Big Building on Campus

  Construction   PM Network  

Universities are embarking on building binges to construct new facilities and even new campuses. Columbia University is spending US$6 billion to build a new 17-acre (6.9-hectare) campus in New York, New York, USA. Across the U.S., the number of construction projects launched by colleges last year increased 19 percent over the previous year, according to Dodge Data & Analytics. Halfway around the world in Sydney, Australia, universities had more than AU$2 billion in work underway as of last year.

But some students facing staggering tuition bills—and a future full of loan payments—are wondering if these projects are part of an “edifice complex” rather than being truly necessary. Project managers say the best way to respond to concerns is to include local community members, especially students, in the decision making from the start.

When the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon, USA proposed a US$135 million renovation of its student union in early 2012, the scope included a 1,200-seat concert hall. In a referendum, students rejected the plan.

“The students were pretty concerned about the concert hall,” says Martina Oxoby of the university's Campus Planning, Design and Construction Office and the project's planner. “They did not see a value added to their day-to-day experience of the student union or their student …

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