Whether building student lifestyle housing, a university classroom, a wellness center, or a performing arts theatre, there are practical sustainable/green solutions that won't break the bank and could save you and your community resources and
- By John Southard, Jennifer Baldridge, Chris Heinz
- 10/01/09
Your campus cards already do so much. They identify your students; let them into their residence halls and classrooms; and allow them to make copies, do laundry, and buy meals from the commons. Some schools have taken it one step further by inviting local
When evaluating campus safety and crisis plans almost every week, one cannot help but note certain patterns. One concern I have developed in reviewing hundreds of these plans over the years is the use of language that could be interpreted as a promise to
Next to salaries, energy is often the next-highest expense for educational facilities. To effectively manage this precious resource, it is necessary to understand how and when it is being used throughout the facility. The majority of K-12 schools have onl
Furniture provides the crucial element for today's higher education pedagogy. What does your school need to know about your classroom furniture program? Jack Bullo, AIA, principal, Harley Ellis Devereaux national education studio, explains the new pa
Whether through the adoption of better visitor management procedures, such as the credential exchange, or the purchasing of a visitor management software system, effectively protecting students, staff and visitors in our schools depends greatly on improvi
In order to furnish a cutting-edge facility, it's important to find a vendor that can supply custom solutions.
- By John Kessell, Jeffrey Korber
- 10/01/09
Mention the word "green" today and people often think of environmental responsibility. Green is also the color of our nation's paper money, and the mechanical systems department staff at St. Norbert's College in De Pere, WI, have found
Creating community schools involves more than letting adults use the gym at night. It involves starting the planning of new or remodeled buildings with the question, "what is this school's place in this community?" What are the services the
Recently, growth has slowed and enrollment is declining. With easing pressure to house students, it is time to think long term. It is time to create a vision of what the built educational environment or healthy schools will look like in 20, 40 or 60 years
In the perpetual desire to get more money in the classroom, school officers around the country have looked to contracting out support services to private companies. The idea, taken right out of business books, is that districts need to focus on their core
Many colleges are turning to continuous improvement approaches that manage costs while protecting and even improving facilities. These approaches, however, require an investment in facilities program expertise and resources that go beyond the in-house cap
- By Randy Ledbetter
- 10/01/09
Time is of the essence when disaster looms. Weather-related tragedies and terrorist activities of the past decade have created increased demand from public and private stakeholders for a reliable means of communicating critical information to large groups
Some analysts consider netbooks to be merely small, cheap, and underpowered laptops. But that dismissive regard fails to recognize the most important point about netbooks: they are designed to be small and highly portable computers. That's one of the
Evaluating school safety and crisis plans almost every week, one cannot help but note certain patterns. One concern I have found in hundreds of these plans over the years is the use of language that could be interpreted as a promise to provide a level of
Anonymous hotlines play an important role in campus security, even if no one actually uses them.
- By Julie Sturgeon
- 10/01/09
I have been fortunate enough to sit on a number of architectural juries in the past few years. I have always enjoyed reviewing the projects and seeing what was new, but it wasn't until the last year or so that I really began to see schools where the
One institution taking steps to integrate sustainability into its curriculum to better prepare students for green building jobs is Edison State College in southwest Florida. Edison State was recently awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant for $
- By Christine Beitenhaus
- 10/01/09
Not all campus furniture and furnishings live a comfortable, indoor life, protected from wind, snow, dirt, rain, mud, and one of the most unpredictable forces of nature students.
- By Shannon O'Connor
- 10/01/09
By the end of last school year, swine flu and its effects had made a full circle through the news. Schools quickly set plans in place to deal with a possible pandemic, a vaccine was put in the works, and then everyone went on summer break. With a vaccine
- By Christine Beitenhaus
- 09/01/09
Starting in October, K-12 schools will play a major role in immunizing Americans against swine flu, also known as the H1N1 virus, which will make a return visit to the northern hemisphere this winter. We explore how to prepare staff, facilities and commun
- By Michael Fickes
- 09/01/09