There’s got to be some more “there-there.” Richard A. Yeager laments the phrase, but concedes its wisdom. Especially in his role of the past year as director for campus planning at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. While he’s quick to acknowledge the more than $1.5 billion of capital improvements and new buildings over the past 15 […]
Case Studies Education
Hector A. Dietsch – Seminole State College of Florida
The rewards, at least the tangible ones, were greater in some of his previous posts, but Hector A. Dietsch wanted more out of his professional and personal life. For he had been logging 10- to 12-hour shifts, six, sometimes seven days a week in his native Dominican Republic, supervising high-stakes renovation for construction companies. A […]
Jeffery A. Vinger – University of Arkansas
It’s the Cherokee term for “from the woods,” which makes Adohi the ideal name for new student housing scheduled to open late this summer at the University of Arkansas. For it’s the woods where the primary construction material originates, though it was processed in Austria by the Holzpak Corp. One of just a handful of […]
Rick Fechter – School District of Menomonee Falls
You sound like a football coach, Rick Fechter is told during a midsummer interview with Blueprint. The approachable but demanding facilities director of the Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, school district takes it as a compliment. He concedes there’s no room for subpar performers on his NFL-sized team of around 45. Especially with the start of the […]
Georgia Diacumakos-Kyrifides – Rutgers University
As the campuses of Rutgers University grow and expand throughout New Jersey, school officials hope the locals take notice. It’s certainly hard to miss the new RWJ Barnabas Health Athletic Performance Center, a $108 million complex located at the heart of the school’s Piscataway, New Jersey campus. Encompassing 125,000 square feet, the four-story facility combines […]
Dan Zalkow — Portland State University
A $100 million construction project is hard enough for any one builder, even with the best of plans. Now try it with four vested stakeholders in the project, three of them viewing it as crucial to the future of the educational opportunities they offer. Such is the case in Portland, Oregon, with 4th & Montgomery, […]
Randall F. Hoppe – National Management Resources Corp.
Its physical plant costly and in need of upgrade a few years ago, a private college in New Jersey called upon the National Management Resources Corp., a Georgia company that’s become the go-to source for getting campus facilities up to par. Some broken steam pipes would be removed with others repaired, and campus buildings would […]
Mark Dudgeon – Columbus State Community College
Mark Dudgeon might be an oftentimes overlooked but vital cog at Columbus State Community College, overseeing nearly 1.5 million square feet of facilities space that so many folks would take for granted—unless something’s on the blink or out of place. Thankfully, that’s rarely been the case since the 42-year-old Dudgeon became director of operations within […]
David Handwork – Arkansas State University
When a person interviews for a job, it is said to take just three seconds for the interviewer to develop an opinion of him or her. The same pretty much holds true for high school seniors pondering where to continue their education, says the man entrusted with tending to the aesthetics and facilities at Arkansas […]
Leighton Mitchell – NYU Tisch School of The Arts
What long had served as the administrative headquarters for North America’s largest public transit operation would not be ideal for the teaching and practices of an arts institution. At least not without a major repurposing. Which is what the big boxlike 13-story structure on Brooklyn’s Jay Street has been undergoing since 2012—the last few years […]
