Learning Resources

Abstract: Breathing new life into old buildings is one of the most sustainable available campus strategies and offers benefits beyond carbon reduction. Renovation and adaptive reuse support a triple bottom line of environmental, financial, and social wellbeing. This session will explore renovation at Trinity University from campus, design, and building perspectives, outlining strategies for enhancing the character and performance of buildings, districts, and the campus. Join us to gain a multi-dimensional understanding of the risks and rewards of renovation and adaptive reuse to help strategically guide comprehensive environmental, financial, and campus planning efforts for colleges and universities.

Abstract: Institutions are constrained by housing modern programs within aging facilities. Cornell University's College of Engineering addressed these challenges while collecting programs and enhancing the user experience. This session will explore project goals that resolve pragmatic challenges of aging facilities and evolving programs with interventions that help support the future of academic programs and impact the overall cohesiveness of the larger campus. We'll identify opportunities to solve programmatic and utilitarian challenges within the confines of aging facilities while helping to improve the student experience, recruit researchers, and make connections between buildings and across the campus.

Abstract: A sense of belonging is critical for student wellbeing, engagement, and academic success. Social research at Marquette University illuminates how students from different identity groups perceive campus places and informs campus planning priorities. Guided by social research and inclusive placemaking, this session highlights strategies, frameworks, and implications for fostering belonging in diverse campus environments. We'll explore participatory mapping and other tactics for assessing campus belonging from a physical place perspective as well as proposing research-informed changes for future policy, operational, and design interventions.

Abstract: How can institutions measure the efficiency of campus space use and communicate to stakeholders to create buy-in and lead to better use of facilities and resources? University of Central Florida (UCF) conducted a comprehensive space utilization analysis and took a bold stance on making the best use of existing space to implement institutional priorities. This session will delve into UCF's steady enrollment, growing research, underutilized space, and evolving work policies. Come learn how to develop integrated data and metrics to measure teaching, office, and research space utilization, and how the process and navigating campus politics lead to successful outcomes.

Abstract: Transforming older campuses into healthy, walkable green environments with high-impact programming requires investments in infrastructure, circulation, and buildings? All while addressing legacy assets? Is a major challenge for institutions today. The University of Maryland College Park's (UMD) campus plan sets a visionary yet achievable roadmap for key institutional goals, enabling the evolution of a suburban flagship campus into a vibrant, urban, multi-modal, and carbon-neutral innovation center. This session will offer practical strategies for planners to align diverse interests and stakeholders from across the campus community, clear decision-making hurdles, and balance long-range strategic goals with near-term needs.

Abstract: With a growing population of neurodiverse students, Rutgers Center for Adult Autism Services (RCAAS) acts as a national prototype for institutional change to increase engagement and success of autistic students through purpose-built environments and programs. Using the RCAAS as a case study, we'll present an interdisciplinary approach for addressing complex issues around autism through the organization's college support program, psychological services clinic, and intensive outpatient clinic. Come learn how to leverage the campus setting, transit, recreation, and jobs to integrate autistic students, provide clinical experience, and design for a vulnerable population, resulting in better environments and wellbeing for all.

Abstract: As populations grow and housing supply falls behind, campuses across North America must consider housing solutions as an important element of recruiting and retaining academic talent. This is collectively known as academic workforce housing. In this session, we'll outline the five tools of academic workforce housing: assisting with the cost of housing, building housing, buying real estate, lending, and empowering employees to become educated about available options and programs. We will also review several examples of successful academic workforce housing programs, both large and small.

Abstract: Academic office spaces have historically followed established norms. These patterns are changing to maximize and condense real estate, minimize operating costs, and adjust to remote and hybrid work. This session will examine fundamentals of faculty and administrative offices and review student adjacencies, hot-desking and co-sharing space trends, and the future of hybrid work environments. We'll spotlight three unique academic office solutions that cover both new construction and existing renovation construction types. Join us to benefit from lessons learned, identifying potential pitfalls and new opportunities.

Abstract: Campus facility design is a complex process that involves many sources of opinion and influence. Educational environments must enhance evolving pedagogies, support learning, administrative, and social functions, and accommodate ever-changing institutional needs. The systematic use of standardized evaluation tools for assessment of higher education facilities provides comprehensive insight into occupant experience from diverse, unique perspectives for informed and integrated planning decisions. In this session, we'll share practical strategies for conducting occupant evaluations across all types of facilities, as well as occupant outcome findings and the resulting planning decisions.