INTRODUCTION
Over the past several years California has seen a tremendous increase in the cost of construction. Budgets for public school facilities have never been substantial and, as has been documented by the Coalition for Adequate School Housing (CASH) the grant amounts for the School Facility Program, established in 1998, are significantly less than that of the preceding funding program, the Lease Purchase Program. All these factors have forced school districts and their architects to find new methods to design more cost effective schools. At the same time energy costs have increased and the State's inventory of school facilities has increased in age with increasing needs for maintenance and modernization. This has put increasing pressure on school district budgets leading districts to seek solutions to long-term facilities costs.
In this section you will find information on cost effective design and how school districts, in California and across the country, are maximizing their construction dollars. This includes the consideration of operating and maintenance costs through life-cycle cost analysis. The realization that the construction costs are only a small percentage of the total cost of the facilities has led many school districts to accept a higher first cost to reduce these long term costs.
Project delivery methods can also have an impact on the cost of the construction project. California law limits the types of delivery methods available to school districts, however, a number of methods common in the commercial construction sector are being considered for school projects. This section will point out information on some of the project delivery methods that have been introduced to the school construction market and the impact they may have on school construction budgets.
- Dennis Dunston
Efficiency & Cost Effectiveness in Design Articles
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