Private Education
We are your facilities experts
Serving over 150 independent schools in the US, Canada, and Mexico.
Select a service below for more information
Facility Audit
At regular intervals, more organizations are thoroughly assessing the condition of their physical plant—often their largest single asset. Most facility managers are busy with today’s tasks and cannot complete such a study in a timely and objective manner. A Facility Audit arms the manager with a tool to prepare more accurate operating budgets, guide fundraising, direct long-range planning and positively influence their accrediting bodies and “customers”. A Facility Audit, like a Property Condition Assessment, covers all building systems from HVAC and electrical, to roofs and finished walls. The Building Solutions Facility Audit report is tailored to be a maintenance guide and a capital planning tool, to be updated in a deliberate program, and the data resides in a powerful web-based environment for maximum flexibility and allowing broad information sharing.
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CMMS Implementation
School and university clients findings from their facility audits is delivered in a software tool of the client’s choosing. We offer the flexibility of working with the software that best suits the client’s needs, past practices, internal administrative support, and experience. The most basic platform is provided in a Microsoft Excel workbook, but we are familiar with cloud-based applications such as Dude Solutions’ Capital Forecast Direct. Our industry experience and knowledge of the client’s campus equip us to provide effective implementation support and training.
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Facility Operations Review
Facility Audits report “what” and Facility Operations Reviews report “how”—how the facility is being operated and managed and in what ways it measures up to best practices in the profession. This adjunct service to the audit is conducted following a standardized format, to permit benchmarking and covers topics such as organizational structure, work management, training and development, tools and equipment, policies and procedures. It is conducted by consultants with facilities management experience.
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Master Planning Management
We orchestrate the planner selection, schedule and organize the service delivery by the selected firm and provide the program budgets for the plan options. As construction experts, we offer input to the phasing plan. On behalf of the owner, we obtain the necessary site information and facilitate communications among parties that enable a well-informed final plan. On some assignments, we also provide programming information to the planner that includes an education-functional adequacy study, which supplements the condition assessment that is normally part of the facility audit.
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Owners Representation
As an owner’s representative with extensive construction experience, Building Solutions manages the entire building process or supplements your own team with available skilled manpower. As project managers, we establish teamwork and direct the activities of the architects and consultants on the client’s behalf. We may even be called upon to select the design team. In either event, we are the client’s principal source of cost management, scheduling, and constructability review. We help our client keep the project on-track, affordable, and synchronized with the stated goals.
As a construction manager, Building Solutions serves as the technical eyes and ears of the client, from managing budgets and administering contracts to assuring quality of construction and fair pricing. Whether we are on-site/full-time or periodically checking on the project in a cursory role, Building Solutions guarantees that it will add value.
Contact UsOur value to you………
When it comes to independent school campus operations, no one has more knowledge or experience than Building Solutions as a technical advisor to facility managers, business officers, and governing bodies. We are the market leader in providing facility audits and maintenance plans to education facilities in our primary market areas.
Our technical team has expert knowledge of each building system and has hands-on experience as facility operators, ensuring practical and actionable recommendations that reflect an understanding of budgeting and logistical realities. Our exposure to many similar campuses deepens our understanding of norms and best practices, which we can apply in our engagement with each new client.
We are also the leader in the application of sustainability principles to the education market. Our combination of services comprises our High Performance Building program, which ensures that high performance schools will match their exceptional programs with facilities that meet expectations of their constituents and support the institutional mission. At a minimum, this program pays for itself rapidly, while contributing to the education of the community and making an important public statement.
When it comes to education capital improvement projects, we protect the school’s interests in the inherently risky process of designing and constructing facilities. As an independent Project Leader (also known as a “project manager”), we are dedicated entirely to serving the school’s interests on the project. We know independent schools, their culture, financial priorities, quality demands, and decision-making patterns. That awareness coupled with our understanding of the business of developing buildings – design, city regulations, costs, and construction – allows you to sleep at night when we are your Project Leader.
Not only can you sleep better, but you can be more efficient. School representatives are empowered to participate in the aspects of the project that are appropriate for them, by not burdening them with the project details that should be left to others, but shouldn’t be left to others who have conflicting interests or lack the technical skills.
Our performance on capital programs is clear – we deliver value that far exceeds the fee charged and our experience with independent schools is unmatched in our market.
Client Testimonials
Total client satisfaction is the definition of success at Building Solutions. It is a mandate of our company culture to clearly understand the customer’s goals and then to relentlessly pursue achievement of them. “How” we meet our client’s needs is every bit as important as meeting them. Staying in step with our client, so we can execute well requires deliberate and plentiful communication and it requires a commitment to excellence.
Project Portfolio
Greenwich Country Day School | Greenwich, CT
Located in the heart of Greenwich, CT, Greenwich Country Day School (GCDS) is a coeducational preparatory day school serving approximately 915 students in PreK through 9th grade. Open since 1926, GCDS is the largest independent elementary and middle school in the country.
The main campus includes all academic facilities, four gymnasiums, a performing arts center, dining hall, three athletic fields, outdoor pool, tennis courts, and the administrative offices. In addition, the School owns 19 single family homes and 21 apartment units for its faculty. Total square feet for existing campus buildings is 236,000 plus faculty residences.
GCDS had recently hired a new CFO/COO and along with School Leadership, recognised the importance of capital asset renewal. After participating in a School issued RFP selection process, Building Solutions was engaged to perform an assessment of their facilities in order to prioritise the resources available to the facility and identify and plan for funding deferred maintenance. The assessment team also implemented School Dude’s Capital Forecast Direct software by entering and uploading all the School assets, components, needs, and other applicable data learned from the assessment for the purpose of noting remaining useful life of major building systems and other forecasting uses.
Trinity Valley School | Fort Worth, TX
Trinity Valley School is an independent, coed, college preparatory school serving grades K-12 with a total student enrolment of approximately 950. The campus is located in Fort Worth, TX on 75-acres. It consists of nine (9) one- and two-story buildings totalling approximately 177,500 SF.
The school was commencing an endowment campaign to support building maintenance, among other parts of school operations and a new master planning effort. Building Solutions was engaged to conduct a thorough assessment of its facilities to determine long-term resource needs associated with their preservation and continued support of the institution’s mission. In addition to informing the new master plan, the study enabled new leadership to focus on maintenance targets of high value, extending asset lives, and suggested design improvements that may be considered for future phases of campus development.
TVT Community Day School | Irvine, CA
One of the largest Jewish community day schools in the nation, TVT was established in 1991 and enrols 528 students serving grades PK-12 on two campuses. TVT had recently completed some major construction and engaged Building Solutions to complete the School’s first campus facility assessment to assist them with a future capital replacement plan.
Building Solutions helped TVT to identify key building system replacement needs within their growing and developing campus. Going forward, TVT will be able to direct funds towards capital replacement of major building systems, fixtures, and equipment. Building Solutions emphasised the importance of routine maintenance and scheduled replacement of these building systems in order to preserve their existing buildings and programs.
High Performance Campus Program
The High Performance Campus (HPC) program was created in response to a need voiced by independent school business officers and facilities directors for technical support of facilities department leadership in their schools. HPC is comprised of a mutually supportive “community” of peers across the United States. The program benefits schools by maximizing utilization of the facility audit investment, accelerating the development of facilities staff and equipping them with tools that help them perform at a higher level, and dedicated hours for special projects advising and assisting school leadership with solving strategic problems. HPC also reduces the long-term cost of keeping the campus facilities audit current and relevant as an asset management tool for school leadership.
Typical Qualifications of an HPC Member
- You have a baseline facility audit
- “Facilities” is a high institutional priority
- Your staff is sufficiently engaged and proficient that it can benefit from the service
- You are active CMMS users
A Few Benefits of an HPC Member
- Maximizing utilization of the facility audit investment
- Accelerating the development of facilities staff
- Equipping them with tools that help them perform at a higher level
- Technical advising
- Source for best practices
Want to learn more about the HPC program? Contact us (info@buildingsolns.com | 214.221.9145).