Case Studies College and University

Uprooting a brick house that is a campus landmark was not in his plans when Steven Pecic arrived at Detroit’s Wayne State University in 2006. Then again, neither was overseeing the entire facility’s operational portfolio and maintenance of the campus, or participating in the construction of the $65 million project that takes the place of […]

Five years ago, the Sack ‘N Save at the corner of Wilshire and Avenue C in Denton, Texas, looked like any mid-sized grocery store: meat and produce around the perimeter, aisle upon aisle of food and household wares in the middle, all of it illuminated by a battery of fluorescent lights. Should a former customer […]

Walking around the campus, hand in hand with his wife, John Morris is mesmerized. Time stands still on the quad where tawny late afternoon light bathes the classic historic homes that make up the College of Charleston. Soft Spanish moss gently sways in a subtle breeze from trees that have grown here for hundreds of […]

A mechanical engineer with a master’s from the University of Texas and undergrad credentials from Pune University in his native India, Sameer Kapileshwari raised eyebrows among his colleagues when he left a plum private-sector position to direct and manage facilities in academia 17 years ago. “My friends would ask why I’d go to such a […]

The common denominator is everyone on campus—students, faculty, administrators, maintenance employees—has to eat, and they all agree it should be a pleasant experience. It hadn’t been that unpleasant at Vassar College; it just could have been better. The private liberal arts school in Poughkeepsie, New York, has long prided itself for forward thinking, but somehow […]