flexiblefullpage
billboard
interstitial1
catfish1
Currently Reading

Funding remains a concern, but not always an impediment

Higher Education

Funding remains a concern, but not always an impediment

Colleges and universities are adept at tapping a variety of sources—taxpayers, investors, donors, and, yes, students—to fund their growth ambitions.


By John Caulfield, Senior Editor | June 6, 2017

Pixabay Public Domain

Campus construction and renovation projects often come with hefty price tags. A few years ago, Duke University spent nearly $80 million on a new dining hall. Two recent projects that SmithGroupJJR designed include the $50 million Mike Ilitch School of Business at Wayne State University, now under construction in downtown Detroit, and the $82 million, 188,000-sf University of Wisconsin–LaCrosse Instructional Science Facility, a combination of allied health and STEM that will open next year.

As colleges sign off on ever-more-extravagant physical plant to help in their recruitment efforts, tuition hikes are putting college beyond the financial reach of the high school students they are trying to attract.

But colleges and universities are adept at tapping a variety of sources—taxpayers, investors, donors, and, yes, students—to fund their growth ambitions.

Bonds are one time-tested route. The University of New Mexico’s five-building construction program is being paid for primarily with bonds. Last year, North Carolina completed a $2 billion issue of Connect Bonds, $1.33 billion of which are earmarked for the 17 colleges in its UNC system.

Other colleges are asking their student bodies to approve annual user fees that would defray the cost of planned construction and renovation before the work gets started. 

 

The University of New Mexico’s five-building construction program is being financed by a combination of bonds, student fees, school funds, and private donations. Courtesy University of New Mexico.

 

State governments are also willing to finance college construction, albeit on a limited basis. Supplemental funding by the Massachusetts State Legislature helped pay for the $52 million, 87,500-sf Design Building at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, which had its official ribbon cutting in April. This is the first cross-laminated timber academic building in the U.S.

Greggrey Cohen, Simpson, Gumpertz & Heger’s National Practice Leader for structural repair and rehabilitation, who worked on the UMass Design Building, says that in recent years there has been a “big push” among colleges and universities in the Bay State to replace older buildings.

“The underlying strategy of our capital plan is to target investment in the areas of the highest impact, while balancing these investments across deferred maintenance, modernization, and new construction,” says Shane Conklin, UMass’s Associate Vice Chancellor for Facilities and Campus Services. Construction projects scheduled to open in the next two years include the relocation of a physical sciences building that will be integrated with a new 95,000-sf research building for chemistry and physics.

This isn’t to say that colleges and universities have unlimited access to capital. And their “reno-first” inclinations are a sign of their budgetary constraints.

“Everyone is still money conscious,” says Robert Quigley, of Architectural Resources Cambridge. His firm went through numerous meetings with Bentley University’s board before its Jennison Hall renovation budget got approved. “They are also conscious of the mistakes they made in the past being cheap,” he says. “They want to do a quality job.”

Related Stories

| Mar 1, 2012

Cornell shortlists six architectural firms for first building on tech campus

Each of the firms will be asked to assemble a team of consultants and prepare for an interview to discuss their team’s capabilities to successfully design the university’s project.

| Feb 28, 2012

Salem State University Library & Learning Commons topped off

When it opens to students in the fall of 2013, the $60 million facility will offer new archival space; circulation and reference areas; collections; reading spaces; study rooms; instruction labs and a Dean’s suite. 

| Feb 22, 2012

Perkins Eastman expands portfolio in China and Vietnam

Recent awards, project progress signal ongoing commitment to region.

| Feb 14, 2012

Angelo State University opens doors to new recreation center expansion

  Designed by SmithGroup, the JJR_Center for Human Performance offers enhanced fitness options, dynamic gathering space.

| Jan 30, 2012

Siemens and Air-Ex Team deliver building controls training to Mt. San Antonio College students

Siemens contributes training modules and technology to support hands-on courses.

| Jan 19, 2012

Odebrecht and Braskem bring sustainable award to U.S. university students

The Odebrecht Award for sustainable development rewards future leaders in engineering and chemistry.

| Jan 4, 2012

Shawmut Design & Construction awarded dorm renovations at Brown University

Construction is scheduled to begin in June 2012, and will be completed by December 2012.

| Jan 4, 2012

New LEED Silver complex provides space for education and research

The academic-style facility supports education/training and research functions, and contains classrooms, auditoriums, laboratories, administrative offices and library facilities, as well as spaces for operating highly sophisticated training equipment.

| Dec 27, 2011

Clayco awarded expansion of Washington University Data Center in St. Louis

Once completed, the new building addition will double the size of the data center which houses sophisticated computer networks that store massive amounts of genomic data used to identify the genetic origins of cancer and other diseases. 

| Dec 27, 2011

USGBC’s Center for Green Schools releases Best of Green Schools 2011

Recipient schools and regions from across the nation - from K-12 to higher education - were recognized for a variety of sustainable, cost-cutting measures, including energy conservation, record numbers of LEED certified buildings and collaborative platforms and policies to green U.S. school infrastructure.

boombox1
boombox2
native1

More In Category




Student Housing

The University of Michigan addresses a decades-long student housing shortage with a new housing-dining facility

The University of Michigan has faced a decades-long shortage of on-campus student housing. In a couple of years, the situation should significantly improve with the addition of a new residential community on Central Campus in Ann Arbor, Mich. The University of Michigan has engaged American Campus Communities in a public-private partnership to lead the development of the environmentally sustainable living-learning student community.

halfpage1

Most Popular Content

  1. 2021 Giants 400 Report
  2. Top 150 Architecture Firms for 2019
  3. 13 projects that represent the future of affordable housing
  4. Sagrada Familia completion date pushed back due to coronavirus
  5. Top 160 Architecture Firms 2021