And Just Like That, It’s 30 Years Later. Did We Follow the Campus Master Plan

2. "Extend the Cass Gilbert and Paul Cret plans." "The character of buildings on The University of Texas at Austin campus is eclectic," the Pelli architects wrote diplomatically. "The individual structure should recess its identity into the greater whole of the campus fabric," they said. In other words, make buildings look, if not matchy-matchy, at least like they belong. I asked Stringfellow what grade he gives us on getting back to a core architectural style.

"We're certainly doing better than we did with PMA (Physics, Math and Astronomy, née RLM) - and those other generic buildings from the '70s and '80s. What I would say is we've been very inconsistent. In general, there's been a solid emphasis on the materials, and even when done in a contemporary style, they do help tie the campus together. It looks like a UT building. It has the cordova shell limestone, the Texas-blend brick." Of Spanish-tile roofs, he said, "That can be problematic because of the scale of our buildings; it can look silly to have that. One thing we want out of the new master plan is a little more clarity about when these things should be applied."

Stringfellow cited the atrium space in the massive Engineering Education and Research Center (2017) as "really stunning" and said it provides a great model. "If you think about the buildings that predated that, we didn't have many big, open, academically driven spaces. I think that's a real success. Stylistically, they were using the limestone and the patterning to tie to campus, and even that interior space might be considered a courtyard space, just evolved."

3. "Establish a community of landscaped open spaces." Using new buildings to shape outdoor spaces was a major emphasis in the 1996 plan. On this front, there were some accomplishments and some "missed opportunities," Stringfellow told me. Pelli and Associates recommended an ambitious North Mall, stretching from the north side of the Tower - where a new building would abut the Main Building - clear to the chapel of Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary on 27th Street, "a handsome avenue lined with majestic trees and richly patterned pavement" creating "a ceremonial northern axis to complete the vision first conceived by Paul Cret." (With our current mission of restoring the Tower to its original, 1937 state, seeing a proposed addition to the Main Building is a shocking novelty.)

"[The North Mall] idea was probably considered crazy at the time," Stringfellow said, "but had we done that, it would have brought significant advantages to the core of our campus. Now, in the current market world, it would probably be way too expensive to justify the cost. The North Mall and an underground parking garage (between the turtle pond and Hogg Memorial Auditorium) and would have been brilliant at the time. I have no appetite to propose it now."

"A stone-and-brick-patterned plaza directly in front of Hogg Auditorium will serve as a colorful gathering place," the Pelli architects prophesied, adding, "The plaza will restore the grandeur in front of the Auditorium, now diminished by angled parking and asphalt."

4. "Increase student housing on campus." The master plan proposed doubling the amount of campus housing so as to accommodate 80% of the freshman class. In 2000, San Jacinto Hall opened on the banks of Waller Creek, adding 900 beds; in 2007 Almetris Duren Hall added 588 beds. What the plan did not predict was a change in Austin building codes, the most noticeable occurring in 2019, when the so-called University Neighborhood Overlay program allowed high-rise apartments in the West Campus neighborhood of 300 feet (about as tall as the Tower).

While this brought thousands of students closer to campus - obviating the need for them to ride shuttle buses to the student enclaves of Riverside Drive and Far West Boulevard, it did not bring them onto the campus proper. In 2021, UT purchased the 40-year-old, 27-floor private dormitory Dobie Center, now known as DobieTwenty21, adding 980 beds. The East Campus Graduate Apartments near UFCU Disch-Falk Field added 784 beds in 2024, and a new undergraduate dormitory on Whitis Avenue will add 1,000 beds in Fall 2027.

And where the Pelli Plan envisioned a chain of dorms hugging the curves of Waller Creek, there now sits a massive medical school, another thing few saw coming during the mid-1990s.

5. "Serve all students." In addition to more on-campus housing, the plan called for two additional student unions, one in the north part of campus and one south near Clark Field. Instead, we now have the William C. Powers, Jr. Student Activity Center (2010), which is on the East Mall. "Now," Stringfellow said, there's "a much more comprehensive view of student life. It's not just where you're living and where you eat; it's recreation. It's also looking at the wellness factor. Is the design of the campus contributing to the students' mental health? Those were things that probably weren't that well considered unless under the more generic 'pleasant campus experience' piece."

6. "Concentrate future construction in the core campus." The Pelli Plan sought to get back to the building density of the original Forty Acres. On this point, Stringfellow gave high marks to the aforementioned William C. Powers, Jr. Student Activity Center. "The Powers Center is a big building that tucks in well, it activates the East Mall, students seem to like it, and it's got a really good flow." Next door on the East Mall, the Patton Building - home of the College of Liberal Arts that replaced the smaller Steindam Hall in 2012 - is another example of how the campus has been filled in while also leaving malls and courtyards for what the plan called "outdoor classrooms."

7. "Build gateways." "The plaza on University Avenue will serve as a visitor entry to campus, with a visitor center somewhere along that street. The dormitories along Speedway at MLK Blvd. will act as a main entrance to campus …" wrote The Alcalde's Shenk. Instead, the Blanton Museum of Art opened in 2006 at the site where Pelli and Associates envisioned a grand entrance formed by a gauntlet of dorms, and in 2008, the AT&T Hotel and Conference Center sprang up at University Avenue, which, to be fair, is a gateway to campus of sorts. Stone signs at University Avenue and MLK and on the West Mall at Guadalupe have made it clearer when one is entering the campus. As for a visitor's center, that now resides on the ground floor of the Perry-Castañeda Library, in the scheme of things, not too far from where the master plan predicted it, though like many things, this was more happenstance than the execution of the plan.