Planners and administrators at colleges and universities across the country face a daunting task: how to complete renovations or build new facilities in a tumultuous and challenging economic climate. It cannot be expected that wholesale improvement will come quickly, but the need to improve facilities is a pressing reality. Residence halls,…

In years past, pencils and paper, chalk and chalkboards were common sights on school campuses. Fast forward to 2007--personal laptops, PDAs and PowerPoint presentations are the communication tools of choice. The traditional images that came to mind when remembering one's school days are no longer. Evolving technology and innovations in school…

This report provides standard facts and figures about the Houston Independent School District's (HISD) finances, student populations, achievements, and more. HISD has humanized that data, as well, with vignettes and profiles that typify the remarkable programs and individuals in the district. One of the three drivers to achieve the vision of…

When President Obama first signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), he took much criticism for spending more money--$787 billion more--when the nation was reeling from decades-old debt, a more than 9 percent unemployment rate and a mortgage crisis. But this measure has allowed public school district leaders to invest in…

The Samuel Brighouse Elementary School, located in Richmond, BC, a city adjacent to Vancouver on the west coast of Canada, is a five-hundred student elementary school. When completed in September 2011, it will replace an existing older school on the same site. This project was identified early on as an opportunity for the Richmond School Board to…

The economic outlook may be sour for Wall Street's investment banks and for homeowners who took out mortgages they could not really afford, but campus planners and architects say that--so far, at least--colleges' construction plans are largely unaffected by the downturn. Some colleges, in fact, are trying to speed up projects to limit the damage…

We often start the design of learning spaces with service and operational considerations rather than with questions about the character of the learning we want to happen in the space. To correct this practice, six questions are here proposed that colleges and universities should ask first and persistently throughout the construction or renovation…

More and more people are viewing the world through green-tinted glasses, and those ideas about making school and university facilities more environmentally friendly suddenly are appearing to be prudent and responsible. Among the groups that have been advocating for environmentally friendly school design for years are the Collaborative for High…

Maximizing school resources and managing a shrinking budget--these are two important items affected when a building's roofing system does not perform properly. Rather than acting in haste, school and university administrators should do what every teacher tells a student prior to answering any question: think through the research and studies to…

For many it's a dollars and cents issue; for others, it's a heritage or spiritual issue. In reality campus heritage is both a spiritual and a monetary/economic issue. Some say that heritage should reflect institutional values, tradition, academic stature, and the role graduates have played in society, and others cast aside tradition and pay…

Construction spending by education institutions topped $36 billion in 2006. While strong by historical standards, it represents the third consecutive year that total spending on construction dropped from the year before. According to the "American School & University" 33rd annual Official Education Construction Report, total spending on new,…

Like homeowners with limited budgets and a long list of repairs, school districts often must make tough choices when it comes to deciding what building systems to modernize, renovate, or repair--or when to build new facilities. With $44 billion now available for states and schools under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, stimulus…

Many public-university administrators are watching from the sidelines as the nation's credit markets seize up, trying to assess the impact on universities' and state bonding agencies' ability to issue debt. Already, California and Massachusetts have asked for federal help to cope with bills because municipal-bond markets remain largely closed.…

In summer 2005, with two-and-a-half months to convert a nursing home to a 256-bed college residence hall, Philadelphia Biblical University established a fast-track construction schedule. By finishing the project in time for it to house students that fall, the university was able to avoid the high cost of renting accommodations for students.…

In this article, the author discusses and explains three project delivery methods that are commonly used today in the United States. The first project delivery method mentioned is the design-bid-build, which is still the predominant method of project delivery for public works and school construction in the United States. The second is the…