Space Planning and Administration

Why Analyze? Why Plan?

Space planning is critical to all aspects of campus planning, from long-range master planning to project planning. Although there are various levels of detail for each, space planning allows campuses to link the needs associated with near-term and long-term issues. Since facility resources are typically scarce, investments in space, whether renovated or new, will impact our successors. Campuses must always consider the long-range issues (master planning) associated with all space changes! Remember all those “temporary” barracks which are still in use 50 years later. Never underestimate the impact of today’s decisions on future generations.

Largest Asset

Many campuses are just beginning to take the space planning and management business serious. Most keep track of what they have (space inventories), but many struggle with the overall planning and management of their space. It takes personnel and resources to accomplish this, both of which are currently hard to come by. This is a concern considering that some campuses have more than 20 million square feet of space. Campus buildings are the largest asset and must be managed properly. Building operating and maintenance costs approach building replacement values within a 10- to 15-year period. If campuses are not managing this asset, they could very well be spending money unwisely.

Cost of Facilities

The costs of facilities are rising at an alarming rate every year. Some of these costs are for maintaining and operating, providing utilities, and employing personnel providing services associated with the facilities. Also, the costs to build facilities in higher education are typically higher than in private industry (refer to “Why Building Costs So Much in Higher Education” by Don Guckert and Jeri King). This article alludes to numerous reasons why facilities cost more in higher education, most of which are based on the university’s mission, the expected longevity of the facility, and the types of programs which are supported. This results in facilities of higher value and a larger economic resource or asset, which must be managed well. Without proper space planning, the investments made in our facilities today may not be well utilized.

Another important impact factor in why we must manage our space more effectively is the cost of technology. Technologies have a major impact on the types and perhaps even the number of facilities being built. Hybrid teaching and learning modalities are showing a growing need to combine traditional face-to-face teaching methods with newer learning applications that may not require direct contact. These hybrid models bring the need for new types of spaces. These spaces are used to manage information that is delivered via web-based instruction or other technology-driven methods. Spaces are also used to develop, produce, and deliver the curriculum.

The more flexible the building space, the better. Flexible space may or may not be more expensive as an initial investment, depending on the design, however the life cycle is more cost-effective. Space uses and needs change continuously.  Consider how many uses may occur over a life of a 50-year old plus building. Programs come and go. Spaces have to be changed for new programs. Many times, the space cannot support the new program without major renovations. Therefore, providing flexible space initially is an investment in the long run.

Figure 6. A football stadium may be used only six times a year!

Many of us know what is referred to as the “football field” syndrome. Consider the campus facilities that are utilized very seldom, such as the football stadium. Colleges and universities all over the country are trying to figure out ways to utilize these facilities more than six to eight times per year for football games. Using these facilities for athletic practice, special events, combined community use, and other events are requiring campuses to plan and manage space differently. Campuses are studying ways to reduce operating costs associated with specific programs, especially those which require expensive facilities. This concept should be applied to all types of space on a campus, not just athletic facilities. Consider that 75 to 80 percent of the space on larger campuses is associated with activities other than academic.

Program Success

Campuses are beginning to use space information to budget capital and physical needs for various programs. Space has an incredible impact on a program’s ability to obtain and maintain accreditation in its associated discipline. Many times, these programmatic deficiencies are caused by changes in the program. Likely reasons for programmatic deficiencies are enrollment growth, pedagogical changes, demographics, and scheduling changes. These changes will impact space needs and the associated budgets needed to maintain and operate those spaces. There may be a need for a different budget (more or less) for renovations, relocations, or simply new furnishings and equipment.

Capital Planning, Renewal and Replacement, Maintenance

How can campuses maintain their buildings properly if they don’t know what their program’s needs are? What is the future of a campus’ facilities? How many times have we upgraded a facility only to find out a few years later that it should have been done differently? How many times are faulty facilities simply replaced? When campuses develop space planning programs, it is important to consider the needs over at least the next decade, if not longer. Flexibility, adaptability, and the unknown are all planning variables that must be addressed in the planning process by adding these issues as programming elements. Always considering the five elements of space planning, discussed earlier, will improve the planning process and begin to marry capital, maintenance, modernization, and repair/replacement programs in a way that is program driven. Considering total space needs (gross square feet) when establishing capital plans is crucial.

Level of Detail for Analyzing Space Needs

Any space analysis must consider the level of detail that is necessary. Space assessments are done for a variety of reasons. They may be done for master planning purposes, utilization assessments, programming and project planning, reporting, and many other reasons. Each space analysis has a specific amount of detail that is required to do the analysis correctly.

Master plans many times use general guidelines, rules of thumbs, peer analysis, etc. to get a magnitude of need for long-range planning purposes. Being accurate to the closest 500 square foot is appropriate. If the institution is preparing for a design (programming) then the level of detail is typically assessed room-by-room, down to the nearest single square foot.

Amount and Type of Space

Required Data

People Data

Space needs are driven by people and how they operate. This simple approach does however becomes complicated when actually defining or measuring the space needs for our patrons. There are unlimited ways to manipulate the thousands of variables used to analyze space needs. Some are simple, like office and administrative spaces. Others, like intensive research space or collaborative shared multipurpose space, are not. Regardless, it is important to understand that people’s operating practices drive space needs. Faculty, staff, students, and visitors are the drivers. The better campuses understand those involved, the better they can plan for and manage the needed space.

A typical shortcoming on some campuses is that human resources (people data) and facilities data do not use consistent coding and cannot communicate with each other. Many times, department codes or other data sets vary so much that the data cannot be consolidated well. For instance, facilities may not have a department code for a space that has no occupants. A personnel database may have the department code for a certain programs that do not require space. Both may have common departments but use different codes or sub-codes that are inconsistent.

It is always important to have a data management system that truly considers both data sets (people and facilities)and ensure there is one common set of department or program code for each space. The code should be a campus standard. A facilities organization should never manipulate these codes or adjust the codes based on space use.

Time Issues

Time is probably one of the largest variables with which space planners and space management offices struggle. For years, studies have recommended ways to formulate how to capture the reuse of spaces and when those spaces reach a capacity based on their use. For example, classrooms can be used by a variety of programs. When do they become overused? What is a good schedule so they are used efficiently, yet still leave time for class preparation, cleaning, test taking, having larger meetings, and sharing them with the community?

Campus planners spend a lot of time and effort on classrooms and laboratories, their time dependency, and trying to make them as efficient as possible. Some of the most important spaces on campuses are classrooms and laboratories, even though classrooms may make up as little as 3 to 10 percent of many campuses’ space inventories and laboratories may only be another 10 percent. Regardless of how little of our inventory these spaces are, they are the most critical to the academic mission and must not be taken lightly.

Other spaces, in addition to instructional spaces, may also be time dependent. Athletic spaces and fields are a perfect example, typically being used by numerous programs such as physical education, student organizations, recreational sports, club sports, intramural sports, the community, summer camps, and so on. There continues to be pressure on campuses to use these spaces in the evenings and on weekends. This impacts security issues, lighting issues, mechanical and electrical use, operational costs, maintenance, and the simple length of time these spaces can survive.

The Credit Hour

The credit hour is used quite often in evaluating instructional space. This is a relatively good measure for determining the number of students a program is supporting. Planners use credit hour information to determine the amount of actual contact hours that are necessary to support a class. The ratio of credits to contact hours varies from program to program, year to year, and course to course. Many campuses actually measure the contact hours a program supports. When possible, its best to use actual contact hours provided by the course schedules.

The value and use of the credit hour and contact hour in evaluating instructional space is a change that is likely to happen in the near future. This will make it more challenging for planners when measuring space needs for instruction. The traditional credit hour per contact hour ratio will likely change as more team learning and project approaches are used. It is likely a student will get valued credits to go through a program, and yet a university may not classify whether those credits are earned in a classroom or in a laboratory. Why? Pedagogy is changing. New learning environments are more integrated, and there are hybrids of space types. It will be difficult to classify time in the traditional “classroom” or “laboratory” setting. The instructor will soon have the ability to develop a program that meets the needs of the students, as opposed to having to force the program into this traditional credit hour classification system.  The same course, taught in two different ways requires totally different space, yet the credit hours are equivalent.

Figure 7. Some campuses are considering new models,
and spaces needed to support changing curriculum development.

Hybrid courses and/or integrated learning spaces should also be utilized at higher rates and be more efficient. It is likely that the same spaces will be open at night with graduate-level support to help undergraduate students. For example, graduate students could help undergraduates with projects or resources needed for a class. The traditional 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. school hours are beginning to become extinct on most campuses. As campuses increase their partnerships with the private sector and the business community, universities will need to improve utilization of space on the weekends and evenings. Obviously, the business partners typically run their offices from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., so campuses and their programs may need to be more available in nontraditional hours. The use of space in the evenings will increase as a result.

Most of the other space planning variables are dependent on the activity within the space being considered. The less a space is “shared” by multiple users, the more it is customized for a specific use. A high percentage of campus space fits in this category, so each activity requires its own planning variables and space metrics. As campuses try to become more flexible and create multi-use spaces, new planning variables and metrics will be necessary to determine space needs and accountability.

Approach

Space Planning Guidelines (Quantity of Space)

Space guidelines can be used to help evaluate space use. These guidelines specify the aggregate square footage appropriate for each type of program activity and serve as a guide both in planning for new space and assessing the efficiency of existing space distribution. Space planning guidelines are not absolute design standards, but they should reflect the uniqueness of the institution and they should be reasonable and supported by the administration. They must reflect a good understanding of the academic (or other) function and should be to be applied at the broadest institutional level.

Over the years, a variety of higher education councils and national organizations have published space guidelines and design standards. There is no single recognized reference. Frequently cited systems are those published by the Western Interstate Commission on Higher Education, the Council for Educational Facility Planners International, and many by the State Post-Secondary Higher Education Commission. Published benchmarks can provide a reference point, but for most institutions there is no universal set of guidelines that are applicable. Accordingly, many institutions develop their own space profile. This profile must factor in both the particular program requirements and unique facility requirements. Examples would be taking significant stock of older, less efficient buildings; space-intensive programs such as architecture or studio art; space needs associated with graduate students; emeritus faculty or faculty with multiple department appointments; and state guidelines or requirements if the institution is a public college or university.

Campuses must be extremely careful how they use and type of space standard or guideline. Every program is different. One formula can never fit all! That being said, if a campus does not have the time or resources to establish its own planning guidelines or do its own studies, the following are good resources for planning purposes:

Council of Educational Facility Planners International: http://www.cefpi.org/
Western Interstate Commission on Higher Education: http://www.wiche.edu/

Quality of Space

The quality of a space may have as much impact on the success of a program as does the amount and type of space.  Many campuses perform building audits, however these studies/tools address the building systems, not the space. For example, a building air system may be adequate for some rooms but not others.  The level of natural light may be perfect for an office but not a dark room.  Space quality can be analyzed just like anything else.  Campuses are beginning to not only study the amount of space a program may need, but also the quality of the space.  Some attributes of space quality are:

• Sight Lines
• Air Quality
• Technology
• Architectural Finishes
• Furnishings
• Natural Light
• Power
• Artificial Light
• Flexibility  Acoustics
• Accessibility
• Other factors specific to a space

Criteria is established for each of the above so a campus program can determine what values and metrics are best for each space type. Good quality studies also have the ability to place a weight (or an importance) factor on each criteria. Not all space attributes are equal, especially as to the affect the attribute has on the program.

Space Productivity Measures

Productivity can be measured in a variety of ways. In the private sector, financial return is a common measure—if a project meets a target rate of return, then it is productive for the owners or investors. In an institutional setting where profit is not the driving factor and where many buildings do not generate revenue streams of their own, other methods are required for assessing productivity.

The concept of charging for space is one such method that is gaining popularity as a means to provide incentives for optimizing the use of available space. Usually this is best be done as part of a comprehensive, responsibility-centered budgeting process.

Storage is one space type that institutions can easily lose control of. Obsolete or surplus equipment, archival files, and underutilized collections are typically stored for long periods of time. Many times however, items are stored for longer than necessary and/or are in dispersed locations. Items of little value are taking up valuable space. Charging even nominal amounts will impel managers to carefully analyze storage retention in regard to space.

Institutions can improve efficiency by involving the user in an attempt to lower overhead costs. This can be accomplished with a monitored budgeting system for items such as utilities or maintenance costs. The savings incurred through lowering overhead can be applied to other program needs by the department, including the possibility of an increase in discretionary program spending.

If additional costs are required, it suggests that further exploration is required to determine whether the current allocation is justifiable or whether the department can reasonably meet its needs in less space. This would then free up space for other campus needs. The campus should also determine if the space is inefficiently configured or is in an older building with more generous offices than current standards would suggest. In either of the above examples, there may be additional costs associated with administering the system. However, these costs can be offset by reducing the need to construct new facilities or by generating funds.

Productivity Measures for Non-revenue Generating Space

Instructional Space (Classroom and Classroom Laboratories)– Productivity of instructional space is measured by its intensity of use. The two key measures are room utilization and seat or station utilization. Room utilization measures how frequently the rooms are used during the day or week. Seat or station utilization measures what percentage of seats are used whenever a room is occupied. With these two measures, a range of data can be developed that identifies the precise patterns of usage. These in turn may reveal opportunities for increasing classroom productivity. Among the more helpful analyses are the following:

Utilization patterns by time of day- Those charged with classroom scheduling may have an intuitive feel about peak and downtimes in room utilization. A formal analysis objectifies this and quantifies the benefits of increasing utilization during less popular scheduling periods.

Example: In an institution with a target room utilization rate of 66 percent, a time-of-day utilization analysis reveals 20 percent utilization during the 8:00 a.m. time block each day and 25 percent overall utilization on Fridays. With this information, a space manager calculates that within the 66 percent target utilization rate, two additional classes per room can be scheduled during these time periods.

Utilization patterns by academic department or school- This type of analysis permits the scheduling pattern of each academic unit to be tested against a university-developed standard. This would be needed when individual departments or schools do their own scheduling and control their own blocks of rooms.

Example: A room utilization analysis reveals that departmentally scheduled classrooms are used 30 percent of the week, whereas registrar-controlled classrooms are used 75 percent of the week. This would suggest a significant opportunity for increasing the productivity of departmentally controlled classrooms.

Seat utilization patterns- Analyzing the percentage of seats used on a class-by-class basis reveals how well the size and mix of classrooms and seminar rooms meet enrollment patterns.

Example: A seat utilization analysis reveals average seat occupancy in smaller classrooms (those with fewer than 30 seats) to be 93 percent, compared with 40 percent occupancy in larger rooms (those with more than 30 seats). This indicates that a number of small classes are being scheduled in large rooms and suggests that the institution may have a greater need for smaller classrooms. Further analysis reveals opportunities for subdividing some of the larger rooms into smaller rooms, improving the overall mix and potentially freeing up underutilized, large classrooms for other uses.

Instructional space evaluation can be a highly useful tool in keeping classroom spaces filled productively. Done properly and consistently, these analyses bring objectivity to the evaluation and discussion of classroom use. For example, many institutions may assign classrooms based on the maximum capacity established by a faculty member. Yet an analysis of actual enrollment patterns may reveal that the capacity limit is never achieved, thus leaving many seats unutilized. Institutions may find it helpful to seek outside assistance in undertaking the initial analysis. Thereafter, the space manager can assume responsibility for generating follow-up analyses on a periodic basis and working with the chief academic officer to ensure that instructional space use is efficient.

Being careful with enrollment caps- Unrealistic enrollment caps sometimes cause courses to compete among each other for certain sizes and locations of rooms. Registrars commonly use the practice of “rolling over” course registration from semester to semester and even year to year. Part of the data being rolled over includes course capacities set by the professor or department. Often, this number is not reviewed from year to year, so the scheduling of classrooms is driven by old information. Typically, when course enrollments are going up, the registrar is notified accordingly. However, many times when enrollments are dropping the update is forgotten, resulting in a misrepresentation of the number of stations necessary for a classroom request. The result is underutilized classrooms or instructional  labs. As part of space utilization and management, institutions should set policies or procedures to continually update the enrollment capacities.

Library Space- No single campus building is evolving faster than the library. As the standard medium of knowledge transmission moves from printed text to electronic, the amount and type of shelving systems are being questioned. No productivity model is likely to remain useful in this changing environment. Since libraries are quickly being reimagining themselves as comprehensive resource centers and less book repositories, productivity is based on people in the building as opposed to materials checked out.

The fundamental nature of the library is shifting from a centralized institution to a decentralized service organization. The “library” will no longer mean a monolithic building in which books and periodicals are stored and circulated, although such a structure will remain a campus fixture far into the future. Instead, this facility will be supplemented by an information services organization, which will likely be a group of professionals and specialized computer hardware distributed throughout the campus. The quality of an institution’s information services will no longer be measured in linear feet of stacks, millions of books, or thousands of journal subscriptions. Rather, it will be measured in the number of collections to which the institution has immediate computerized access and the professional skill of its staff in retrieving information from those collections. The need for collection space for book stacks and periodical storage currently assumed by many space guidelines will not occur because institutions will share their resources. New space will instead accommodate people, not books. The integrated computer laboratory, media center, academic support centers, reading rooms, social centers, project centers and makers spaces will dominate the physical form of the library building. The stacks will be integrated into the entire design.

Figure 8. Libraries are moving materials into more efficient environments to provide proper climate control and access. The space is being repurposed for additional study, learning centers, and improved service space.

Special-Purpose Spaces and Non-assignable Areas- These areas are used in support of the institution’s mission, but are areas for which measures of productivity cannot be devised systematically. An example might be a facilities shop or an art studio. Although it may not be possible to identify specific productivity targets, full costs (both capital and operating) associated with special-purpose spaces can and should be identified. Based on objective cost data, qualitative judgments can then be made about the need and value to the institution of this space.

Productivity Measures for Revenue-Generating Space

Research Space- In a research university, research space is often assigned to individual faculty or research teams on the basis of projects funded through sponsored or contract research. Because of its revenue-generating capacity, one approach to evaluating research space is in terms of financial productivity specifically and the annual volume of sponsored or contract research dollars per square foot. With this measure, a space manager can perform several comparative analyses to shed light on research space productivity. Comparisons may be drawn among institutions, departments, and research teams with similar research space requirements (e.g., all wet-laboratory disciplines or all office-oriented  research disciplines). Where data for other institutions or national norms are readily available, comparisons may also be drawn between similar departments inter-institutionally, comparing an institution’s biology department with biology departments having similar characteristics in other institutions. Where research space is in short supply, an institution may want to consider setting productivity benchmarks and allocating space to research teams whose sponsored research volumes meet these marks.

Example: A university has had numerous requests for additional wet-laboratory space from various research teams. An analysis of sponsored research dollars per square foot in its “wet-laboratory” departments, it finds the average annual sponsored research dollars per square foot to be $45. Three of the research teams are in the $5 to $12 range. The university may decide to provide these teams with a grace period (e.g., two to three years) to increase sponsored research activity to a certain target. Those not meeting this target would then forfeit their space to other teams with greater sponsored research funding.

Auxiliary Space- Many of an institution’s auxiliary spaces are revenue generating, most notably athletics, housing, food service, bookstore, and retail space. Because these spaces are revenue generators, their productivity can be easily evaluated with financial measures. It is important to recognize that financial performance will vary by type of facility and by institutional objectives. Student housing, for example, should generally be break-even or better, although in rare cases an institution may decide for programmatic reasons that some subsidization may be warranted. Auxiliaries contracted to outside vendors should produce a positive financial return to an institution.

Example: An institution is contemplating development of new housing. As a first step in the planning process, it undertakes a market and financial feasibility study to determine whether an economically viable project is possible. The feasibility study includes an evaluation of demand and rent tolerance, competitive context assessment of the local market and peer institutions, and testing of student interest in particular configurations. Following market research, an integrated financial model is developed that includes rents and other revenue sources, operating expenses, and capital budget requirements for the proposed project. The institution uses this model to balance program goals and financial requirements until a “break-even or better” project is achieved.

Example: An institution that runs its own bookstore operation is trying to evaluate the effectiveness of the operation. Knowing that the private sector has a well-developed industry in contract bookstore management, it decides to use the private sector as a benchmark of performance. A term sheet is assembled identifying the bookstore’s current and anticipated requirements for services. This is then offered to bookstore vendors to solicit preliminary information regarding potential return to the institution from “privatizing” the bookstore operation. Comparing this information against the institution’s current internal operation, the competitiveness of an internally run shop and the opportunities for improving financial return by privatizing can be evaluated. If the evaluation results in the conclusion that privatizing is a promising option, the institution is then in a position to put together a formal request for proposals and solicit detailed proposals from vendors.

Hybrid Spaces- Hybrid spaces have a mix of revenue-generating and non-revenue generating activity, such as student unions. In such facilities, the productivity of each activity should be measured according to the appropriate standard. For instance, food service would be measured against financial performance or student service spaces.

Peer Analysis

Many Institutions perform studies to compare themselves with their peer institutions. It is essential that when doing any kind of comparison, the data is consistent amongst each institution. Campuses collect and maintain their space inventories in a variety of ways.  Each campus has a unique way of defining spaces and collecting, maintaining, and analyzing data. Like space inventories and databases, programs also differ from campus to campus.  Not all programs are alike because they have the same title. It is imperative that when comparing space issues amongst campuses data variables are consistent.

It is also important to keep in mind that peer comparisons do not take into account whether the peer schools are using their space well or not. Too many times, schools place too much emphasis on peer comparisons and not enough on a good space analysis based on how your institution operates. Every school is unique. Be careful and its best major decisisons are NOT based on peer comparisions.

Facility Condition Assessments

A facility’s condition assessment is an inspection that identifies and categorizes the deferred maintenance and capital renewal requirements necessary to restore each campus building to its initial condition. Information resulting from these assessments has a variety of applications, especially when coordinated with financial, maintenance, and operations data. At the strategic level, integrated data can be useful in evaluating whether to renovate existing space or to build new space. In the day-to-day management of facilities, an assessment of campus building and room condition can be helpful in planning, budgeting, maintenance, repair, and compliance projects. It is critical that this comprehensive stewardship occur in conjunction with major capital programming. Facilities condition assessments are described in further detail in APPA BOK Section 2.