Latest Reports

The University at Albany, State University of New York (UAlbany) has developed a rigorous new process for allocating space to improve utilization, decrease operating costs, and create more collaborative research environments capable of attracting high-quality researchers and students. The initiative was triggered in part by a growing influx of students and faculty and the creation of two new colleges—the College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity; and the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences. The new space allocation and management process helps reduce the role politics plays in decision-making and better aligns facility use with university goals. The basis for the process is an understanding that campus space is a valuable limited resource that should be strategically deployed to achieve specific measurable goals, just like staffing or capital.

Flexibility is the key to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab, long regarded as a prime example of successful industry/academic spaces, where 190 graduate students in the media arts and sciences pursue degrees and engage in a wide research agenda. The Lab occupies 163,000 gsf across two buildings: part of the Weisner building, which opened in 1985, and a six-story addition completed in 2009, a decade after design began. The majority of the Lab’s $80 million operating budget is supported through a corporate membership model.

Universities are embracing the idea that wellness and well-being efforts improve student success, and that student mental health impacts everyone. To that end, many institutions acknowledge wellness initiatives as preventative health measures rather than just an amenity. At North Carolina State University, for example, multiple stakeholder groups—including athletics, wellness, healthcare services, and mental health counseling—connect to help students build healthy habits and provide those in crisis with a more secure safety net. In 2018, NC State renamed University Recreation to Wellness and Recreation to better reflect the department’s focus on overall well-being for students and staff. With an annual operating budget of $6.3 million, the department has 32 professional staff and 650 student employees who provide fitness and wellness-related training and classes. A new Wellness and Recreation Center, scheduled to open in Fall 2020, will replace a 1960s building that has outlived its usefulness, despite a number of renovations over the years. The $45 million project addresses health, code, safety, and ADA deficiencies, and the resulting building will serve as a campus hub that provides more than 82,000 sf of fitness, administrative, and multipurpose space.

Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) is joining a growing wave of pharmaceutical research facilities that are incorporating small-scale manufacturing into their spaces. Fitting the manufacturing suites into an underground floor of an existing building was a challenge for architect, engineer, and scientist alike. The suites are designed to produce clinical vectors, important “vehicles” to which drug companies “attach” treatments so that those treatments reach the right location in a patient’s body.

The University of Missouri (MU) will eliminate 750,000 sf of education and general facilities space by 2023 in order to reduce costs and improve overall space quality and utilization. The initiative will allow the university to save approximately $153 million in deferred maintenance, capital renewal, and plant adaption costs, as well as about $5 million in annual operating costs. It’s an ambitious undertaking, considering that the 1,200-acre main campus in Columbia, Mo., has 7 million sf of education and general facility space spread across 185 major buildings. To meet the 10 percent reduction goal over the next four years, the university will strategically demolish, divest, relocate, and rebuild a data-driven selection of aging or under-utilized buildings.