COLLEGE CONSTRUCTION
What Type Of Building?
Every college that plans and constructs a new building designs that building for its own specific needs and
purposes. An academic building at one institution will
have a different mix of classrooms, labs and offices than
one at another. Some colleges will put science labs in their
academic buildings; others construct buildings strictly for
science. Similarly, student unions run the gamut from simple gathering and food service areas to theaters, bowling
alleys and the like.
Nevertheless, when a college says that it is building a
science building, an academic building, a library or performance building, there is a certain commonality of facilities
that we all expect. That commonality allows some comparison from campus to campus in terms of cost and size. Table 2 provides information on 13 building types that were
identified relatively frequently by college spokespersons
this year. In each case it is assumed that the function that
was named is the dominant one in the building although
other facilities often are included.
Information was available and gathered on 67 new
academic buildings completed in 2013 or underway now.
Among those, the median size was 68,000 square feet and
the median cost $30,000,000. In terms of cost per square
foot, the academic building right in the middle is being
constructed for $396.67 per square foot. (The median for
Region
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
NATL
each variable was found independently. The 68,000 sq. ft.
academic building was not necessarily the one that cost
$396.67 per sq. ft.)
Looking at some of the other building types identified,
the median among 17 health-related buildings was 91,150
square feet; the median cost $23.2 million and the cost per
square foot $335. It should be noted that most of the buildings designated as “health related” were not hospitals or
research oriented (they are included among the 26 medical
buildings), but included facilities specifically for training
nurses, technicians, EMTs and other health-related personnel and were most often found at two-year colleges.
The median cost per square foot among 46 science
buildings was about $480. The median science building
was just less than 98,000 sq. ft. and the median cost was
$42,750,000. One interesting sign of the times: only nine
library buildings, once the center-piece of many campuses,
were identified and they were relatively small – the median
building was 50,000 sq. ft.
This article is based on the 19th Annual College Construction Report published in the February 2014 issue of
College Planning & Management magazine. The report
was compiled and written by Paul Abramson, President of
Intelligence for Education Inc. Mamaroneck NY (intelled@
aol.com)
Table 1 - College Construction Projected To Be Completed in 2014, Nationally and by Region (000’s)
New
Additions Renovation
Total
% Reg Is
% of Spending For
Schools
Of Nation
New
Addition
Renovation
$500,893
$126,500
$481,000
$43,489
$421,565
$187,019
$629,945
$123,875
$526,973
$60,879
$607,682
$57,006
$262,886
$135,600
$345,034
$77,143
$1,279,726
$83,573
$221,800
$126,350
$943,271
$84,173
$318,500
$42,500
$6,539,276 $1,148,107
$24,810
$288,759
$222,151
$123,500
$166,414
$71,406
$51,965
$61,000
$48,375
$78,750
$154,252
$32,500
$1,323,882
$652,203
$813,248
$830,735
$877,320
$754,266
$736,094
$450,451
$483,177
$1,411,674
$426,900
$1,181,697
$393,500
$9,011,265
76.8%
59.1%
50.7%
71.8%
69.9%
82.6%
58.4%
71.4%
90.7%
52.0%
79.8%
80.9%
72.6%
19.4%
5.3%
22.5%
14.1%
8.1%
7.7%
30.1%
16.0%
5.9%
29.6%
7.1%
10.8%
12.7%
3.8%
35.5%
26.7%
14.1%
22.1%
9.7%
11.5%
12.6%
3.4%
18.4%
13.1%
8.3%
14.7%
7.2%
9.0%
9.2%
9.7%
8.4%
8.2%
5.0%
5.4%
15.7%
4.7%
13.1%
4.4%
100.0%
To read this table: Colleges in Region 1 (New England) expect to spend $500 million on new buildings to be completed in 2014, $126 million on additions to existing buildings and $24 million on retrofit of existing buildings, for a total of $652 million on all construction. Almost 77% of Region 1’s
college construction dollars will go for new buildings. Region 1 colleges are projected to spend 7.2% of all the money spent on college construction
this year.
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