Coding the Calendar
- Home Page 5
Ruth Ann Musick Library
This content is accessible to paid subscribers. To view it please enter your password below or send mike@standardsmichigan.com a request for subscription details.
Dolce Vita
Standards West Virginia | 2024 Net Position $2.586B (Page 26) | Master Plans
West Virginia University is integrated with the city of Morgantown in a way that shares some strong similarities with many European universities, though not identically in every aspect.
Many classic European universities (e.g., in cities like Oxford, Cambridge, Bologna, Paris/Sorbonne, Heidelberg, or Utrecht) are deeply embedded in their urban fabric. Buildings are often scattered throughout the historic city center, with lecture halls, libraries, and administrative spaces intermixed among shops, residences, cafes, and public streets rather than being confined to a walled-off or peripheral “campus.”
In Morgantown the university and city feel like one continuous, walkable entity — the institution essentially helped shape or co-evolved with the town over centuries, creating a seamless “town-gown” blend where university life spills directly into city life and vice versa.
West Virginia University Drinking Water Sanitation Program
Did you grab a photo tonight with one of our four Mountaineer finalists? 🤳 pic.twitter.com/99fXWs5lF2
— WVU Mountaineers · Let’s Go! (@WestVirginiaU) February 19, 2026
It’s an electric feeling when 60,000 of your closest friends lock arms and sing together as one.
When the Coliseum goes dark, and swirls of gold and blue flood the stands.@CharlesWesleyG‘s anthem captures the incredible feeling of being a Mountaineer. https://t.co/kqApoC4VdU pic.twitter.com/zMzI2Znms3
— WVU Mountaineers · Let’s Go! (@WestVirginiaU) November 24, 2025
West Virginia University is cutting over 140 faculty and gutting its liberal arts programs, but it still has money for training sessions on implicit bias, microaggressions, and DEI in research. pic.twitter.com/DYoTk8RjTL
— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) February 12, 2024
Flagship public universities likely to cut more humanities, staff — especially in rural states
WVU walks it off & has the entire stadium singing Country Roads
Chills pic.twitter.com/T5Ng4bP3mw
— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) June 2, 2026
Ædificare & Utilization
At a $137.4B annual rate, educational settlements represent the second-largest building construction market in the United Stateshttps://t.co/VIRZythRdBhttps://t.co/5NGDbqJIFk@uscensusbureau
Saugatuck High School | Allegan County Michiganhttps://t.co/pnQlUONrDj pic.twitter.com/w0ZyiuEYCL— Standards Michigan (@StandardsMich) October 1, 2026
Total #construction spending for July 2026 ($2,157.6 billion) was 0.5% below the revised June 2026 estimate ($2,167.7 billion).
Learn more: https://t.co/vO6ZkjBJMY #CensusEconData #ConstructionSpending pic.twitter.com/wplVG4338Z
— U.S. Census Bureau (@uscensusbureau) September 1, 2026
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.
Total #construction activity for May 2026 ($2,210.2 billion) was 0.1% above the revised April 2026 estimate ($2,207.1 billion).
Learn more: https://t.co/vO6ZkjBJMY#CensusEconData #ConstructionSpending pic.twitter.com/0YZyIxT3F7
— U.S. Census Bureau (@uscensusbureau) July 1, 2026
Total #construction activity for October 2025 ($2,175.2 billion) was 0.5% above September 2025 ($2,164.3 billion).
Learn more: https://t.co/vO6ZkjBJMY #CensusEconData #ConstructionSpending pic.twitter.com/CYux8HXJ3W
— U.S. Census Bureau (@uscensusbureau) January 21, 2026
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
University of Toronto
43.0764° N | 87.8816° W
University of Waterloo Ontario
California Polytechnic University | San Luis Obispo County
Oulun yliopisto | Pohjois-Pohjanmaa
Tulane School of Architecture Louisiana
University of Michigan | Washtenaw County
Auburn University | Lee County Alabama
University of Kansas School of Architecture | Douglas County
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)
Total construction activity for June 2025 ($2,136.2 billion) was 0.4 percent below the revised May 2025 estimate ($2,143.9 billion).
Learn more: https://t.co/ljpaYyKjuX#CensusEconData pic.twitter.com/TS6ewzZhc4
— U.S. Census Bureau (@uscensusbureau) August 1, 2025
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 (Note data center buildout)
$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
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
US Census Bureau Form F-33 Survey of School System Finances
New Report from Occuspace Finds U.S. Campuses Face Significant Underutilization
Global Consistency in Presenting Construction & Life Cycle Costs
The University Farm as Micro-City
This content is accessible to paid subscribers. To view it please enter your password below or send mike@standardsmichigan.com a request for subscription details.
Top Five Coffee Shops in Madison
University of Wisconsin System Financial Report | $6.4B (2023)
The Haus always wins. 🃏 pic.twitter.com/SbHaIQtECT
— Wisconsin Hockey (@BadgerMHockey) April 10, 2026
University of Wisconsin | Dane County
The University of Wisconsin in Madison, ladies and gentlemen.
As a University of Florida 🐊 grad it’s hard for me to admit, but this is the prettiest campus I’ve ever seen. #OnWisconsin pic.twitter.com/9rxGFScZa5
— Marc Ryan (@MarcRyanOnAir) August 4, 2025
Democrat Wisconsin Secretary of State refuses to remove RFK from ballot
“Liberal woman WILL NOT date conservatives” – Bombshells
Heather McDonald: The feminization of the American university is all but complete
Heather McDonald: Why have young women been so prominent in the recent campus chaos?
Facilities Planning & Management
I’m so excited to share that I will be joining the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Neurology as a Neuropsychologist this fall, with a special focus on neuro-oncology and epilepsy! #OnWisconsin pic.twitter.com/JuS1Von6AB
— Taylor McMillan, PhD (@McMillanNeuro) August 27, 2025
A Procedure to Estimate the Energy Requirements for Lighting
A Procedure to Estimate the Energy Requirements for Lighting
Giuseppe Parise – Luigi Martirano – Luigi Parise
Sapienza, University of Rome
Abstract: The amount of the electrical energy used for the interior lighting of medium and large buildings is generally considerable. The European Standard EN15193 was devised to establish conventions and procedures for the estimation of energy requirements of lighting in buildings by an energy performance numeric indicator. This methodology is based on the three derating factors that consider the influence of the daylight exploitation, the occupancy behavior and, if present, of a constant illuminance sensor. The factors are evaluated by a statistical approach on the basis of general reference data tabulated by the same Standard, not considering more detailed parameters of the control system that can impact severely in the effective energy savings. The Standard methodology appears extremely useful for a preliminary evaluation. For a more accurate evaluation, this paper suggests an improvement of the procedure that considers the effective operation time and occupancy behavior, the type of control and lamps, the number of control groups, the technique of modulation (dimming or switching), and the delay in turning off. The suggested procedure is compared with the Standard one to highlight the improvements.
Related:
Energy performance of interior lighting systems
Topology of Continuous Availability for LED Lighting Systems
$3 Billion Miami-Dade County Campus
Carnegie Mellon University Announces Historic $3 Billion Gift from Ken Griffin, Pioneering a New Model for Higher Education https://t.co/lV9ShArPAD
— Standards Michigan (@StandardsMich) October 1, 2026
First there was Michael Bloomberg’s $1.8 billion Johns Hopkins gift in 2018
Then there was Phil and Penny Knight’s $2 billion gift to Oregon Health & Science University in 2025
Now comes $3 billion Ken Griffin gift — $1 billion to strengthen CMU Pittsburgh and $2 billion to build a new CMU in Dade County Miami Florida.
[FSC 003242]
Gallery: School Bond Referenda
In terms of total spend, the US elementary and secondary school industry is about twice the size of the higher education industry according to IBISWorld. About $100 billion is in play every year for both (which we cover during our Ædificare colloquia); with higher education spending only half of what elementary and secondary school systems spend on facilities.
Note that some districts are including construction for faculty housing.
Our focus remains on applying global standard to create educational settlements that are safer, simpler, lower-cost and longer-lasting — not on the hurly-burly of local school bond elections. We recommend consulting the coverage in American School & University for more detailed and more timely information.
New update alert! The 2022 update to the Trademark Assignment Dataset is now available online. Find 1.29 million trademark assignments, involving 2.28 million unique trademark properties issued by the USPTO between March 1952 and January 2023: https://t.co/njrDAbSpwB pic.twitter.com/GkAXrHoQ9T
— USPTO (@uspto) July 13, 2023
Standards Michigan Group, LLC
455 East Eisenhower Parkway, Suite 300
Ann Arbor, MI 48108 USA
888-748-3670
DIRECTIONS
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
|
 |
 |