A school business manager who has been in the market for a new athletic field in the last 10 years has no doubt has been exposed to the front lines of an intense battle for market share between producers of natural grass and manufacturers of artificial turf. Each camp is well represented by powerful industry organizations across the country. As a…

Recent developments made preengineered buildings attractive -- both aesthetically and from a cost standpoint. (Author)

Seven examples of prefabricated components that permit custom design and lower construction costs than do traditional buildings. (MLF)

Examples of different ways to cut school construction costs without sacrificing either comfort or aesthetics. (Author/MLF)

A preengineered building has the advantages of factory production and computerized quality control. Insulation efficiency and a roofing system that enables the entire roof membrane to react a full two inches to any temperature-induced movement are two of the innovations of preengineered building research. (Author/MLF)

The history, advantages, and disadvantages of component building systems are discussed. Application of the scientific method to the building industry forecasts the use of prefabrication and on-site erection of factory-made subsystems of buildings. Educational facilities in the United States, Canada, and England have made use of many different…

Innovative planning and performance specifications cut New Jersey's costs by a third. (Author)

Examples of educational facilities using metal buildings to lower construction costs and increase flexibility. (MLF)

Building systems can be traced back to a 1516 A.D. project by Leonardo da Vinci and to a variety of prefabrication projects in every succeeding century. When integrated into large and repetitive spatial units through careful design, building systems can produce an architecture of the first order, as evidenced in the award winning design of…

An architect tells how cost monitoring affects the design and building process. Following are case histories of eight schools shown chronologically to reflect the growing design sophistication of his firm. (Available from 1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020, $15.00 annually.) (Author/MLF)

This report summarizes the results of a program initiated in July of 1967 that was based on the findings and recommendations of the First Phase Report, which was completed in June of 1967. Seventeen different school districts participated in systems programs, and 20 new schools and additions were completed during the 1968-69 school year.…

Because of structural or financial limitations, many existing school buildings cannot be rebuilt to accommodate the flexible space requirements of such innovations as open plan teaching, individualized instruction, or modular scheduling. Schools with such buildings can keep pace with educational change by using relocatables. At the present time,…

Academic Building Systems (ABS) is an architectural planning and design method which allows the construction owner to respond to the need for less expensive structures, economically adaptable to the changing conditions of the academic world, by providing the owner with the maximum controls over the variable cost factors in educational facility…

The Central Building Research Institute (CBRI) is one of the national laboratories of India's Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. CBRI has applied the techniques of partial prefabrication to school building programs in Uttar Pradesh, the state having the largest population in India. The plan provides that the elements of a basic…

This review presents an analysis of the literature concerning the growth of systems building programs in education and reports on the conclusions of numerous architects and educators that the systems-built school may well be the only cost-effective answer available to today's educational facilities needs. The terms "building systems" and "systems…