April 29, 2020
Campus building assessment and space utilization studies
The Kansas Board of Regents has initiated two university building studies to assess current building conditions and evaluate space utilization. The studies are in response to the board's current year goal to develop a strategy for addressing deferred maintenance at state universities. Studies are currently underway at each state university and are expected to be completed by the end of October 2020.
The studies will evaluate mission-critical buildings, which are buildings approved by the board, built prior to fiscal year 2008 that support the university's instruction, research and service mission. Buildings supported by auxiliaries and local agencies, such as Housing and Dining Services and K-State Athletics, and research and extension buildings located outside of Riley County will not be included.
Accruent LLC, formerly VFA, will conduct detailed condition assessments of university mission-critical buildings, establish databases and provide software and training to campus personnel. Data collected will be updated annually to allow universities to provide the board with consistent reporting of deferred maintenance and will help the university prioritize projects to update building infrastructure and systems.
Gould Evans in association with Rickes Associates will conduct a space utilization study of offices, classrooms and specialized instructional space, such as labs and research spaces. Consultants will review space inventory, enrollment, personnel and course data provided by the university. The data will help the university better understand the distribution and assignment of space across campus units and will be used to identify existing space gaps and optimize projected needs by space type.
While the studies are in progress, new capital improvement projects that add square footage to the university will not be submitted to the board for approval. In addition, any vacated campus space will not be reallocated until the completion of the space utilization study.
Questions about the building assessment study may be directed to Casey Lauer, assistant vice president for facilities, at cslauer@k-state.edu and questions about the space utilization study may be directed to Diana Hutchison, director of campus planning and project management, at dlhutch@k-state.edu or Heather Mills, facilities planning manager, at hlmills@k-state.edu.