Latest Reports

The new Library and Learning Center at the Community College of Philadelphia (CCP) has transformed the school’s former library from a quiet place filled primarily with stacks of books into a welcoming and dynamic environment focused on providing students access to the resources needed to succeed academically. In addition to the library, the renovated facility includes the learning lab, which brings together tutoring support previously housed in three different locations, a student academic computing center, nine group study rooms, two academic classrooms, and a One-Button studio for video production. The number of computers available for student use throughout the entire facility has increased from 30 to 300, an important advantage for the many CCP students who do not own personal computers.   

Highly accurate badging data generated by workers at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., is giving space planners and administrators powerful new insights for making more efficient space planning decisions in the post-pandemic era. As the nation’s largest Department of Defense University Affiliated Research Center, the 450-acre campus consists of nearly 4 million sf of space, including cutting-edge cybersecurity, spacecraft, and robotics facilities. Badging data from APL’s 8,000-plus workers provides detailed information for comparing projected space needs with the hybrid utilization behaviors established during the COVID-19 pandemic. These new data-driven insights are now being used to inform decision-making for high-cost capital construction projects and short-term space planning initiatives. 

Roper Hall, the new medical education building at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, features a 240-person active learning theater, a dedicated medical student commons, 16 small seminar rooms, six medium-size classrooms, a medical simulation center, and a clinical skills suite for inter-professional training … and not a single lecture hall.

The number of makerspaces has increased 200% nationally in the last decade, with no sign of slowing down. This bodes well for the future of the labor force. But given the type of technology and materials used in these spaces, they also present a multitude of code, infrastructure, and safety challenges. Assess the risks posed by the various makerspace activities, and learn the regulations that apply to everything from welding and wood processing to painting and 3D printing. 

When the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), began to develop a new vision for its historic urban campus, they knew they wanted a high level of stakeholder engagement. The team that came together to work on the academic and research building called on elements of Lean construction, including Gemba walks and journey mapping, as part of design thinking, to empower users to co-create the spaces in which they will work. The new facility—a 310,000sf space in a dense urban environment—is scheduled for completion in 2028.