History of Campus Planning

We acknowledge with respect the Lekwungen-speaking peoples on whose traditional territory the university stands and the Songhees, Esquimalt and WSÁNEĆ peoples whose historical relationships with the land continue to this day.

In 1959, Victoria College, later to become the University of Victoria, purchased the Gordon Head Army Camp.  Two years later, the San Francisco firm of Wurster, Bernardi and Emmons Inc., Architects and Planners, were retained to provide advice on the orderly development of the campus.  With the purchase of additional land from the Hudson Bay Company, the campus grew to 105.2 ha (361 acres).  The 1961 Campus Plan provided for a circular central pedestrian oriented area, 2000 ft (600m) in diameter, for academic instruction, with a large Quadrangle as a featured open space, bounded by a Ring Road.  These defining elements of the original Plan, along with the attention given in the landscape design to bind campus buildings together by an open space and pathway network, have left a lasting legacy.

A history of campus planning and development at UVic

The 1999 University Archives publication The Changing Face of UVic Campus Lands provides an overview of campus planning and development at UVic.