1980s

1983
It took until 1983 for a formal planning document ('globaal bestemmingsplan') to be approved of by the city council (May 26th). It was the first planning document ever for 'De Uithof' with legal status to be formalised. Not only the university opposed the residential aspects of the planning document. The Academic Hospital and the village council of the neighbouring Bunnik joined the resistance. The legal procedures to revoke the plan took a number of years and were brought to the highest legal authority in the country. The 'Crown' finally ruled the residential areas that were introduced by the city as not justified (1989) and consequently the cross-hatched locations (se map below) would never receive a formally acknowledged planning status.

1984
n 1984 a fresh master builder started working at 'De Uithof'. Aryan Sikkema saw the need to rethink the campus. He managed to bring in Rem Koolhaas and his Office of Metropolitan Architecture.

1985
Febr. 12th 1985, the Provincial Government formally approved of the 1983 planning document, with the exception of the residential areas. At the end of 1985 OMA was commissioned to study the future possibilities of 'De Uithof'. The bureau produced its views in the sketch 'Uithof 2000'. 'Uithof 2000' was meant to represent a long term perspective for 'De Uithof'. The study pretended to create order in retrospect, unifying the existing building structures. The main goal was to create a self-evident overall structure for the campus, using clear and simple means, using the qualities of the fragments that had already been put into place and allowing for seamless incorporation of new programme.

1988
OMA was commissioned to develop an urban design plan for 'De Uithof'. The team that was formed consisted of Rem Koolhaas, Xaveer de Geyter, Willem-Jan Neutelings and Art Zaaijer. Architect and urban developer Art Zaaijer introduced awareness on two main qualities for the area: the strength of the old underlying park meadow landscape and the remains of the orthogonal grid of the original planning by Van der Steur. The oneliner would become 'cross or diagonal is old and straight is new'. Both qualities needed re-enforcement according to the principles of the new plan, which meant that the underlying landscape should be kept intact and where necessary reconstructed and that the built areas were to adhere strictly to the orthogonal orientation. Within the strict border of the 'clusters' all building and paving is allowed for. The city of Utrecht was happy to accept the plan as the underlying structure for a new formal planning document that were to replace the disputed one. OMA, Art Zaaijer, was appointed supervising urban developer and has held this position, until 2020, though then no longer connected to the bureau of Koolhaas. He started his own architectural firm.

1950s early 1960s late 1960s early 1970s late 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010 > 2010

Illustrations

The cross-hatched parts represent the residential areas which caused the controversy between the city and the university.
Notable is the fact that this plan already contained the concept of multi-storey car parking (cf. the passage on traffic, transportation and parking, page 35) motivated by limitations on the availability of space. At the time the parking standards (based on a ratio that relates the number of parking places to the number of sq. meters built in a given area) was twice as luxury as the standards that came into use during the mid 1990s.

This planning document, 'Bestemmingsplan 1983' was agreed upon by Utrecht City Council on May 26th 1983.

October 26th 1960, the council of De Bilt approved of the outline of the spatial planning document for 'De Uithof' i.e. that part of the area that belonged to De Bilt, in order to facilitate a proper start of the development of 'De Uithof' as a university campus. The States of Utrecht ratified the plan Juli 24th, 1961. This document regained relevance after 1989, when the Utrecht plan of 1983 was turned over by the 'Crown' regarding two residential areas.

The drawing below shows the final version of the sketch Uithof2000 in which the new concept of the central axis ('Padualaan - Heidelberglaan') is introduced. It was conceived to be a boulevard on which public transportation (tramway!) was present. Just right of the centre the new Academic Hospital can be seen, more or less equivalent to the actual buildings that officially opened in 1989.