by Laura Pirie
With ever more complex and competing priorities, educational institutions face enormous pressure to ensure that every dollar spent advances the institution and its core mission. Whether the challenges are quality education, recruitment and retention, health and well-being, research and grant funding, or simply protecting the longevity of physical assets, having a framework for built-environment decision-making can help guide complex choices in a way that creates a “whole is greater than the sum of the parts.”
Most campus planning is anchored with a master plan: a literal map of an institution’s goals. The most useful masterplans are both strategic and tactical, defining goals and presenting a physical solution – the masterplan – to accomplish the goals. When working well, a master plan is a living document that invites tactical refinements as conditions and individual project circumstances emerge while not losing the essence of strategic imperatives. When tactical refinements occur, competing demands can cause an individual project to disconnect from the goals of the masterplan. In this case, the optimal outcome of the whole being greater than the sum of individual projects can be lost. This is where a mission-infused project framework can help institutions meet strategic goals to create a more impactful, more aligned whole.
What is a mission-infused project framework and how is it useful?
A mission-infused project framework is a formulation tool that connects individual project goals to the goals of the institution. It is best used during pre-design and programming efforts when facilities groups and institutional units are establishing program, scope of work, and budget. The project framework is a mini strategic plan for a built environment project that outlines and helps prioritize competing needs. It accomplishes this by defining a unit’s individual program goals and then examining potential intra-unit synergies and alignment of those goals with larger institutional initiatives. Value (both dollars and effort) is also examined as part of the framework to understand balancing short term costs with long term investment and operational considerations.
A project framework can be used to provide consistency across individual project efforts to help planning groups coordinate and co-plan projects to meet master plan goals, even with tactical changes. A more limited version of the framework can be used for deferred maintenance projects, which tend to be less strategic and program driven, by helping to prioritize budget pressures. And last, a project framework will create an “impact story” that can be shared with potential donors to aid in fundraising efforts. The takeaway? A short but focused study can amplify the value of any project – a small effort with a potentially huge impact.
At Pirie Associates, we created this tool while working with nonprofit organizations and have extended its use to independent schools and higher education institutions. For more information on this approach and how it can dovetail with other institutional initiatives such as demographic data usage and energy master planning, please attend the North Atlantic Region SCUP Conference in Albany, N.Y. on March 22-24. Look for the concurrent session called “Mission-Infused Project Formulation to Amplify Impact and Value.”
Laura Pirie
Laura Pirie is principal and founder of Pirie Associates.
