For Ever-Expanding Colleges, Space Is the Final Frontier

This week’s Chronicle features an article about space utilization that should be of interest to … well, just about everyone. Space utilization is consistently a hot topic among architects and planners who work at colleges and universities (indeed, space is the focus of this month’s guest blogger, Ann K. Newman).

In the article, two planners from Sasaki Associates estimate that space per student on campuses has tripled since the 1970s. The campus arms race is a driving factor in this growth. “The mind-set that many institutions have had is that each institution needs to be complete onto itself, with one of every shiny toy that it can get, which means that there is often duplication of facilities on a regional basis,” says Gregory Janks, one of the planners. “That leads to massive inefficiencies.”

The costs of maintaining all that space are staggering. The growth of colleges’ square footage threatens the goals of providing affordable education and meeting environmental challenges.

“The biggest challenge that all the institutions that have signed the Presidents Climate Commitment face is growth in square footage,” says Philip Parsons, another Sasaki planner. “If they can’t contain that, they are going to find it impossible to meet the Presidents Climate Commitment.”