Fuller’s Campus Master Plan Approved (Back to main construction page)

The Pasadena City Council unanimously approved Fuller Seminary’s campus master plan at a meeting of the council Tuesday, November 21, by a vote of 8-0. The plan calls for development of a new worship center, expanded library, affordable student housing, and classroom and administrative space.

“Our master plan, the result of years of research, planning, conversation, and compromise with our neighbors, will bring Fuller’s campus facilities to a level that will equip us for continued leadership in theological education,” said Fuller President Richard J. Mouw. “I am so very thankful for the many members and friends of the Fuller community who have supported and prayed for this process.”

At the City Council meeting, President Mouw shared briefly on the importance and need for the campus development, followed by a more detailed presentation by William McDonough, the internationally renowned designer, urban planner, and “green” architect who designed the plan. McDonough described the ways Fuller’s plan addresses the seminary’s campus and program challenges and needs. Several individuals from both the Fuller community and the greater Pasadena community then offered personal comments testifying to the significance of and necessity for Fuller’s proposed plan.

The plan will result in a “door” at the seminary’s south campus, architect McDonough explained, leading into the “heart” of Fuller—the campus mall surrounded by the worship center on one side and the new, expanded library on the other. This “heart” will lead toward “home” in the new student residences north of Walnut. “Bill McDonough’s language expresses so well not only the proposed layout of the campus, but also the intention of the master plan,” commented Mouw. 

In a process that began in 2000, Fuller developed its campus plan to address several key needs: To provide affordable housing for its students, thereby offering a stronger community learning experience and opportunity for commuter students to become residents; to offer the seminary community a cutting-edge, flexible-use, 500-seat chapel along with other spaces for worship, gathering, and teaching of the worship arts; to build an additional library facility which, together with the current library, will address accrediting needs and become the largest theological library on the Pacific Rim; to add administrative offices and classrooms, which currently number only 15 for 1,800 students; to provide more green space and effective integration into the fabric of the Pasadena community; and to serve as a model of environmental sustainability to other institutions of theological learning.