On April 6th and 7th, Associate Principal Clair Colburn and Associate Steve Walnut attended The Society for College and University Planning’s (SCUP) North Atlantic 2025 Regional Conference in Buffalo New York.

The theme of this year’s Conference was innovative and collaborative approaches to integrated planning between higher education institutions and their surrounding communities, a nod to Buffalo’s renaissance and the important role of educational institutions in this evolution.

A Keynote by Douglas Lemov, “The Science of Learning,” kicked off the Conference and illustrated key elements of learning science and showed how higher education institutions can successfully translate them into practice.

It was a lively, interactive, fun, and thought-provoking presentation that sent everyone buzzing into the Welcome Reception.

Consistent with the theme of the Conference, the sessions and discussions focused on the following ideas:

• Strengthening Town-Gown Partnerships
• Tackling Shared Challenges
• Integrating Campus and Community

From the sessions, some ideas came to the forefront:

• Early collaboration between the educational institution and the community where they reside results in a better solution, helps reduce challenges with approvals, and improves relationships between “town” and “gown.”
• “Community” does not always mean a group outside of the educational institution and that sometimes the community is within the educational institution itself. In this context, collaboration and communication is also key to a successful solution.

• Solutions do not always follow the traditional needs for space/program but now often seek to address larger issues, such as sustainability & decarbonization, decolonization, social justice, and inclusion. Building in these goals not only benefits the educational institution and its immediate community but larger society as well.
• Successful endeavors are no longer limited to the interaction between the members of the “Three-Legged Stool” (Owner, Designer, Contractor) but now include a broader range of participants (developers, corporate partners, government agencies, community leaders, etc.) to arrive at the best solution.

As always, it was great to see some familiar faces, make new connections, learn, and be part of the larger higher education community.

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