ABSTRACT
Arizona State University (ASU) was embarking upon an identity transformation to shed its image as a run-of-the-mill public university and emerge as a paradigm for the New American University, based upon a model of transdisciplinary structures, student inclusivity and research directed towards the service of Arizona's communities. The Downtown Phoenix Campus (DPC) is a campus embedded into the public realm. Transparency along street edges and shared outdoor spaces, such as a one-hectare park created in 2009 on former surface parking, blur the boundaries between the civic and educational. The campus has been a significant catalyst for the social and economic growth of urban Phoenix. Canadian universities are at the forefront of a trend to use existing institutional land-holdings as a means to deliver a competitive edge by creating vibrant, mixed-used neighbourhoods on their campus doorstep. The Greater Curtin Plan, as the scheme is known, is one of the University's key weapons in its arsenal to compete on a world stage.
