Swarthmore College has approximately 1.7 million square feet of building space and miles of utility infrastructure, all requiring constant maintenance and renewal. These campus assets require on-going, significant financial investment to ensure proper upkeep and performance. Similar to its peer institutions, the College continues to accumulate a considerable backlog of deferred maintenance despite addressing the most pressing ones on an annual basis.

Our extensive campus-wide study began with evaluating previous assessment studies centered on life-cycle expectations. Next steps involved analyzing each building and component in detail to provide roadmaps for future deferred maintenance initiatives.

Key objectives achieved in the study consist of:

(1) Assemble a comprehensive list of deferred maintenance for each building or system in the study.

(2) Provide an estimated value of the College’s accumulated deferred maintenance backlog.

(3) Identify opportunities for qualitative space improvements within deferred maintenance projects.

(4) Develop a framework to address accumulated deferred maintenance backlog along with funding strategy and a preliminary work plan.

Working closely with all campus constituents, our study provides data and recommendations with best-methods to satisfy the College’s long-range deferred maintenance goals. Detailed scopes and cost data were produced, from which individual tasks and multi-faceted work packages are bundled to ensure the most economical and efficient use of resources.