About these data

Information and photographs were supplied by colleges and architecture firms. If you have questions, additional information about a project, or suggestions for making this database more useful, send a message to campusarchitecture@chronicle.com.

Notes:

New buildings and renovations: Many projects involve renovating an existing building and adding to it at the same time. A project is listed as "new" if the addition is larger than the original building, and as "renovation" if the addition is smaller.

Building types: For comparison purposes, buildings are classified according to their uses, but the classifications are necessarily general and cannot reflect every activity that takes place in each building. As a guideline, buildings that house classrooms and faculty offices are "academic" unless they also contain traditional labs (labs with special ventilation equipment, for instance, rather than computer labs). Buildings with labs are "science" buildings, unless they contain clinics or are intended to serve other medical needs, in which case they are classified as "medical."

Construction Cost: Construction cost is generally defined as the cost of putting up the building and equipping it with permanent fixtures -- items that, as one architect puts it, would not fall out if you turned the building upside down and shook it. We asked people submitting information not to include costs that are related to the construction of a building but are not actually part of it, such as relocation of utility lines in the vicinity.