Pacific School of Religion: Strategic Planning and Design Framework

ABSTRACT

Perched on Holy Hill since 1866, the Pacific School of Religion (PSR) has been a leader in progressive theological education. Yet shifts in enrollment and learning models posed a challenge: how to steward a historic campus with reduced in-person use while honoring its mission of faith, justice, and inclusion. With MKThink, PSR launched a visioning and planning process to reimagine the campus as an interdisciplinary, intergenerational hub for education, service, and community. Through visioning, asset management, space programming, and scenario modeling, MKThink created a framework that reduces PSR’s footprint by 61%, expands shared and partner space by 16,500 SF, and generates $500,000 in new annual revenue. Partnerships with UC Berkeley’s Fung Institute and Berkwood Hedge Middle School have already begun to activate this vision. The result is not just a campus plan, but a mission-aligned roadmap that balances heritage with innovation, preserving PSR’s sacred ground while adapting it for new generations of learners, neighbors, and change-makers.