Trading, Renovating, Building and Buying Spaces

1
Trading, Renovating, Building and Buying Spaces

• Sylvia Blankenship
• North Carolina State University
• Raleigh, NC

2
New Construction
New Construction is exciting and faculty get
great new space with often little
inconvenience. The biggest challenge is to build
a team with the contractors, architects,
university construction offices, and building
users. Everyone has a different agenda.
3
Renovations with Occupancy
Renovating a building where the occupants remain
can be a challenge for everyone. It is
important for the contractors to understand the
nature of the work of scientists. They often have
little science background. At the same time, the
scientists need to understand the contractor is
just trying to get a job done.
4
Old buildings can have lots of hidden surprises
and budgeting can become a challenge. This can
lead to changing the scope of the project which
often means you dont get what you expected.
5
Renovations/Construction around students
Safety is always the number one concern. Paths
around the construction site have to be
well-defined.
It is always better to get classes out of
buildings with significant renovation work.
6
Trading Old for New
I helped move several groups from the old
building in the picture into a newly purchased
building at the edge of campus. Commercially
built buildings have some amenities that arent
found in academic buildings, but wiring, phones,
signage and other standard policy items have to
be put in place.