Ædificare & Utilization

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Ædificare & Utilization

August 6, 2026
mike@standardsmichigan.com
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New Construction Release Schedule: https://www.census.gov/construction/c30/release.html

Reports are usually released at 10 AM EST the first day of every month except this month. (May 2026)

There’s been a significant redesign of the look and feel of the monthly Census Bureau reports construction activity. Today we sort through the rather more granular statistics that inform our recommendations for facility spend.

 

December 1, 2025

It has been 20 years since we began tracking educational settlement facility spend.  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 August 2025 by the US education industry proceeded at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $137.604 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)

 

 


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

New Report from Occuspace Finds U.S. Campuses Face Significant Underutilization

Global Consistency in Presenting Construction & Life Cycle Costs

Carnegie Classifications

Why You Need Standards

August 6, 2026
mike@standardsmichigan.com

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Department of Justice Antitrust Case Filings

…When we talk about standards in our personal lives, we might think about the quality we expect in things such as restaurants and first dates. But the standards that exist in science and technology have an even greater impact on our lives. Technical standards keep us safe, enable technology to advance, and help businesses succeed. They quietly make the modern world tick and prevent technological problems that you might not realize could even happen…”

Technical Requirements for Weighing & Measuring Devices

Bulletin Board

August 6, 2026
mike@standardsmichigan.com
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“Labor omnia vicit improbus” (trans. ‘Steady, unyielding labor conquered all things’)

Georgics, Book I — Publius Vergilius Maro

Standards exist to sustain the ordinary rhythms of civilization.  Behind every meal, classroom, laboratory, concert, hospital, farm, playing field and family home stands a network of standards that quietly enables daily life. Our work is to understand, improve and explain those standards in service to the educational settlements they support.  

NIST | USPTO | ANSI | IEEE | ICC | ASTM | ASHRAE | UL | TIA | ASME | ASCE | AGA

Michigan Standards Developers : NSF | ACI | NETA | ASABE | HL7 | RIA | JCSEE | BIFMA | PJRFSI | SAE

Global: SA | BSA | NSAI | CSA | CEN & CENELEC | ISO & IEC*

 

APPA was founded at the University of Michigan| See our ABOUT

 

 

* ISO and IEC have opted out of the X-social media platforms.  FYI: X is 13 times the size of BlueSky in terms of scale and reach.

Fountain of the Four Seasons

August 6, 2026
mike@standardsmichigan.com

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Standards Iowa | Art School | Art on Campus

The Four Maidens are four seated limestone sculptures by Danish-American artist Christian Petersen, installed in 1941 as part of the Fountain of the Four Seasons outside Iowa State University’s Memorial Union. These iconic figures, depicting Native American women inspired by an Osage tribe chant of thanksgiving, represent the annual cycle of corn agriculture and family life: Spring (planting corn, east), Summer (sheltering a young plant, south), Fall (holding the harvest, west), and Winter (nursing a child, north). They symbolize renewal, growth, harvest, and sustenance. Recently replicated in durable Bedford limestone after erosion, they remain a beloved campus landmark.

https://www.museums.iastate.edu/visit/art-on-campus-collection/fountain/where-maidens-now

“Knoxville: Summer of 1915”

August 6, 2026
mike@standardsmichigan.com
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Michigan Central

Williams College is a private liberal arts college located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, USA. Founded in 1793, it is one of the oldest institutions of higher education in the United States. The college was established through a bequest of Colonel Ephraim Williams Jr., a war hero who died in the Battle of Lake George during the French and Indian War. In his will, Colonel Williams left funds for the establishment of a free school on the condition that it be located in Williamstown.

Dawn Chorus: Bird Song

August 5, 2026
mike@standardsmichigan.com
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“Awake, harp and lyre! I will awaken the dawn.”

— Psalm 108:2

Standards New York | ♡ Homophily New York ♡

 

Animal Welfare Act (AWA) Regulations for Birds (9 CFR Part 3, Subpart G)

University Policy 1.2: Research Integrity

Terrestrial Animal Health Code


Animal Safety

Cornell University’s status as a land-grant institution, coupled with its location in Ithaca, far from New York’s urban centers, fosters a campus atmosphere of grounded normalcy. As a land-grant university, Cornell emphasizes practical education, research, and outreach, rooted in its mission to serve the public good. This ethos cultivates a community focused on collaboration and accessibility rather than elitism.

Ithaca’s rural setting, surrounded by gorges and rolling hills, creates a tight-knit, insulated environment where students engage deeply with academics and each other without the distractions of a bustling city. The slower pace encourages a balanced lifestyle, with traditions like Slope Day and local eateries fostering camaraderie. The lack of urban pressures allows for a focus on intellectual curiosity and personal connections, while diverse student organizations and cooperative extension programs reinforce a sense of purpose and community, grounding Cornell’s atmosphere in authenticity and approachability.

Methods of Building Measurement

August 5, 2026
mike@standardsmichigan.com
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“The Ideal City” 1480 Giuliano da Sangallo

Inspired by Lord Kelvin’s “If you can not measure it, you can not improve it” and Peter Drucker’s adage “If you can’t measure it, You can’t improve it” and  W. Edwards Deming’s counter-argument — “It is wrong to suppose that if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it – a costly myth.” we present the standards catalog of the Building Owner’s Management Association:

BOMA Standards

BOMA Area Measurement Standards Timeline 1915-2021

At the moment all titles in this catalog seem to be stabilized although a great deal of economic activity in the commercial real estate market involves adjustment to the circumstances of the pandemic.  Largely because a sizeable portion of square footage in every school district, college, university and university-affiliated healthcare research and clinical delivery system derives at least part of its funding from governments at all levels there are workgroups devoted to measuring square footage and documenting its use.   For example:

Space Management: University of Oklahoma

Space Management: Texas A&M University-San Antonio

Space Management Policy: University at Buffalo

Getting square-footage right is essential for securing an organization’s sustainability and “green” claims for example.  The links in previous posts provide for information about future public consultations.

We maintain the BOMA catalog on the agenda of our Space Planning, Hammurabi and Architectural colloquia, hosted 6 to 8 times annually.   See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting, open to everyone.

€ 492 Million: Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien

Posted March 20,  2021

We drill into the specifics commonly found in education communities: sub-lease of space to private industry in publicly-owned facilities.  The Building Owners and Managers Association International is an ANSI-accredited consensus standard developer and revised its standard — BOMA Z65.5 Retail Properties: Standard Method of Measurement.  Measuring the area of a retail building can quickly become complex when variables must be considered such as ancillary space, mezzanines and storefront lease lines.  Many large research universities have long since leased space within many of their building envelopes for private industry to service their communities — student unions, hospitals, dormitories and athletic venues, for example.  From the project prospectus:

Z65.5 is intended exclusively for retail properties and their associated structures and may be applied to single-tenant, multi-tenant or multi-building configurations. It features a single method of measurement, with two levels of measurement data, known as Partial Measurement and Overall Measurement for retail properties. It does not measure sidewalks, surface parking, drainage structures, or  other ancillary site improvements.  This standard is chiefly designed to generate Gross Leasable Area figures, a key metric in retail leasing; however, it also produces area figures which may be of interest to those examining space utilization, valuation, benchmarking, and the allocation of building expenses to various cost centers. The scope of this standard is not intended to be submitted for consideration as an ISO, IEC, or ISO/IEC JTC-1 standard.

Public consultation is open until February 8th.  

You may obtain an electronic copy from: floorstandards@boma.org.   Send comments (with optional copy to psa@ansi.org) to: floorstandards@boma.org.  We encourage user-interest subject matter experts in education facility management to participate directly in the BOMA standards development process by communicating directly with Tanner Johnson at BOMA (tjohnston@boma.org) or 202-326-6357 for more information.

We keep the BOMA catalog on the standing agenda of our colloquia devoted to building construction best practice.  See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.

Issue: [14-117]

Category: Architectural, Facility Asset Management

Colleagues: Jack Janveja, Richard Robben

More

National Center for Education Statistics: Postsecondary Education Facilities Inventory and Classification Manual

Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education

Posted February, 20  2020

The Building Owners and Managers Association International (BOMA) is an ANSI-accredited consensus standard developer.  BOMA has initiated the process of revising its real property measurement standard —  BOMA Z65.2 For Industrial Buildings: Standard Methods of Measurement.  The primary objectives of this standard are:

– To promote an unambiguous framework for determining the areas of Industrial Buildings with a strong focus on Rentable Area calculations;
– To facilitate transparency and clear communication of building measurement concepts among all participants in the commercial real estate
industry;
– To allow a comparison of values on the basis of a clearly understood and generally agreed upon method of measurement; and
– To align concepts and measurement methodologies with the International Property Measurement Standards: Industrial Buildings (January 2018)
document.

Comments due March 15th

Click here to view these changes in full (Page 2) 

Send comments (with optional copy to psa@ansi.org) to: tjohnston@boma.org

"The past is never dead. It's not even past" -- William Faulkner

Standards Michigan follows, but d0es not advocate in most of the BOMA standards suite for the following reasons:

  • Educational facility occupancies are fairly well accounted for in existing federal and state regulations
  • Advocacy in energy-related best practice titles are a better use of resources at the moment.

We encourage user-interest subject matter experts in education facility management to participate directly in the BOMA standards development process by communicating directly with Tanner Johnson at BOMA (tjohnston@boma.org) or 202-326-6357 for more information.

We maintain the entire BOMA suite on our periodic Model Building Code colloquia.  See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.

Issue: [15-200]

Category: Architectural, Space Plaaning, Facility Asset Management

Colleagues: Jack Janveja, Richard Robben

LEARN MORE:

Facilities Information Management

Guideline for Square Footage Requirements for Educational Facilities

Guide to School Site Analysis and Development

Mixed Use Standard

 

ARCHIVE / BOMA

5.18.20

S. 542: English Language Unity Act of 2025

August 5, 2026
mike@standardsmichigan.com
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Language

Hanging Gardens of Babylon | National Geographic

Related:

The White House: Designating English as the Official Language of The United States

H.R. 9742 (IH) – English Language Proficiency Act

Standardize: Aligning Language Models with Expert-Defined Standards for Content Generation

 

The language of the Internet is shaped by large language models, international standards, and software platforms developed by people from many linguistic backgrounds. The challenge is not that many contributors are non-native English speakers — and that is a serious cultural problem — the challenge is ensuring that, despite the differences in how English is taught, understood and used — technical English remains precise, stable, and consistently interpreted.

Ambiguous wording, subtle shifts in meaning, or differing cultural assumptions can introduce confusion into engineering, law, medicine, and public policy when replicated at Internet scale. The remedy is not linguistic exclusivity but stronger standards: carefully defined vocabularies, consensus terminology, authoritative style guides, and rigorous editorial review by diverse experts.

English has become the principal working language of science, engineering, and commerce because it supports a vast body of technical literature and international collaboration. Preserving its precision is therefore a matter of stewardship. As AI systems increasingly generate and interpret technical information, maintaining a common, standards-based engineering English will become as important as maintaining reliable communication networks themselves.

ARCHIVE: UM Welcomes ANSI 2015

August 5, 2026
mike@standardsmichigan.com
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Related:

“Tea, Earl Grey, Hot”

The Goose that Laid the Golden Egg

August 5, 2026
mike@standardsmichigan.com

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Homophily Michigan

Cornell Cooperative Extension: Click image for roast goose recipe

Wild Harvest Table

 

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