environments for health sciences.
- Identify high demand student amenities.
- Identify near term research facility needs.