Case Studies College and University

Students are often attracted to community colleges for the practical programs they offer. But Monica Davis knows that it’s also where the programs are taught—facilities that are comfortable, well-equipped and modern—that keeps students enrolling. That’s the gamble being made by the community college where she’s senior director of construction and facilities planning. As with other […]

Municipal zoning questions about construction projects rarely make for exciting conversations, even as they determine what will be built and where. Kyle Hardie’s work as director of design and construction for Indiana University Health involves zoning, but it’s often the spatial zoning—what’s inside those facilities—that occupy him, particularly as he assists the system enter a […]

For Alabama native Kevin Hudson, instilling value in every encounter with his team has become a hallmark of his career in construction—a way of giving southern hospitality a new meaning. After graduating from Auburn University in 2008, Hudson got his start working with a small contractor out of Nashville, Tennessee, before pursuing opportunities back in […]

Walking around Wellesley College’s campus just outside of Boston, students have been treated to a pastoral landscape that has changed little since 1875. Stone and brick buildings are nestled between groves of woodland trees and winding paths hug the shoreline of Lake Waban. That made the redevelopment of Science Hill—including a new redesign of historic […]

How eye-opening it was around a decade ago when John Yodice and his wife visited the colleges their two children attended. Among other developments, the dining halls seemed the antithesis of where he had eaten his meals as an Iona College student during the early 1990s. “Back then my choices were take it or leave […]

Watching Tai Davis work with his facilities team, one would never know he’s a staunch introvert, mostly content to keep to himself. Davis credits his California upbringing with introducing him to people from all backgrounds and cultures—and for teaching him to accept them for who they are. But it was his mother, a social worker […]

Patience isn’t a virtue to Mike Emerson. At least not while carrying out his duties as executive director of facilities management at Elmhurst University, a private liberal arts school in suburban Chicago and affiliate of the United Church of Christ. “We only have our students for four years,” the otherwise congenial Emerson emphasizes during a […]

To live is to learn, to learn is to live. What a desirable place to do both, the University of California San Diego, where environments are being reshaped for like-minded students, faculty and staff. It’s here where the undergraduate division is organized into seven residential colleges, each headed by its own provost and with its […]

A 17-year-old Wesley Cooper would never forget the haunting screams of a woman burning to death in a car fire—and he never imagined his efforts to save her life would lead to a multiple careers. Seeing her car aflame in a ditch as a passerby, the teenager rushed to her aid, attempting to break the […]

There’s no shortage of strange stories when dealing with an annually revolving menagerie of college students. One day, you’re managing normal facilities-related issues—a clogged toilet or a broken pipe. And then you get a call you never imagined getting, the voice on the other end at once panicked and amused. “There’s an octopus in a […]