The urban design plan for Main Street breaks from the tradition of ‘town-gown’ separation and brings urban uses onto campus where they are in close proximity and well-integrated into the academic, student-serving, and administrative areas. This was considered a breakthrough in campus planning because it mixed campus activities with the commercial activities of the village and re-conceptualized the spatial connection between the two. The UC Irvine campus is suburban both in location and design.  Originally conceived in a garden-like setting, the campus is organized around a large circular park with academic areas clustered equally around it.  Student housing is located between the academic areas with faculty housing at sites further away from the park.  In its original plan, the University campus was clearly separated from a nearby ‘village’ that includes student serving retail and other civic uses, intentionally separating the ‘town’ from the ‘gown’ in a traditional planning relationship.

The Main Street plan, organized into four conceptual zones, integrates the Main Street development with the campus’s park-like background. Four zones provide transitional spaces and activities for the pedestrian: from the urban mixed-use Main Street to a series of landscaped semi-public courtyards to a set of academic buildings-in-the-park and finally to the bucolic central Aldrich Park itself.  The Main Street creates a new sense of place through density and mix of uses, enclosed street edges, architectural scale, and massing relationships. The plan fulfills the daily needs of a burgeoning campus population and is easily accessible on foot or by bicycle.