More than 10 years ago, the U.S. Department of Education estimated that the average age of American school facilities was 40 years. With the slowing education construction market, one can assume that this age is continuing to rise. And this system of aging school facilities begs the question: Renovate or replace? When schools are looking at their…

Good architecture responds to contemporary challenges, irrespective of fashionable trends, and is characterised by rigorous building processes. Office buildings, housing, stadiums and theatres offer outstanding examples of this principle. But do school buildings figure among them? Happily, in Germany they do, although they are still too rare. This…

"Towards Healthy Schools: Reducing Risks to Children" is the fourth in a series of triennial state of the states' reports from Healthy Schools Network and its partners in the Coalition for Healthier Schools, dating from 2006. Previous reports assessed state-by-state environmental health hazards at schools, offered compelling personal…

Schools and universities across the United States have been forced to cope with a grim financial situation that has left them without adequate resources. Administrators are cutting programs, reining in salaries and jettisoning employees to keep operating budgets in line. Education institutions also have had to shutter facilities or postpone,…

Education administrators involved in construction initiatives unanimously agree that when it comes to change orders, less is more. Change orders have a negative rippling effect of driving up building costs and producing expensive project delays that often interfere with school operations and schedules. Some change orders are initiated by schools…

Embracing the notion of going green, an affluent school district in Pennsylvania spent $83 million as part of the high school's renovation and expansion project. The three-level addition is now equipped with self-dimming lights, energy-efficient windows, a rooftop solar water heater, and a geothermal cooling and heating system. As a bonus for…

Schools are facing a new reality in planning and funding facility projects. When there are fewer students filling classroom seats and there is less money to address the space needs in areas where there is enrollment growth, the inevitable conclusion is that an education institution pursuing construction and renovation projects will have a tough go…

Involve students in the design and construction stages of new schools?--"Are you serious?" "Leave it to the experts", "We don't have time--the programme is very tight", "What do they know?", "They'll get in the way!", "It's not our job!" are still responses from some involved with design…

As a result of the massive growth of higher education in Turkey, the most pressing priority for this sector today is to meet the new space requirements for an increasing number of students. Now a subject of public attention more than ever before, the second largest item of expenditure for universities is the construction of physical spaces. This…

Some two months after enactment of the federal economic-stimulus package, school facilities directors are still trying to piece together how much money will be available under the measure for school construction projects, what it can be used for, and when it can be accessed. Before President Barack Obama signed the $787 billion American Recovery…

The intersection of technology and the 21st Century learner has challenged many school districts to rethink their approach to the design of school facilities and the definition of "classroom." To strategically plan for the future, districts must not only consider facilities and curriculum, but understand a process of change that is…

Nearly every institution is faced with the situation of having to reduce the cost of a construction project from time to time through a process generally referred to as "value engineering." Just the mention of those words, however, gives rise to all types of connotations, thoughts, and memories (usually negative) for those in the…

There has been a tremendous increase in use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) in the design and construction industry. There have been numerous case studies that have documented the improvements. The majority of these improvements have focused on better coordination of design resulting in fewer Requests for Information and/or change orders.…

For 20 years, the author has promoted constructing today's schools with the future in mind, yet as many school districts begin planning for the year 2050, he is starting to think this foresight/forethought might actually be a distracting course of action. Some districts may try to plan so far into the future that they neglect the present. But,…

The Common Core of Data (CCD) is an annual collection of public elementary and secondary education data by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) in the Institute of Education Sciences of the U.S. Department of Education. The U.S. Census Bureau conducts the data collection for the finance surveys on behalf of NCES. State education…