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Space Use

Space Utilization Data Is Holy Grail for Cost-Effective Real Estate Planning, Hybrid Work Design, and Capital Allocation

Published 11/20/2024

Understanding space utilization in today’s hybrid academic world is essential to creating a positive, productive work environment for students, faculty, and staff. A nationwide study conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics shows 53% of students are enrolled in at least one online class. Universities are rethinking their priorities, ensuring their technology and environments address both in-person and online learning with a modern system for managing space usage. University leaders can make better space management decisions by gathering data relevant to how their spaces are used, including how many rooms and desks are available and how often they are used, how rooms are assigned, and how the stakeholders rate their overall experience.

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Carilion Clinic Breaks Ground on Taubman Cancer Center

Published 11/18/2024

Carilion Clinic broke ground in late October of 2024 on the Taubman Cancer Center in Roanoke, Va. Designed by HDR, the $100 million facility will embody a fundamental shift in the delivery of oncology services. The six-story, 257,000-sf building will accommodate the needs of an increasing number of patients, who will benefit from direct access to precision medicine, sophisticated clinical trials, and leading-edge instrumentation.

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Space to Learn: A STEM Facility with a Focus on Students

Published 11/6/2024

Virginia Commonwealth University needed new space for math and science classes. When prototypes and stakeholder feedback indicated the student experience was top priority, they changed their planned two-stage facility to a single STEM building focused on making it easier for students to learn in the ways that suit them best, with spaces designed to break down barriers between faculty and students.

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University of Virginia Bolsters Business Education with Flexible, Innovative Expansion Project

Published 11/6/2024

A $139 million project to expand the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia (UVA) will provide cutting-edge business education well into the future by offering students the best technological resources, on-site and remote learning environments, and a variety of spaces to collaborate and socialize. The construction of a new 80,000-sf structure and renovation of a historic building, both slated for completion in March 2025, will grow McIntire beyond the 156,000 sf of space it has called home since 2008. The hub of buildings addresses a space deficit and creates a growing commerce complex, providing a link between the university, its students, and nearby business districts.

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General Services Building Completes Building 53 at the Denver Federal Center Campus

Published 10/24/2024

The General Services Administration (GSA) completed construction on Building 53 at the Denver Federal Center in September of 2024. Designed by Gensler, the complex project involved the transformation of almost 200,000 sf in a 1940s-era structure into a modern and collaborative office environment. The sustainable facility collocates five federal agencies:

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How Lehigh Future-Proofed its New STEM Building

Published 10/23/2024

Lehigh University's new Health, Science & Technology Building is designed to break down silos between academic departments, to enhance faculty research and better prepare students for tomorrow’s transdisciplinary world. Three different lab modules—with no walls between them—facilitate easy transitions from one use to another, as well as expansion and contraction as needs change. And collaboration spaces are strategically located between labs throughout the building.

 

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DC+A and Swinerton Create Sustainable Office Building in Austin

Published 10/22/2024

Ground was broken in October of 2024 on WORKBENCH, a sustainable office building in Austin, Texas. Designed by Dick Clark + Associates (DC+A) and built by Swinerton, the 50,000-sf facility will serve as a showcase for the utilization of mass timber and cross-laminated timber in the built environment. It is estimated that the mixed-use development will store approximately 500 metric tons of carbon dioxide.

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Wayne State’s Campus Plan Shifts Focus from Continuous Growth to Improved Agility

Published 10/9/2024

When Wayne State University in Detroit released its campus plan—the Wayne Framework—in 2018, no one could have guessed how prophetic the school’s new approach would turn out to be. Rather than creating a campus plan that sets a specific schedule of chronological tasks and building projects, the Wayne Framework instead focuses on how the school should evaluate priorities on an ongoing basis, allowing the facilities department to remain flexible enough to adapt to unforeseen circumstances. Within a few years of launching the Framework, those circumstances would include a global pandemic, catastrophic flooding, and numerous university leadership changes.

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Boosting Employee Presence and Performance in the Hybrid Workplace

Published 9/25/2024

The idea of a workplace means something very different today than it did five years ago. Even before the pandemic, offices were not at full capacity. While occupancy rates have rebounded from their low point in 2020, commercial building spaces are now being used only about 30% of the time. That reality creates an opportunity to rethink what the remaining office space looks like. Employees want a reason to leave the comfort of their homes and endure the commute to the office. They are looking for purposeful presence.

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Putting STEM Education Front and Center with Teaching-Only Lab Buildings

Published 9/25/2024

Teaching-only lab buildings are so much more than simplified versions of the latest shiny new research building on campus. They serve as a hub for students, a point of pride on tours for prospective students, and an opportunity to showcase a college or university’s identity. But they do require special design considerations, especially around safety.

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JLL's Future of Work Survey Highlights Key Focus Areas & Strategies

Published 9/19/2024

JLL’s Global Future of Work survey has explored the evolving world of corporate real estate since 2011. This year, it analyzes the key priorities, challenges, and strategies of more than 2,300 professionals and decision-makers from around the wold. Recent insights show that companies are adopting a cautiously positive outlook in this increasingly dynamic and ambiguous environment. With plans to increase and rebalance organizational headcount in the coming years, many are ready to invest in their real estate as they expect to increase their budget and footprint.

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Barshop Institute’s New Location Energizes Research Community with Enhanced Collaboration and Productivity

Published 9/11/2024

The Sam and Ann Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies at the University of Texas Health in San Antonio illustrates the pivotal role location plays in enhancing the success of an internationally recognized research program. The Institute previously occupied two buildings at a research park 23 miles from the university’s main campus. University administrators wanted to collocate all research on the same campus to promote multidisciplinary collaboration and interaction, with proximity to all clinical research activities, and to promote efficiency and the shared use of resources. 

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Solving for ‘X’—Designing a Science Building Based on Ideas and Culture, Not Numbers and Disciplines

Published 9/11/2024

After a 2017 fire sped up the timeline for construction of a new science building, University of Delaware faculty and staff needed to make hard choices about how the building should be organized and what features and facilities it should include. Politically, the easiest path would have been to divide the space by department, but Peter Krawchyk, the university’s vice president of facilities and university architect, had a different idea of how to make the decision, one he argued would work better: “We didn’t begin with any kind of programming—number of principal investigators, fume hood counts, or anything like that. We began with ideas and culture.” 

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Enhancing Interdisciplinary Research Using Benchmarking Data

Published 8/28/2024

The decreasing amount of time researchers spend in their labs is changing research facility design and space allocation, with an increased need for lab support space, a more significant reliance on core facilities, the creation of additional write-up and data analysis environments, and the purposeful inclusion of collaboration spaces.

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