Question Of The Week: Design Leads To Tricky Facility Repair?

As many facility management leaders could attest, building and site designs do not often take into account the impact of long-term facility operations—and the resulting facility repair demands.

Have you encountered a design in one of your buildings that added complexity to facility repair plans? facility repair

Following its record fourth straight NCAA National Championship win, the University of Connecticut women’s basketball team was honored on April 10, 2016 at a Victory Parade held in Hartford, CT. The event celebrated the Huskies’ 11th national title and was attended by approximately 20,000 people.

The top-seeded Huskies topped No. 4 seed Syracuse, 81-50, on April 5 to secure the 2016 national crown. UConn finished off its historic season on a 75 game winning streak, and claimed both the American Athletic Conference regular season and tournament titles en route to the national championship.

facility repair
Photo credit: eric via Flickr Creative Commons

And the facility where these champions play during the regular season will soon undergo a significant roof and ceiling repair project. In late March, days before the UConn women’s basketball team won this year’s NCAA championship, the school’s Board of Trustees approved spending $10 million to repair the deteriorating roof and ceiling of the Gampel Pavilion basketball arena.

The design of the ceiling in this dome, a series of triangular metal insulated panels wrapped in fabric, makes the facility repair undertaking a tricky one. According to a recent article by Kathleen Megan in the Hartford Courant, “each triangular panel will have to be lowered to the floor, recovered with new fabric, and replaced section by section.” The triangular insulation panels are hung from an aluminum frame and covered with a white PVC coated ceiling fabric, and the coating on the fabric is peeling in many areas of the ceiling. The project is slated to begin in May 2016.

Have you encountered a design in one of your buildings that added complexity to facility repair plans? What opportunities have you had to provide the facility management and repair perspective during the design process? Please share your comments below.