University Facilities 2024 Sessions

Whether driven by organic growth or needing to accommodate new programs, campuses must have an informed road map to guide space decisions as needs and priorities evolve. Session leaders deliver a case study of the University of North Texas Health Science Center and chart the processes employed to assess existing space use and develop a plan for growth and flexibility. From new modes of teaching and best-in-class space designs that adapt over time as needs of students, faculty, and staff change, they highlight key pieces and inputs that inform the prioritization and design of future projects.

How do you create a 21st century teaching and learning environments in a dense campus environment inside a historic structure? Get the solutions in this session. Alison Rainey and Peter Rasmussen demonstrate a collaborative, design-build renovation process that delivered a flexible learning environment which balances registrar class sizes and accommodates new teaching modalities. They identify solutions to building limitations, accessibility requirements, and technology features that boost learning outcomes. They examine construction phasing solutions and benefits of a design-build delivery. 

The efficiency and productivity of cross-disciplinary learning is encouraging higher education institutions to mix multiple healthcare disciplines in single buildings, yet challenges are abundant in these efforts. Session leaders demonstrate new design strategies used to foster collaboration and interdisciplinary success, post-occupancy evaluation processes to collect building performance data, and the reported outcomes. They share their findings from two recent projects and illustrate the future implications for interdisciplinary building design. They explore processes for preparing surveys and deploying them with rigor, and identify key criteria for a successful and objective assessment. 

Mounting pressure on construction costs will impact all higher education facility projects on the drawing boards, both new construction and renovations. Attend this session to get better pricing and more accurate budget figures for cost escalation in the post-pandemic economy, and better understand construction cost drivers for different academic programs. Session leaders deliver up-to-date construction cost forecasts based on employment data, spending trends, commodity prices, and cost data from more than 100 projects. Using analyses of equities, GDP, and construction labor markets, they illustrate regional construction pricing targets for the next two years and demonstrate bid and purchasing strategies that lock in costs and reduce risk.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) are revolutionizing our way of thinking and working, and real estate will not be an exception. In this session, Sanjiv Singh discusses the implications of AI and IoT for campus planning, infrastructure, and space, and provides use cases for application of these technologies to the higher education environment. He demonstrates how the application of artificial intelligence in parsing “big data” has been fruitful in several industries such as technology, banking, marketing, and entertainment, and how it is now primed to disrupt the facilities industry. 

National mandates to increase health professionals, disparities in care access, and rapidly changing patient demographics have given rise to a new health science building typology. Session leaders illustrate how the "health sciences building" is now a hybridized building— part classroom, teaching lab, student center, technology hub, and office. They detail the fusion amongst traditional forms of space, and the new spatial models that underscore flexibility, utilization, and adaptability to support collaborative, interdisciplinary learning. They identify new facility metrics and the requirement for a student experience that enables cross-cultural socialization, equitable access, and a sense of belonging.

In this session you’ll see proven solutions for reducing your campus carbon footprint without compromising education or research outcomes. Session leaders tap into a deep database of estimating and programming models and identify winning strategies for near- and long-term management of carbon impacts, including evaluations of the embodied energy components of multiple academic building types across North America. They analyze the effects of changing curricula, enrollment, and research team compositions on space allocation and utilization decisions, and provide a roadmap for a more comprehensive carbon footprint reduction approach.

Purdue University was confronted with a big challenge that most institutions are now facing: How to build consensus for improving real estate utilization on campus across a myriad of stakeholders. In this session, Rob Wynkoop and Sue Wohlford-Bork demonstrate how Purdue leveraged the university Wi-Fi network and Lambent Spaces technology to reveal building occupancy and utilization over time – an initiative that resonates with the needs of IT, networking, and security to cultivate buy-in from the start. They identify how the data was leveraged to address underutilized office space associated with new hybrid work schedules, and increase utilization of classrooms and labs spaces across campus. 

Linking academic success with health and wellness practices will ensure the campus of the future is the foundation for seasoned individuals who will contribute positively to society. This session explores a case study of the newly completed UC Irvine Health Science & Nursing facility to demonstrate how integrative health principles can be used as a broader framework for integrated campus planning. They detail evidence-based design strategies, and an individualized, whole person approach to health and wellness that builds community through emphasis on physical, mental, and emotional health. They share trends for application on future planning projects. 

Campus spaces are being used by students and faculty in unanticipated ways, and building flexibility is being put to the test. Marquette University’s O’Brien Hall, home to the College of Business, serves as a case study in surprising space use and the balancing act that university facilities must strike today: Can campus facilities welcome the community without compromising student needs? How to balance collaboration and heads-down space for researchers? Can specialized spaces maintain flexibility? Attend this session for programming, design, and use lessons-learned, and how colleges and universities can prepare for these surprises and reconcile competing campus needs.

Universities must act now to decarbonize their campuses, and Princeton is leading the way with a plan for carbon neutrality by 2046. Session leaders demonstrate how Princeton is turning the page on carbon-based heating technologies and moving to a new hot-water energy system driven by electric heat pumps, thermal storage, and geo-exchange -- one of the first in the nation to combine these technologies at this scale. They demonstrate how this plan can serve as a model for other campuses to achieve their climate commitments and align their goals for carbon neutrality with their campus master plans and capital management.

Most educational institutions are faced with changing real estate needs and costly space decisions -- and getting accurate data and insights into space utilization is the holy grail for real estate planning for hybrid workspace and learning. In this session, Ciara Peter guides participants through a case study of how one educational institution leveraged Robin's software to determine if hybrid workplace models increased their utilization. She identifies how data informed their real estate planning, and illustrates how their efforts to right size their buildings resulted in stronger retention and better decision making.

What draws students to universities, and what features, academic programs, and stories drive donors to commit funding? Advent has some answers for you. In this session, they reveal research results on the determining factors for incoming college students and identify high-value investments your institution can make to boost recruitment and retention and increase donor funding. They guide attendees through a step-by-step plan to capture and understand what moves your audiences and promotes recruitment and retention during incremental investments. They illustrate a proven process to take back to your institution, utilize, and tailor to aid in your success. 

Higher education institutions across the country are investing in utilization analysis, asset optimization, and data-driven strategic planning as they jockey for strong financial futures and long-term institutional resilience. Session leaders set out strategies to leverage existing and new assets, determine dollar density, quantify research activity, and develop key performance indicators (KPIs) to assess the overall efficacy of space allocation. They illustrate future-facing, multimodal, and experiential planning and designs that are flexible and evolve with changing pedagogical and learning needs. They evaluate qualitative and quantitative KPIs that measure success. 

This presentation illustrates the effective use of proxemics - the study of the amount of space people feel they need between themselves and others - to drive positive results on student belonging and, ultimately, student outcomes. Session leaders provide a University of Cincinnati project case study that highlights a variety of community spaces, examines the factors that effect student engagement, and how to connect those to campus strategic plans. They demonstrate how the Pareto principle can help university leaders make quicker and more informed decisions.