dumontjanks

We have enjoyed a long relationship with the University System of Georgia. Our team members have completed planning work for thirteen institutions, and have had the good fortune to collaborate on two important system-wide studies.

The space utilization study grew from concerns over the mismatch between institutions' master plans and capital funding, and because of a shift in system strategy to maximize the use of existing space. Because many institutions function well with far less space than national guidelines recommend, the study questioned much of the established orthodoxy around space “needs.” Instead, we helped to create an overlay taxonomy that groups spaces with similar functions into common buckets even if they were traditionally accounted for separately, and designed new utilization metrics for classroom use, office space, social spaces, and other campus space types. In a second phase, we explored approaches to research space, and applied the methodology to all 31 institutions, 70 campuses, and 90 million square feet. The resulting data significantly shifted subsequent capital requests. The system's report is available online. Elements of the methodology have since been independently adopted by the University of Texas system.