The Education field is changing, and quickly, and our clients’ needs are changing with it. COVID-19 especially changed the landscape, with students quarantining and taking classes remotely.  Technology has also been an influence in the classroom, with AI and remote learning challenging the previous norms.

Combined with dropping birth rates and funding cuts, higher education clients are turning to architecture and design firms, such as Colliers Engineering & Design to help keep their classroom environments sustainable through the evolving classrooms of tomorrow.

Changing Campuses

While philosophies of education are shifting at all levels, the higher education space is perhaps seeing the most obvious changes. The pandemic accelerated shifts in modalities of teaching. For example, while some professors had started to explore new ways of holding classes, for the most part lessons were taught in-person.

Now, much like many offices in the corporate world, many schools are offering hybrid synchronous or entirely virtual asynchronous classes. This sometimes means students meet virtually on certain days and in person on other days. Sometimes it means that some students are in-person for the same class that other students are attending virtually. Students may never meet in person for asynchronous classes but connect with each other weekly as a digital community. Further, increasingly more professors are embracing project-based learning of applied knowledge, and Socratic seminar style classes, which need different classroom setups than lecture-based classes do.

New Technology

We are also  seeing technological advances in higher education as well. Some universities are more engaged in Virtual Reality (VR) for science, and for lab-based work, rather than using traditional labs. In digital labs, students are dissecting animals on a digital platform rather than by hand. In chemistry classes, VR can help them understand molecular structures three-dimensionally. Some universities, such as University of California Los Angeles, have opened VR labs on campus to give students hands on learning experience. We are at an early stage in the tech industry with things like augmented reality, so this will likely become more  of a trend for schools to incorporate, and need in their classrooms.

Not only is technology used more in the classroom, but it is also influencing what careers students are selecting. With rising fears of what jobs AI may replace in our lifetimes, interest in vocational schools is increasing.

As an example, Colliers Engineering & Design is working with Brookdale Community College to move their culinary program from Asbury Park, NJ to their main campus in Lincroft because of this. The new facility will have three types of kitchens: a restaurant kitchen, a skills kitchen, and a bakery. These types of schools require very specific design components, and our experts are well versed in providing not only spaces that accommodate today’s needs, but also spaces with the flexibility to accommodate the needs of tomorrow.

Sustainability

Sustainability is another part of higher education engineering design that is on the rise. Many clients are interested in becoming Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)® certified, while others are interested in using a sustainable approach. Other clients have adopted either their own sustainability goals, such as health focused requirements or meeting Living Building Challenge Core certification. For clients wanting to follow the framework and principles of sustainability with or without certification, we offer our expertise to ensure they meet their goals.

Another important aspect of sustainability is ensuring the changes made within the project space are maintained for all students and faculty. Our professionals have worked with clients to have the tools and resources to keep the changes in the classroom alive and well.

In one project, our experts designed a planetarium using best practices to make the most energy efficient building. We used heavy timber framing, addressed bird collisions to prevent bird strikes outside of the building, incorporated stormwater management and green infrastructure, and minimized the impact on the surrounding property including the trees. Green infrastructure changes many elements of our designs; from the materials we use to the ways we consider natural light and building energy use. Being a multi-disciplined firm, we offer many environmental services, which you can learn more about here.

Challenges and Solutions

There are many challenges in the higher education market right now. Enrollment has been trending down, which has impacts on finances and the number of classrooms and dormitories needed. Grant funding at the federal level impacts funding streams, so we must clearly understand our client’s budget, while being flexible with our design options to allow for change at later stages of the project.

While our approach is to ensure the budget funds our clients program requirements, with the changing market conditions impacting project costs, we must also be prepared for the inevitable value management process. When our clients suddenly need to lower project costs, we respond by providing solutions that look to maintain the program, while being cost effective with our design concepts. Our experts are nimble, and always ready to meet our clients’ needs.

Today, certain higher education campuses, with some reliance on  federal grant funds toward critical research programs, are now having to plan for reduced federal funding. This impacts their approach to research programs and ability to provide state-of-the art research space. Our design approach recognizes such and can adapt to the new budgetary constraints now imposed on projects.

While our clients’ available funding may change, we are prepared to help guide our clients with their campus priorities, sometimes their older buildings have not been maintained or prioritized over building new ones. When that is the case, retrofitting older buildings may be more cost-effective, or space-effective, rather than building new ones. To meet educational needs, we perform space utilization analytics and leverage data to help inform decisions about which spaces are underused or overused, if they have the right mix of classrooms, and  size and types of spaces.

Work With Us

Educational models are changing, budgets are fluctuating, and older buildings are becoming outdated. Colliers Engineering & Design is prepared to analyze the changing landscape of higher education, help colleges and universities recalibrate, to help them move to where they want to be in the future.

David Hincher is going to be at Bisnow’s Philadelphia Education Real Estate Conference on Tuesday, March 3 at the Hilton Philadelphia at Penn’s Landing. He is also the president-elect of the Philadelphia American Institute of Architects Philadelphia Chapter, expecting to serve as president in 2027.