Master Site Plan

"Camp Design: Master Planning Basics" Series

“A master plan interprets, through maps, drawings, and written descriptions, a way to use and develop land and physical facilities in relation to each other.  It relates the needs of men, women, and children to land and facilities.  It is never static.  It should be restudied at each new stage of development, and reviewed when redevelopment is considered.” – Julian H. Salomon

With a thorough understanding of your camp’s existing resources and the programming goals you want to accomplish, you can begin to directly delve into the master plan itself.  As explained in previous posts in this series, up until this point, most of the research and exploration can be completed by camp staff or volunteers.  But now, this juncture is the time to involve a professional planning consultant.

A master plan is composed of a series of interrelated plans.  At minimum, the complete master plan will include the following:

1. Proposed Facilities Schedule

This document is a narrative that outlines the facilities schedule developed during the baseline evaluation.  It defines direction for which buildings to keep, renovate, construct, or phase out.

2. Existing Conditions Plan

Created primarily during the baseline evaluation, this document is used as a reference throughout the planning process to compare against proposed changes.

3. Land Use Plan

The land use plan segments the property into a series of zones or areas which designate the intended use for each acre of the site.  Common types of zones denoted on a land use plan are: development area, managed woodlands, managed open fields, preservation lands, agricultural lands, and surface water or wetlands.  This investigation helps to define exactly how much land is available for development.

4. Site Plan Concepts

Conceptual plans are big-picture, abstract representations of the proposed uses for the developed site.  Areas of the site, such as staff housing, program buildings, or waterfront access, are denoted using simple shapes and colors.  The intentional lack of detail at this stage enables several alternatives to be quickly developed and considered.

The most interactive and collaborative way to approach concept plans is to host a day-long design charrette.  A charrette is a work session that brings the planning consultants and camp planning teams together, uniting them with tracing paper, markers, and site plans.  Charrettes enable input and feedback while building a strong relationship between all team members, and they typically result in a number of creative alternatives for the camp.  The final concept plan will summarize the best ideas into one comprehensive map.

Master Plan Concepts, with Final Concept Plan at Right
Flying Horse Farms Camp, Mount Gilead OH

5. Preliminary Master Plan

Once the concept plan is approved, the planning consultants will add detail to create a preliminary master plan.  Specific building sizes and shapes will be defined, as well as the locations of roads and outdoor features.  This document serves as a more defined working document to use moving forward.

6. Field Investigation

This critical step involves the design team returning to the site to verify all measurements and exact locations.  It is helpful if the camp planning team accompanies the design team on this visit, as new discussions and clarifications may be required.

7. Final Master Plan

The end product combines the input from the charrette and revisions from the site visit into a full-color document in digital format, able to be printed at any size or scale.  For more examples of master plans developed by Domokur Architects, explore our photo gallery.

Final Master Plan
Flying Horse Farms Camp, Mount Gilead OH

8. Opinion of Probable Construction Costs

Usually developed in detailed spreadsheet form, the opinion of probable construction costs is an estimate that seeks to establish a perspective for the overall construction costs associated with the master plan.  It addresses both hard costs (related directly to construction, such as materials and labor) and soft costs (such as professional fees and permits).  Typically hard costs account for about 80 percent of the total development cost, while soft costs account for about 20 percent.

9. Phasing Plan

This companion to the opinion of probable construction costs begins to move the master plan into implementation.  It visually maps out the various proposed phases of construction, color-coding areas for demolition, renovation, or construction across a given time period.

Equipped with program goals, a baseline evaluation, and a vision for your camp’s future expressed tangibly in a master plan, you can move on to the most exciting step: implementation.

Note: This series is based on Greg Copeland’s book “Camp Design: Master Planning Basics”, which is available for purchase here.  Greg leads Domokur Architects’ Planning and Landscape Architecture team with over 40 years of professional and planning experience.