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What colleges can miss when they tackle one building at a time

A second ice rink. A hotel and conference space. UMass Lowell’s wish list gave B&D Senior Project Manager Greg Benson and his team a starting point. Looking at those needs together helped them see the possibility of an entire district. In this month’s Ask the Expert, Greg explains how schools can find those connections without letting a project grow beyond what they need or can afford. 

Brailsfod & Dunlavey: Why do colleges so often tackle building needs separately? 

Greg Benson: A lot of it comes down to how they’re organized. Housing, athletics, and other student affairs departments each oversee their own buildings. They know what needs attention in those spaces, but they may not know what another department is dealing with. That’s why I recommend starting by getting those groups together. Before you decide what to build or renovate, you need to understand what’s happening across campus. 

B&D: What gets missed when the focus is on one immediate need? 

GB: When something needs fixing and money is tight, it’s understandable to concentrate on that one thing. But you can miss the chance to solve another problem along the way. I encourage schools to ask what they want a project to accomplish before deciding what it should look like. Then, we can consider how their land and buildings might help them get there. If we start with a single building and a single use already in mind, we may overlook a better way to meet those needs. 

B&D: How do you think bigger without letting a project get out of hand? 

GB: You have to be disciplined. Once people start seeing the possibilities, it’s tempting to keep adding to the list. The university needs to be clear about what it’s trying to accomplish. Each addition should earn its place: Does it help us do what we set out to do? We can explore an idea without deciding to build it. 

B&D: How has that worked at UMass Lowell? 

GB: The university initially wanted a second ice rink, a hotel, and conference space. As we worked through those needs together, we saw the potential for a district that combined several uses and could serve people beyond campus. That became the starting point for the mixed-use district we’re working on today. The original needs still mattered, but looking at them together helped us see how the project could also serve Lowell and the surrounding communities. 

B&D: When should schools start having these conversations? 

GB: The earlier, the better.  At UMass Lowell, the rink and hotel had been under discussion for a while. The university had already studied its space needs and worked through its goals. We revisited that work with them to understand what was behind the requests. Those conversations helped us see how the pieces could fit together as a district. That’s why it’s worth asking these questions early, while there’s still room to consider a different approach.

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Ask the Expert is written and produced by Allison Bruns. Thank you again to Greg Benson for his participation in the column. If you have a topic you’d like one of our experts to cover in a future issue, submit them here.