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Estimating
<br />Building Costs
<br />Guesstimates won't do when it comes to building high schools, so plug space
<br />and construction requirements into this tested formula to arrive at a
<br />realistic estimate of what it will cost to build and equip your facility.
<br />By David Carter, Timothy K. Scarbrough, and Syd Spain
<br />Smart, cost -ef-
<br />fective budgeting is a matter of eco-
<br />nomic necessity in all areas of con-
<br />struction —and public projects such
<br />as new schools are no exception.
<br />Dwindling community tax bases,
<br />fewer taxpayers with school -age
<br />children, and growing public re-
<br />sistance to increased taxation pose
<br />a problem for many school systems:
<br />With fewer financial resources, how
<br />can you build the high - quality
<br />schools you need?
<br />In the early stages of budget plan-
<br />ning for a new high school, school
<br />board members, school administra-
<br />tors, and architects have to juggle
<br />total costs, area requirements, and
<br />construction quality to accommo-
<br />date the carefully considered needs
<br />of the school district's students and
<br />residents. The success of the fin-
<br />ished product is critically influenced
<br />by these early decisions.
<br />Working with school officials in
<br />the design of more than 1,000 high
<br />schools and other educational facili-
<br />David Carter is an architectural pro-
<br />grammer for CRS Sirrine, Inc., Houston.
<br />Timothy K. Scarbrough, also an architec-
<br />tural planner with CRS Sirrine, Inc.. cur-
<br />rently is program manager for capital im-
<br />provements in the Dade County (Florida)
<br />Public Schools. Syd Spain, formerly a re-
<br />search specialist with CRS Sirrine. Inc., is
<br />assistant dean, School of Architecture.
<br />Auburn University, Auburn, Ala.
<br />ties, we have developed a way to
<br />analyze estimated costs and explore
<br />budget options when planning the
<br />construction of a high school. The
<br />chart on page Al2 shows how this
<br />approach to cost- estimate analysis
<br />can be applied to a hypothetical
<br />building project —a 2,000 - student
<br />high school. (This analysis excludes
<br />the costs that might be associated
<br />with acquiring construction capital
<br />through bonds or loans.)
<br />Estimating your budget
<br />In our model, as in any real -life
<br />building project, the total budget is,
<br />to a large extent, a function of space
<br />requirements and quality of con-
<br />struction. To show how we arrive at
<br />a final budget estimate, let's walk
<br />through the model step by step:
<br />1. Estimate the needed build-
<br />ing area. How big should your new
<br />school building be? That depends
<br />on whether you want a superb facil-
<br />ity, the bare minimum, or something
<br />in between. It depends, in other
<br />words, on how functionally ade-
<br />quate you want your building to be.
<br />Functional adequacy is a measure
<br />of the amount of service and sup-
<br />port a school provides in relation to
<br />the number of students and school
<br />programs. Most measurements of
<br />this type are made in gross building
<br />area per unit. Schools with austere
<br />functional adequacy have no voca-
<br />tional /technical areas and minimum
<br />central facilities such as auditoriums
<br />or gymnasiums. Schools with excel-
<br />lent functional adequacy, on the
<br />other hand, provide for a broader
<br />curriculum and more satisfactory
<br />central and service facilities.
<br />The list below illustrates the
<br />necessary gross square feet (csr) per
<br />student for different levels of func-
<br />tional adequacy. For example, mod-
<br />erate functional adequacy calls for a
<br />GSF per student of 120 in a 2,000 -
<br />student high school and 140 in a
<br />1,000 - student high school. Because
<br />area efficiencies increase as high
<br />school sizes inCtease, the GsF per
<br />student is smaller in the larger
<br />school.
<br />The first step in our model is to
<br />select the desired level of functional
<br />adequacy from the following list and
<br />multiply it by the projected student
<br />enrollment:
<br />• Superb: from 179 GSF /student in
<br />a 2,000- student school to 230 GSF/
<br />student in a 1,000 - student school
<br />• Grand: from 155 GSF /student in
<br />a 2.000- student school to 195 GSF/
<br />student in a 1,000- student school
<br />0 Excellent: from 135 GSF /student
<br />in a 2,000- student school to 165
<br />GSF /student in a 1,000 - student
<br />school
<br />• Aloderate: from 120 OF /student
<br />in a 2,000 - student school to 140
<br />05F /student in a 1,000 - student
<br />school
<br />• Economical: from 105 GSF /stu-
<br />dent in a 2,000- student school to
<br />BUILDING EDUCATION — May 1989 Al 1
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