The College and University Campus: Facility Assessments for Long Term Decision Making

Abstract

Post-Occupancy Evaluations (POEs) have been defined as “the process of evaluating buildings in a systematic and rigorous manner after they have been built and occupied for some time” (Preiser et al. 1988, p. 3). One important objective of POEs is to glean lessons-learned from the review of completed buildings to improve design strategies for future projects. For Vischer (2001, p. 23), it is about “learning how a building performs once it is built, including if and how well it has met expectations.” This is a ‘rear-view’ approach to POEs, in order to feed forward future design decisions, and has served as an important tool for designing better spaces. Another application of POEs is addressed less frequently yet extremely useful to college and university building owners and managers. Campus representatives continually face decisions about the future of the facilities they steward. While building evaluations often focus on physical conditions such as structural, mechanical and building envelope to understand life expectancy, the central goal of campus buildings is to support an institution’s mission and activities. Higher education systems are quickly evolving and changing and many campus buildings throughout the North America have become functionally obsolete. Functional evaluations, similar to Indicative POEs described by Preiser et al., can provide valuable information to decision makers about an institution's existing building stock.