When Renovation Isn’t Enough
At Atlanta Technical College, there was a building sitting on campus that no longer served its original purpose. The Georgia Public Broadcasting studios, once built to house the specialized infrastructure of broadcast television production, had run their course. The campus needed space. The question was what to do with what they had. Build new, or […]
$112 Billion in Deferred Maintenance on Campuses, $32 Billion in Libraries, and the Clock Is Ticking.
A number worth paying attention to surfaced in December 2025, when the U.S. Government Accountability Office published the first comprehensive national study of public library building conditions in decades (GAO-26-107262). The finding: an estimated 70% of America’s public libraries—roughly 11,200 buildings—have a backlog of deferred maintenance and repair. Nearly 40% have at least one major […]
What Public Institutions Get Wrong About Interior Transformation
Most public institutions don’t suffer from a lack of vision. They suffer from a brief that arrives too late. By the time interior design and FF&E are brought into a major renovation project, the real decisions have already been made — floor plates locked, structural systems set, budgets allocated. What’s left is selection: pick […]
The Hidden Messages Your Spaces Send
Your facility is talking. Before your recruiter mentions benefits, before your admissions counselor discusses programs, before your HR director describes culture—your spaces are already telling prospects whether they want to be here. The question isn’t whether your spaces communicate. It’s whether they’re saying what you need them to say. The Silent Recruiting Challenge Every organization […]
Why January Is the Best Time to Assess Your Spaces
January offers something most facilities managers overlook: a natural reset point when teams return from break and notice inefficient spaces with fresh eyes. The Post-Holiday Reality Check We all have spaces that don’t quite work, the overbooked conference room, the confusing lobby wayfinding, the underutilized collaborative spaces. These challenges plague every sector—from university campuses and […]