Even when most universities and universities demonstrated in the last 17 months, they could work properly and, often, effectively, with their people dispersed physically, many students and employees mocked to return to their campuses. The vast majority of the institutions plan to operate this fall more as they did in 2019 of what they did a year ago, but that does not mean that their leaders do not replanate how they could use their physical spaces in the coming years.
few are facing the questions as directly as the University of Akron, which announced in February that would consider selling, reusing or rethinking the use of up to one million of approximately eight million square feet of buildings and the earth. Has. Covid-19 did not start conversations in Akron, who were driven in part by registration and financial pressures. But as is true in many corners of our lives, the pandemic accelerated the discussions of the university.
A recent episode of the key, within the story and the highest analysis of the podcast, examined Akron's approach and the biggest questions about the future and value of the campus of the physical university. While this conversation focused on how colleges and universities could use their campus spaces, since their needs and those of their students evolve, it also explored the capacity and inclination of universities to adapt to changing circumstances.
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The guests were Nathan Mortimer, vice president of operations in Akron; Lander Medlin, executive vice president of APPA: Leadership in educational facilities; and Tomas Rossant and Alex O'Briant, a design partner and a director, respectively, in Ennead Architects, who works with schools in the United States about his design needs.
A transcript transcript of the conversations.
The key: What did you enter the decision of the University of Akron to rethink your physical interests?
Nathan Mortimer: The university has been doing some work on the properties of the last three or four years. We had buildings that we were no longer using, so we fade and remedy them for environmental concerns, and then I spare you see them. So, probably, we have made a square foot of 300,000 and more squares of ancient structures in the last three or four years, simply preparing the campus for what we are doing now.
The key: What factors? Have you taken you down that road? googleg.cmd.push (function () googleg.display ("dfp-ad-article_in_article");); Do you want to announce? Click here. It was an opportunity to bring a bit of deferred maintenance of the books. And it is to take some different eyes on the campus to see what we are doing and maybe give us some perspectives and different opinions of how we could do things better.
The key: Can you describe what? Is the range of all this space? Is it Earth, is facilities already built?
Mortimer: If you look at it a couple of years ago, it would have been largely buildings. As I said, we had a series of discarded, unused buildings that we were ultimately not in a position to be reused. So we take the initiative to eliminate those buildings, taking them out and creating green space. We have done that to approximately six buildings of more than 300,000 square feet that we believe is ready for sale or redevelopment.
Some buildings that we have already reused. The State Road Patrol in Ohio was looking for a new home in Summit County. So we actually put them
