Spotlight Series: Regional Perspectives

Aging Campus Facilities: When to Renovate and When to Rebuild

Presented by: John Cearley, Senior Associate Project Architect, The S/L/A/M Collaborative | Mike Gentile, AVP of Construction Services, Project Delivery Group, Temple University | James Templeton, Assistant Vice President and University Architect, Temple University

Institutions frequently face decisions to demolish or renovate aging campus facilities. This session will discuss the challenges and benefits of renovating a mid-century building, specifically within the context of Temple University’s College of Public Health. We’ll discuss our team’s assessment process and decision to renovate instead of build new, resulting in the transformation of an outdated brutalist 1960s library into a modern, light-filled educational facility. Join us as we dive into the planning process of visioning, benchmarking, and aligning stakeholders with the goal of maximizing space use, efficiency, and outcomes for health and sustainability.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Discuss the process and health benefits of renovating campus buildings with designs that create open spaces and let in more natural light.
2. Detail a planning process to engage diverse stakeholders in decision-making that reaches effective, community-based solutions for healthy, sustainable campus building projects.
3. Rethink campus building reuse and make a case for sustainable, healthy physical improvements that attract students and faculty, which helps to build community for your department, college, school, or group.
4. Consider options for underused buildings on your campus—including renovation, expansion, transformation, and demolition—and weigh the potential benefits and costs of each.

Planning Types: Campus Planning
Tags: Library; Renovation; Revitalization

AIA LU/HSW 1.0 Unit (SCUP60C3742)
AICP CM 1.0 Unit

Lessons Learned from the University of California’s Low Carbon Showcase Program

Presented by: Kjell Anderson, Director of Sustainable Design, LMN Architects | Leslie Palaroan, Design and Construction Services Analyst, University of California Office of the President | Robert Smith, Principal, LMN Architects

Embodied carbon reduction is the next frontier of our campuses and buildings. This session will highlight the University of California (UC) Office of the President initiative to train capital project staff across 10 campuses in low-carbon project delivery. UC’s system-wide Low Carbon Showcase training empowers capital project teams with tools, strategies, frameworks, and actionable case studies for sustainable, healthy campus planning. We’ll provide you with access to these proven resources and practical insights for embedding embodied carbon reduction strategies, which you can apply to your capital project workflows.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Apply tools and methodologies for analyzing embodied carbon in your construction and renovation projects with the goal of carbon reduction for environmental health.
2. Detail frameworks for incorporating carbon reduction goals into campuswide capital planning and design standards for a healthier campus.
3. Evaluate and prioritize cost-effective solutions for reducing embodied carbon without compromising project goals.
4. Identify actionable takeaways from UC training case studies, allowing you to replicate successful carbon reduction strategies on your own campus.

Planning Types: Sustainability Planning
Challenges: Dealing with Climate Change
Tags: Carbon Neutral; Facilities Planning; Sustainability (Environmental)

AIA LU/HSW 1.0 Unit (SCUP60C3783)
AICP CM 1.0 Unit

Integrated Planning for Sustainability: Does Process Really Matter for Success?

Presented by: John Cacciola, Partner, Aegis Property Group | Andrew Feick, Associate Vice President for Sustainable Facilities Operations and Capital Planning, Swarthmore College | Nicole Ostrander, Senior Associate, Ayers Saint Gross | John Sutton, Associate, Introba

As institutions grapple with decarbonization commitments alongside facility and fiscal pressures, integrated planning is crucial for good decision-making and advancing the institution’s mission and needs simultaneously. This case study from Swarthmore College highlights concurrent planning and implementation for its energy plan with decarbonization, campus renewal plan to address deferred maintenance, strategic plan, space utilization study, and campus master plan. Join us to gain a concrete approach to evaluating sustainability planning strategies and implementation timelines while building institutional culture and trust on your campus.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Formulate an integrated planning sequence and identify tradeoffs of different approaches to building a more sustainable and healthy environment.
2. Analyze how planning decisions support or detract from your campus’s decarbonization goal towards climate safety.
3. Compare fixed versus adaptive planning processes and examine the benefits and necessity of flexibility, particularly in implementation.
4. Ensure a positive planning culture and apply engagement and communication strategies to promote community buy-in, resulting in healthy, sustainable campus.

Planning Types: Sustainability Planning
Tags: Deferred Maintenance; Energy Infrastructure; Space Management; Sustainability (Environmental)

AIA LU/HSW 1.0 Unit (SCUP60C3736)
AICP CM 1.0 Unit

Legacy to Launchpad: Adaptive Reuse Transforms Aging Icon into Student Hub

Presented by: Dan Chaney, Project Manager, Capital Construction, Western Kentucky University | Kevin Gough, Principal, Champlin Architecture | Paul Graves, National Higher Education Leader, CMTA, Inc. | Janette Scott, Senior Associate, Gensler

Building new facilities isn’t always feasible, especially as institutions face rising enrollment and aging infrastructure. This session will demonstrate how inclusive, adaptive reuse strategies can meet evolving pedagogies, preserve history, optimize cost, and drive sustainable campus renewal. Through integrated planning and adaptive reuse, Western Kentucky University (WKU) reimagined its deteriorating, historic Cherry Hall as a future-focused, student-centered academic hub at the heart of campus. Come learn how to transform legacy assets into engines of relevance and value with tools for right-sizing, frameworks for stakeholder-driven planning, and strategies for embedding maintainability and resiliency in capital projects.

Learning Outcomes:

1. 1. Explain how space utilization and enrollment data can help you right-size space and reallocate area to shared, future-forward uses.
   2. Discuss how inclusive research and engagement-driven design drives new environments that support applied learning, collaboration, social connectivity, and belonging, as well as uncover adaptive reuse priorities.
   3. Define sustainability strategies focused on lifecycle cost, resilience, and operational efficiency.
   4. Advocate for adaptive reuse as a timely, mission-aligned alternative to new construction.

AIA LU/HSW 1.0 Unit (SCUPS25CN3847)
AICP CM 1.0 Unit

UVA’s Contemplative Commons: Supporting Student Resilience

Presented by: Alice Raucher, Architect for the University, University of Virginia | Joseph Celentano, Principal, VMDO Architects | Kelly Crace, Executive Director of the Contemplative Sciences Center, University of Virginia | Kent Chiang, Principal, Aidlin Darling Design

Campus space design that prioritizes biophilia, intentionality, and inclusivity can positively impact empathy and academic performance for today’s students. At a time when student mental health is in crisis, the University of Virginia’s (UVA) Contemplative Commons serves as a model for fostering student and community wellbeing through the integration of architecture, landscape, and educational programming. Through examining the project’s conception, execution, and student-user feedback, we’ll demonstrate how innovative design and interdisciplinary collaboration can create a campus environment that supports the whole student.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Discuss how contemplative and mindful spaces contribute to student wellbeing, academic success, and community engagement.
2. Evaluate interdisciplinary design and planning methods that foster innovative learning environments to support wellness, inclusivity, and reflection.
3. Perform a guided exercise to recognize the impact of biophilic-centered design and how natural and built environment integration can enhance health as well as emotional and cognitive learning.
4. Assess quantitative and qualitative data from student feedback that illustrates the importance of contemplative spaces in our university communities.

Planning Types: Campus Planning
Tags: Facilities Design; Health and Wellness

AIA LU/HSW 1.0 Unit (SCUP60C3604)
AICP CM 1.0 Unit

Achieving Diverse Institutional Goals Through Integrated Facility Planning

Presented by: Eric Boatman, Associate Director, Institutional Space Planning &Management, Michigan State University (main campus) | Peter Herman, Principal, Ellenzweig | Barbara Kranz, Assistant Provost, Institutional Space Planning and Management, Michigan State University (main campus) | Michael Lauber, Principal, Ellenzweig

Every capital project should set ambitious and diverse goals across various aspects of the institutional mission and therefore embrace a planning approach that can help achieve those broad goals. This session will provide a methodology for attaining diverse academic, sustainability, and campus planning objectives through integrated facility planning that involves extensive outreach to campus stakeholders. By applying this methodology to your capital projects, you will be able to create a customized planning approach for your campus facilities that maximizes diverse project outcomes.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Engage in integrated facility planning processes with the aim of evaluating a wide variety of institutional goals simultaneously in new capital projects.
2. Explore new pedagogies with faculty in concert with planning new facilities and support new learning modalities with flexible learning spaces that support student success.
3. Pursue resiliency and sustainability goals by combining the restoration of abandoned facilities with new sustainable building technologies.
4. Celebrate your institution’s mission and goals through applying an integrated methodology to new public-facing capital projects on campus.

AIA LU 1.0 Unit (SCUPC25CN3859)
AICP CM 1.0 Unit

The Tech Square Story: A 25-year Trajectory of Town and Gown Development

Presented by: Dan Nemec, Assistant Director, Capital Planning and Space Management, Georgia Institute of Technology | Jack Sawyer, Architect, EskewDumezRipple | Z Smith, Principal and Director of Sustainability & Performance, EskewDumezRipple

As many universities look for opportunities to engage the energy of adjacent cities, Georgia Institute of Technology’s Tech Square models how to plan and execute a process that brings town and gown together for mutual benefit. This session will explore the history and trajectory of the public-private redevelopment of the Midtown Atlanta neighborhood known as Tech Square, where Georgia Tech, major corporations, and small businesses have built a city within a city. We’ll take you behind the scenes of this densifying neighborhood’s 25-year arc and provide valuable insights into building partnerships that provide the best of urban life and academia.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Identify your institution’s most promising urban neighborhoods for investment along with the necessary infrastructure moves to link back to a main campus.
2. Discuss how best to sequence academic and commercial investments so that the new neighborhood becomes self-sustaining.
3. Describe the intricacies of bringing academic disciplines together by shaping buildings and programmatic components to facilitate interaction and collaboration.
4. Discuss how aggressive building performance targets spark innovation by promoting water reuse, low energy consumption, and radical reductions in embodied and operational carbon emissions.

AIA LU 1.0 Unit (SCUPS25CN3894)
AICP CM 1.0 Unit