diff --git a/polygerrit-ui/app/elements/core/gr-router/gr-router.ts b/polygerrit-ui/app/elements/core/gr-router/gr-router.ts
index bcf6937..fac7a83 100644
--- a/polygerrit-ui/app/elements/core/gr-router/gr-router.ts
+++ b/polygerrit-ui/app/elements/core/gr-router/gr-router.ts
@@ -49,6 +49,7 @@
   AdminChildView,
   AdminViewModel,
   AdminViewState,
+  PLUGIN_LIST_ROUTE,
 } from '../../../models/views/admin';
 import {
   AgreementViewModel,
@@ -99,6 +100,8 @@
   isInBaseOfPatchRange,
 } from '../../../utils/comment-util';
 import {isFileUnchanged} from '../../../embed/diff/gr-diff/gr-diff-utils';
+import {Route, ViewState} from '../../../models/views/base';
+import {Model} from '../../../models/model';
 
 const RoutePattern = {
   ROOT: '/',
@@ -184,8 +187,6 @@
 
   PLUGINS: /^\/plugins\/(.+)$/,
 
-  PLUGIN_LIST: /^\/admin\/plugins(\/)?$/,
-
   // Matches /admin/plugins[,<offset>][/].
   PLUGIN_LIST_OFFSET: /^\/admin\/plugins(,(\d+))?(\/)?$/,
   PLUGIN_LIST_FILTER: '/admin/plugins/q/filter::filter',
@@ -369,6 +370,7 @@
   }
 
   setState(state: AppElementParams) {
+    // TODO: Move this logic into the change model.
     if ('repo' in state && state.repo !== undefined && 'changeNum' in state)
       this.restApiService.setInProjectLookup(state.changeNum, state.repo);
 
@@ -488,6 +490,9 @@
    * route is matched, the handler will be executed with `this` referring
    * to the component. Its return value will be discarded so that it does
    * not interfere with page.js.
+   * TODO: Get rid of this parameter. This is really not something that the
+   * router wants to be concerned with. The reporting service and the view
+   * models should figure that out between themselves.
    * @param authRedirect If true, then auth is checked before
    * executing the handler. If the user is not logged in, it will redirect
    * to the login flow and the handler will not be executed. The login
@@ -515,6 +520,32 @@
   }
 
   /**
+   * Convenience wrapper of `mapRoute()` for when you have a `Route` object that
+   * can deal with state creation. Takes care of setting the view model state,
+   * which is currently duplicated lots of times for direct callers of
+   * `mapRoute()`.
+   */
+  mapRouteState<T extends ViewState>(
+    route: Route<T>,
+    viewModel: Model<T | undefined>,
+    handlerName: string,
+    authRedirect?: boolean
+  ) {
+    const handler = (ctx: PageContext) => {
+      const state = route.createState(ctx);
+      // Note that order is important: `this.setState()` must be called before
+      // `viewModel.setState()`. Otherwise the chain of model subscriptions
+      // would be very different. Some views may want app element to swap the
+      // top level view first. Also, `this.setState()` has some special change
+      // view model resetting logic. Eventually the order might not be important
+      // anymore, but be careful! :-)
+      this.setState(state as AppElementParams);
+      viewModel.setState(state);
+    };
+    this.mapRoute(route.urlPattern, handlerName, handler, authRedirect);
+  }
+
+  /**
    * This is similar to letting the browser navigate to this URL when the user
    * clicks it, or to just setting `window.location.href` directly.
    *
@@ -814,10 +845,10 @@
       true
     );
 
-    this.mapRoute(
-      RoutePattern.PLUGIN_LIST,
+    this.mapRouteState(
+      PLUGIN_LIST_ROUTE,
+      this.adminViewModel,
       'handlePluginListRoute',
-      ctx => this.handlePluginListRoute(ctx),
       true
     );
 
@@ -1399,16 +1430,6 @@
     this.adminViewModel.setState(state);
   }
 
-  handlePluginListRoute(_: PageContext) {
-    const state: AdminViewState = {
-      view: GerritView.ADMIN,
-      adminView: AdminChildView.PLUGINS,
-    };
-    // Note that router model view must be updated before view models.
-    this.setState(state);
-    this.adminViewModel.setState(state);
-  }
-
   handleQueryRoute(ctx: PageContext) {
     const state: Partial<SearchViewState> = {
       view: GerritView.SEARCH,
diff --git a/polygerrit-ui/app/elements/core/gr-router/gr-router_test.ts b/polygerrit-ui/app/elements/core/gr-router/gr-router_test.ts
index d8761bf..112c776 100644
--- a/polygerrit-ui/app/elements/core/gr-router/gr-router_test.ts
+++ b/polygerrit-ui/app/elements/core/gr-router/gr-router_test.ts
@@ -1065,14 +1065,6 @@
           filter: 'foo',
         });
       });
-
-      test('handlePluginListRoute', () => {
-        const ctx = createPageContext();
-        assertctxToParams(ctx, 'handlePluginListRoute', {
-          view: GerritView.ADMIN,
-          adminView: AdminChildView.PLUGINS,
-        });
-      });
     });
 
     suite('change/diff routes', () => {
diff --git a/polygerrit-ui/app/elements/gr-app-types.ts b/polygerrit-ui/app/elements/gr-app-types.ts
index 0261992..68e7309 100644
--- a/polygerrit-ui/app/elements/gr-app-types.ts
+++ b/polygerrit-ui/app/elements/gr-app-types.ts
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@
   justRegistered: boolean;
 }
 
+// TODO: Get rid of this type. <gr-app-element> needs to be refactored for that.
 export type AppElementParams =
   | DashboardViewState
   | GroupViewState
diff --git a/polygerrit-ui/app/models/views/admin.ts b/polygerrit-ui/app/models/views/admin.ts
index 3380637..de9ec5d 100644
--- a/polygerrit-ui/app/models/views/admin.ts
+++ b/polygerrit-ui/app/models/views/admin.ts
@@ -7,7 +7,18 @@
 import {getBaseUrl} from '../../utils/url-util';
 import {define} from '../dependency';
 import {Model} from '../model';
-import {ViewState} from './base';
+import {Route, ViewState} from './base';
+
+export const PLUGIN_LIST_ROUTE: Route<AdminViewState> = {
+  urlPattern: /^\/admin\/plugins(\/)?$/,
+  createState: () => {
+    const state: AdminViewState = {
+      view: GerritView.ADMIN,
+      adminView: AdminChildView.PLUGINS,
+    };
+    return state;
+  },
+};
 
 export enum AdminChildView {
   REPOS = 'gr-repo-list',
diff --git a/polygerrit-ui/app/models/views/admin_test.ts b/polygerrit-ui/app/models/views/admin_test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c9b7801
--- /dev/null
+++ b/polygerrit-ui/app/models/views/admin_test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+/**
+ * @license
+ * Copyright 2022 Google LLC
+ * SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+ */
+import {assert} from '@open-wc/testing';
+import {GerritView} from '../../services/router/router-model';
+import '../../test/common-test-setup';
+import {AdminChildView, PLUGIN_LIST_ROUTE} from './admin';
+
+suite('admin view model', () => {
+  suite('routes', () => {
+    test('PLUGIN_LIST', () => {
+      const {urlPattern: pattern, createState} = PLUGIN_LIST_ROUTE;
+
+      assert.isTrue(pattern.test('/admin/plugins'));
+      assert.isTrue(pattern.test('/admin/plugins/'));
+      assert.isFalse(pattern.test('admin/plugins'));
+      assert.isFalse(pattern.test('//admin/plugins'));
+      assert.isFalse(pattern.test('//admin/plugins?'));
+      assert.isFalse(pattern.test('/admin/plugins//'));
+
+      assert.deepEqual(createState({}), {
+        view: GerritView.ADMIN,
+        adminView: AdminChildView.PLUGINS,
+      });
+    });
+  });
+});
diff --git a/polygerrit-ui/app/models/views/base.ts b/polygerrit-ui/app/models/views/base.ts
index 065495d..72bec33 100644
--- a/polygerrit-ui/app/models/views/base.ts
+++ b/polygerrit-ui/app/models/views/base.ts
@@ -8,3 +8,24 @@
 export interface ViewState {
   view: GerritView;
 }
+
+/**
+ * While we are using page.js this interface will normally be implemented by
+ * PageContext, but it helps testing and independence to have our own type
+ * here.
+ */
+export interface UrlInfo {
+  querystring?: string;
+  hash?: string;
+  /** What the regular expression matching returns. */
+  params?: {[paramIndex: string]: string};
+}
+
+/**
+ * Based on `urlPattern` knows whether a URL matches and if so, then
+ * `createState()` can produce a `ViewState` from the matched URL.
+ */
+export interface Route<T extends ViewState> {
+  urlPattern: RegExp;
+  createState: (info: UrlInfo) => T;
+}
diff --git a/polygerrit-ui/app/services/router/router-model.ts b/polygerrit-ui/app/services/router/router-model.ts
index c3c1cb6..5e2cc10 100644
--- a/polygerrit-ui/app/services/router/router-model.ts
+++ b/polygerrit-ui/app/services/router/router-model.ts
@@ -21,12 +21,17 @@
   SETTINGS = 'settings',
 }
 
+// TODO: Consider renaming this to AppElementState or something similar.
+// Or maybe RootViewState. This class does *not* model the state of the router.
 export interface RouterState {
   // Note that this router model view must be updated before view model state.
   view?: GerritView;
 }
 
 export const routerModelToken = define<RouterModel>('router-model');
+
+// TODO: Consider renaming this to AppElementViewModel or something similar.
+// Or maybe RootViewModel. This class is *not* a view model of the router.
 export class RouterModel extends Model<RouterState> {
   readonly routerView$: Observable<GerritView | undefined> = select(
     this.state$,