The University of Puget Sound’s new Campus Development Plan, Advancing Excellence: Puget Sound Campus Development Plan 2023-2024, aims to implement cost-effective and strategic enhancements optimizing both indoor and outdoor spaces to generate revenue, recruitment, and student success. This initiative seeks to invigorate the campus by fostering new opportunities for communal gathering, studying, collaboration, accessibility, and sustainability.

Informed by outreach findings that pointed to a desire to promote a more inclusive, casual, community feeling on campus that embraced gender inclusion, accessibility, and cultural representation, the plan calls for creating transparent building edges of existing and new buildings with enhanced flexible outdoor spaces for formal, programmed, and informal gatherings, sports and relaxation, and an accessible network of pathways throughout the campus.

The Open Space Framework portion of the plan reviewed campus pathways to ensure that the network is cohesive and accessible while connecting to planned, transparent building edges. The proposed plan for Jones Circle, the symbolic front door of the campus, activates campus arrival with central terraces for gathering and pedestrian-friendly edges. Planned outdoor building interventions and small programmed and unprogrammed spaces along the edges of Todd Field will create opportunities for casual gatherings and right-size the feel of the field for pick-up and impromptu recreation.