Urban & Campus Planning
Urban & Campus Planning
McLennan Design co-creates vibrant, people-centered campuses and urban places that inspire connection and accommodate growth—designing buildable, economical solutions without sacrificing human vitality, character, or soul. Rooted in deep listening to both people and place, we honor existing ecology and community voices, weaving them into resilient environments where nature and culture thrive together.
Planning Typologies
Campus & Institutional Environments
Planning vibrant, future-ready campuses rooted in community, ecology, and purpose.
Urban Cores & Community Districts
Revitalizing downtowns and neighborhoods into walkable, connected, people-first places.
Mixed-Use Hubs & Innovation Corridors
Designing dynamic, multifunctional districts that support creativity, commerce, and culture.
New Towns & Regenerative Communities
Creating ground-up communities that balance growth with care—for people and the land.
Services
Master Planning & Visioning
Crafting comprehensive, future-focused plans that balance growth, ecology, and community needs.
Feasibility & Implementation Strategy
Developing practical, budget-conscious roadmaps to turn visionary plans into buildable realities.
Sustainability & Regenerative Strategy
Integrating ecological stewardship and regenerative principles to foster resilient, thriving environments.
Campus & Place Activation
Designing dynamic, human-centered spaces that cultivate connection, vitality, and long-term engagement.
Yale Divinity School Regenerative Village
McLennan Design created a master plan, framework, and fundraising package, in conjunction with Bruner/Cott, for the Yale University Divinity School in their efforts to build the first Living Building certified university residences in the world.
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The Regenerative Village at YDS will set the bar for environmental performance in university student housing and provide a model for religious institutions to apply ecotheology in their own communities and places of worship. The project includes multiple dormitories, a chapel, community spaces and gardens, and will aspire to Living Community Challenge certification.
Vanderbilt University BlueSky Energy Vision
Vanderbilt University hired HDR/McLennan Design (HDR/MD) to evaluate, develop and inspire a BlueSky Energy Vision to transform “blue sky” ideas into practical strategies that provides a future road map for implementation and reduction of carbon emissions across the entire campus.
The HDR/MD project team, consisting of Architecture, Sustainability, Economics, Renewables, and Power experts, worked with Vanderbilt to evaluate and develop the BlueSky Energy Vision and implementation plan for its on-campus energy infrastructure that optimizes academic, economic, environmental and social benefits now and into the future.
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The team was tasked with re-envisioning the campus energy infrastructure and providing a roadmap for a next generation energy system that reduces the on-campus utility system carbon footprint to the lowest achievable level, with and without purchase of carbon offsets for off-campus production. HDR/MD worked with Vanderbilt to consider “state-of-the-future”—not just “state-of-the-practice” —options and concepts for this BlueSky Vision. The plan includes practical and cutting edge recommendations for utilities, buildings, renewable integration, overall sustainability, and people. Strategies used in the development of the plan include triple bottom line and Sustainable Return on Investment analysis (SROI) considering valuation of environmental, societal, and financial metrics.
“The buildings we create today should be designed to enhance the well-being of the planet and its people, not diminish them.”
– Jason F. McLennan
City of Victoria, Canada, City-Wide Climate Lens Consulting
For the City of Victoria’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gases (GHG) and adapt to a changing climate, as illustrated in the City’s Climate Leadership Plan (CLP), We provided consultant leadership to assist staff in the development of an enhanced series of innovative and effective policies to support the City’s 2050 climate action targets of 80% GHG reductions and 100% renewable energy. The goal of our team was to review existing materials and initial work by City staff and provide an outside perspective with suggested guiding principles and policy recommendations that would allow the city to best leverage its current resources, legal authority, and regional influence. The report included over 30 policy recommendations, which spanned four categories: Cost Cutting Strategies, Low Carbon Existing Buildings, Zero Carbon New Construction, and Land Use.
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Following the City of Victoria’s climate emergency declaration, this report provides framework for understanding how the City can rapidly reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHG) to mitigate climate change within the bounds of its legal authority as a municipality and as an important city in Canada. It also builds upon the great work of the City’s Climate Leadership Plan which was released prior to the Climate Emergency Declaration. Victoria is among many other communities declaring a climate emergency and seeking ways to follow the declaration with swift and effective action. The work was successfully presented to City Council at the end of 2019 and many of the policies recommended were adopted.
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Purdue University Innovation Campus Sustainability Plan
A new set of sustainability goals for Purdue University’s new major campus expansion.
McLennan Design worked closely with the Purdue office of sustainability to develop tools, standards and development guidelines for the major campus expansion of its new Innovation District attached to the Purdue University campus. The work involved meeting with multiple stakeholder groups, review of campus plans and the identification of sustainability opportunities at multiple scales of the development. The 400 acre campus expansion, now called the Discovery Park, is viewed as a key driver of future success at the University in a unique public/private partnership with over a billion dollars in private sector investment.
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The MD team developed presentations and tools to help guide the masterplan efforts and inform the university of opportunities and challenges related to building design and construction, the cost of green building, changes to infra- structure and more. The work culminated with presentation to campus leader- ship and the Purdue Research Foundation to help set goals for the Innovation District. The University is in process of enacting its 30-year plan.
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Antioch College Choosing Village - Presenting a new model of affordable, deep green housing in the American Heartland
Antioch College
Antioch College is building a significant new residential co-housing development in Yellow Springs, Ohio. McLennan Design is leading the effort in close collaboration with the future residents to design a neighborhood that promotes community values, fosters equity and inclusivity, employs sustainability strategies, and is rooted in the principles of co-housing. The project includes a variety of residential units ranging from studios and apartments to three-bedroom townhomes, as well as a mixed-use building to house academic programs and commercial space.
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A Common House serves as the large, shared space for all members of the community. Though Common Houses can take many forms, the majority have a shared, industrial kitchen and multi-purpose rooms such as living, dining, game rooms, and guest suites. Other shared facilities such as food production, storage, or laundry can lend a sense of community to the co-housing members.
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With the emerging concurrent desires to deepen community connections while maintaining density, many neighborhoods and cities are turning to co-housing as an important model. In the cohousing model of communal living, each individual or family will live in a modest dwelling unit which serves as an independent apartment or house.
