How to Turn a Summer Slammer into a Grand Slam

In baseball, a grand slam is the ultimate offensive play, scoring four runs with a single swing. Imagine the tension in the stadium—the crowd holding its breath as the batter connects with the ball. The bases are loaded, and suddenly, the crack of the bat echoes through the air. The ball soars over the outfield fence, and the crowd erupts into cheers. It’s a game-changer—a moment that can turn the tide and secure victory for the team.

Like a grand slam, a summer slammer requires lining up all your “players” to accommodate project quality and programmatic goals, sustainability criteria and building codes. The result will be a grand slam, where the university community celebrates a new environment when they return to campus in August.

To improve student socialization, learning and research environments, summer renovations are a critical strategy for physical plant management on a university campus. A summer renovation project, or a “summer slammer,” is a challenge to address university goals on time, on schedule and with quality.

In the past, these projects represented more modest upgrades or cosmetic improvements. However, in recent years, these efforts have grown more ambitious and technically complex. Building codes continue to evolve as they adapt to climate change, universities embrace improved health and safety protocols, and new social policies. Facilities must comply with these regulations and provide more diverse, equitable and inclusive student environments. Ongoing supply chain and labor shortages also contribute to schedule challenges.

Through the lens of recent experience with summer renovations, we’re sharing some approaches you should think about when planning your next summer renovation.

1. Start planning earlier than you think you should. Begin in July, thirteen months before occupancy, if you want the space to be open and ready for students in August of the following year. Under the old definition of a summer slammer, which looked more like a simple facelift, we would begin planning in January, only eight months prior to occupancy.
2. Supply chain shortages continue. While the procurement of materials for construction is improving, we continue to be challenged by long lead times. We have experienced wait times as long as 60 weeks to obtain electrical and audio-visual components which are essential in the rehabilitation of educational spaces.
3. Labor shortages are real and have significant cost impact. According to the Associated Builders and Contractors, millions of workers are leaving the industry and less and less young people are choosing construction as a career path.
4. The permitting process is unpredictable. In an already compressed design and construction schedule, permitting can add months to the process. Applications are reviewed by several disciplines within the building department and often occur sequentially. There is little opportunity for the design and construction team to interface with the review unit and simple miscommunications can cause delays.
5. Consensus building takes extra time. A larger scope of work and higher expectations about what a summer slammer can achieve translates into the involvement of a larger group of stakeholders. Modest renovations may be designed with a core team that includes representatives from the Architect, Engineers and Owner.  As projects become more complex, the university departments that have a stake in the outcome expand and the project becomes less efficient. 
6. As building codes become more stringent, the design outcome changes. A thorough understanding of building codes needs to be addressed in early feasibility studies, so design is not delayed based on approvals, schedule delays or scope creep. For a recent dining hall renovation, the municipality had enhanced requirements for waste and recycling management resulting in a fully enclosed, small building with plumbing and electricity that didn’t exist before. This addition resulted in a sizable budget increase.
7. Campus-wide sustainability and resiliency goals have a greater impact on small renovation projects than ever before. Not long ago, we would set sustainability goals for a project and evaluate the costs of those ambitions with a clear understanding of their return on investment.  Sustainability goals are now requirements. With these new requirements, a comprehensive electrification approach for an existing renovation requires new or upgraded equipment. The implications are extraordinary, particularly when we consider them within the context of a small project intended to be constructed during summer break.

Summer slammers are an important strategy to quickly adapt university environments for changing uses and refresh outdated spaces. While universities often begin planning early due to external factors like labor shortages and supply chain delays, lengthier timelines are needed to accommodate increased expectations from local municipalities, end users and university leadership to accommodate stringent building codes, build consensus and anticipate elevated expectations for quality of space and changing uses. This updated approach to planning your project will make it more likely that your summer slammer is going to be a home run for your campus.