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Ædificare & Utilization

It has been 20 years since we began following educational facilities construction activity.  Starting this month we will examine federal government data together with the best available data about space utilization to enlighten our response to the perfectly reasonable question: “Are we over-building or under-building or building ineffectively”.  Use the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.

United States: Schools of Architecture

The Society for College and University Planning (Ann Arbor, Michigan)

National Center for Education Statistics

The Financial Impact of Architectural Design: Balancing Aesthetics and Budget in Modern Construction

 

Homeschooling

2022 International Existing Building Code 

  • University College London

As reported by the US Department of Commerce Census Bureau the value of construction put in place by May 2025 by the US education industry proceeded at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $135.970 billion.  This number does not include renovation for projects under 50,000 square feet and new construction in university-affiliated health care delivery enterprises.   Reports are released two months after calendar month.  The complete report is available at the link below:

MONTHLY CONSTRUCTION SPENDING August 2025 (released two months after calendar month)

THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN LAST MONTH HAS INTERRUPTED THE RELEASE CADENCE THIS MONTH

 

 


This spend makes the US education facilities industry (which includes colleges, universities, technical/vocational and K-12 schools, most university-affiliated medical research and healthcare delivery enterprises, etc.) the largest non-residential building construction market in the United States after commercial property; and fairly close.  For perspective consider total public + private construction ranked according to the tabulation most recently released:

$137.604 billion| Education Facilities

$155.728 billion | Power

$69.625 billion | Healthcare

Keep in mind that inflation figures into the elevated dollar figures.  Overall — including construction, energy, custodial services, furnishings, security. etc., — the non-instructional spend plus the construction spend of the US education facilities is running at a rate of about $300 – $500 billion per year.

LIVE: A selection of construction cameras at  US schools, colleges and universities

Architectural Billings

We typically pick through the new data set; looking for clues relevant to real asset spend decisions.  Finally, we encourage the education facilities industry to contribute to the accuracy of these monthly reports by responding the US Census Bureau’s data gathering contractors.

Reconstruction of Ancient Agora

 

As surely as people are born, grow wealthy and die with extra cash,

there will be a home for that cash to sustain their memory and to steer

the cultural heritage of the next generation in beautiful settings.

More

National Center for Educational Statistics

AIA: Billings Index shows but remains strong May 2022

National Center for Education Statistics

Sightlines: Capital Investment College Facilities

OxBlue: Time-Lapse Construction Cameras for Education

Architectural Billing Index

IBISWorld Education Sector

US Census Bureau Form F-33 Survey of School System Finances

American School & University

Global Consistency in Presenting Construction & Life Cycle Costs

Carnegie Classifications

I-Code Group B Committee Action Hearings

Committee Action Hearings Webcasts – Group B #1

Code Development Schedule

Complete Monograph (2630 Pages)

Voting Results

IBC Rebuttal on G153-25 Performance Electrical Design

(response with hyperlinks to supporting research)

 

Partial listing.  We have until July 15th to comment on committee action

Our proposal G153-25: Page 754

Michigan Modular G195-25: Page 859

“Clinical Need” definition for enhanced security: Page 765

“Electric Vehicle Charger” definition by the  National Parking Association/Parking Consultant’s Council: Page 457

“EV Charging Space” definition: Page 458

“EV Supply Equipment” definition: Page 460

ADM20-25 Authority of building official in natural disasters and high hazard regions, p141

ASM3-25 Electrical equipment re-use, p195

G2-25.  New definition for Animal Housing Facilities, p438

S57-25.  Quite a bit of back and forth on wind and PV “farms, p1053, et. al (“Wind and solar farms are different from animal and produce farms” — Mike Anthony)

G143-25 Lighting Section 1204L remote rooms, windowless rooms, University of Texas Austin student accommodation costs, p. 737-

PM31-25 Housekeeping and sanitation in owned property as law, p1794

PM50-25, Sleeping units to be private, p.1829

RB146-25.  Energy storage systems installed in garages, requirements for physical protection, p. 2195

RB144-25, Load capacity ratings and compliance with NFPA 855, p. 2186

RB143-25, Working roof walking access around solar panels, p. 2180

SP1-25 New definition of base flood elevation for purpose of correlating requirements for electrical safety, et. al, p. 2578

Landing Page for Group B 2025

cdpACCESS 

Link to Track 1 and Track 2 Webcast

Performance-Based Electrical Power Chain Design

Integrated Planning Glossary

 

Attendees of the SCUP 2025 North Atlantic Symposium sit on the Commons in Columbia Business School and smile.

The Society of College and University Planning was founded in 1965 at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor during an informal gathering of campus planners frustrated with the lack of professional exchange in their emerging field. Rapid postwar enrollment growth and massive campus expansion projects had created urgent needs for long-range physical planning, yet few institutions had dedicated planners or shared knowledge.
A small group, led by University of Michigan planners George J. Bruha and Frederick W Mayer met in Ann Arbor to discuss common challenges facing other State of Michigan settlements; joined by Stanford, Ohio State and the University of Illinois. They decided to create a formal organization to foster collaboration, research, and professional development. In 1966, with Michigan’s support, SCUP was officially established as a nonprofit with its first office on the Ann Arbor campus. Its founding principle—integrated planning linking academics, finances, and facilities—remains central today.

Integrated Planning Glossary


Early operations benefited from administrative support (aegis) provided by the University of Michigan, including office space and resources in Ann Arbor. This arrangement persisted until a financial crisis in the late 1970s (1976–1980), during which SCUP relocated to New York.

The decoupling—marking full operational and administrative independence from the University of Michigan—occurred in 1980, when SCUP returned to Ann Arbor as a self-sustaining nonprofit headquartered at a separate location –1330 Eisenhower Place — less than a mile walk from Standards Michigan‘s front door at 455 East Eisenhower.

* Of the 220 ANSI Accredited Standards Developers, the State of Michigan ranks 3rd in the ranking of U.S. states with the most ANSI-accredited standards developers (ASDs) headquartered there; behind the Regulatory Hegemons of California and ChicagoLand and excluding the expected cluster foxtrot of non-profits domiciled in the Washington-New York Deep State Megalopolis.  Much of Michigan’s presence in the private consensus standards space originates from its industrial ascendency through most of the 1900’s.

Children’s Rights Management

The Icelandic Standards Body has proposed a new ISO standard: Children’s rights management (Page 45).   Public comment will be received until December 10th.

Háskóli Íslands Reykjavík

Icelandic Standards Children’s Rights Management Proposal

 

Graduation, Dating, Engagements, Weddings, Births & Obituaries

Michigan State University

t5rtrtr

Weddings

 



Nine years later and first day as husband and wife they got to finally sneak a kiss in one of the first places they ever passed notes

Hun School Of Princeton

“…I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.” –W.B. Yeats | ‘He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven’

“Nature’s Masterpiece”

Several colleges and universities have “kissing benches” or similar traditions tied to romance on campus.

Michigan State University Beaumont Tower: Nick and Myra Kanillopoulos

Syracuse University. Kissing Bench: This bench on the Quad is steeped in tradition. Legend has it that if a couple kisses on the bench, they will eventually marry. Conversely, if a single person sits there alone, they risk staying single forever.

University of Idaho.  Hello Walk and Kissing Rock: While not a bench, this area on campus features a large rock where students have historically kissed. It’s a romantic tradition for couples at the university.

Florida State University Kissing Bench

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Clemson University Lover’s Lane

Illinois State University

University of Cambridge: St. John’s College Bridge of Sighs

University of Oxford: The Bridge of Sighs

University of Bath Somerset County: Sham Castle

Weddings

Sport News

 

 

 



Michigan Girl, Our Michigan Girl….

Sport Standards

 

 

Mixed Gender Sport by Design

Engineering in Sport



“Rowing is more poetry than sport.” — George Pocock (‘Boys in the Boat’ 2024), a British-born boat builder, rowing coach, and influential figure in American rowing, best known for his craftsmanship of racing shells and his philosophical approach to the sport.

Winter Sport

Berrien Springs

Michigan West

Settled in the Village of Berrien Springs (Population 2043, including students) Andrews University is the flagship educational institution of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and is made up of the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary, College of Arts and Sciences, School of Business Administration, School of Education, School of Health Professions, and the School of Architecture, Art & Design.

The University is named after John Nevins Andrews (1829–1883), the biggest thinker in the 19th-century Seventh-day Adventist Church.  He was also the first sponsored missionary that the Church sent overseas. J.N. Andrews’ example of careful thought and compassionate action in Christian life is something we have taken to heart. Our motto is “Seek Knowledge. Affirm Faith. Change the World.”

Advent Carol Service

 

Animal Care during the Holidays

Auburn University Facilities Management

Standards Alabama

 

Intercollegiate Studies Institute

God and Man at Yale | Willam F. Buckley, Jr 1951

The Conservative Mind | Russell Kirk 1953

 

The ISI is a nonprofit organization founded in 1953 by Frank Chodorov and William F. Buckley Jr. to promote conservative and libertarian ideas on American college campuses. ISI educates students through publications (e.g., Modern Age, The Intercollegiate Review), campus lectures, honors programs, and fellowships that emphasize free-market economics, limited government, traditional values, and the Western intellectual tradition.

Independent of political parties, it has influenced generations of conservative leaders, including judges, journalists, and policymakers. Headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, ISI remains active in countering perceived leftist dominance in higher education

“The expansion of higher education has been paid for by the taxpayer,

and the taxpayer has been rewarded with the systematic destruction

of the culture that once justified the expense.”

— Sir Roger Scruton (Culture Counts, 2007)

 

Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal | Mecosta County Michigan

William F. Buckley Jr. and Russell Kirk were the twin pillars of post-war American conservatism, yet with distinct emphases. Kirk, the traditionalist, rooted conservatism in moral order, permanence, prescription, and the “permanent things” of Western civilization—famously outlining it in The Conservative Mind (1953). Buckley, the fusionist, built National Review to unite traditionalists, libertarians, and anti-communists under a practical political banner, emphasizing individual liberty and anti-statism.Though Kirk criticized libertarian excesses and Buckley occasionally chided traditionalist “reaction,” they admired each other deeply. Buckley called Kirk the conservative movement’s “benign patriarch”; Kirk praised Buckley’s role in making conservatism intellectually respectable and politically viable. Their friendship and mutual influence forged the enduring traditionalist-libertarian synthesis of modern American conservatism

Michigan Central

 

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2723 South State Street | Suite 150
Ann Arbor, MI 48104 USA

888-746-3670

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