University of Oregon - Campus

Campus

The campus is spread over 295 acres (119 ha) and holds sixty major buildings, as well as providing a home for more than 500 varieties of trees. Eugene is located near many prominent geographic features such as the Willamette River, Cascade Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. Also within a two-hour drive is the Portland metropolitan area.

Based on Ellis F. Lawrence's vision, many of the university's buildings are planned around several major quadrangles, many of which abut the 13th Avenue pedestrian mall. The university is known for being the site of a pioneering participatory planning experiment known as the Oregon Experiment, which is also the subject of a book of the same name that evolved into the well known book A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander. The two major principles of the project are that buildings should be designed, in part, by the people who will ultimately use them with the help of an "architect facilitator", and that construction should occur over many small projects as opposed to a few large ones.

Although academic buildings are spread throughout the campus, the majority are located along East 13th Avenue, with heavy pedestrian traffic at the intersection with Kincaid Street. Student recreation and union centers are located toward the center of the campus, with residence halls on the east side of campus. Sports facilities are grouped in the southern-central part of campus with the Autzen Stadium complex across the Willamette River. The university also owns and/or operates several satellite facilities, including a large facility in the White Stag Block of downtown Portland.