Facilities Renewal
Facilities Renewal Fund
The Facilities Renewal Fund (FRF) at the University of Pennsylvania is designed to address deferred maintenance and renewal needs across the campus. Established to ensure the longevity and functionality of the university's infrastructure, the FRF focuses on the replacement of building assets that are part of the building's core infrastructure that have reached the end of their service life.
Background
Facility Condition Assessments
In 1998, Penn initiated an effort to assess its portfolio of buildings on the West Philadelphia campus to determine the amount of deferred maintenance that existed. To perform the assessments, Penn hired a full-service engineering and architecture firm to perform facility conditions assessments (FCA's) for each of the buildings. The firm completed in the survey in 2003 and, during the investigation, analyzed over 13 million square feet of building space, including air conditioning, heating, ventilation, plumbing, sprinkler, electrical service, electrical lighting, and fire alarm systems. Other areas of construction that were included in the investigation were building foundations and sub-structures, structural systems, exterior envelope (roofs, windows, doors, etc.) and conveying systems. Cost estimates were developed for in-kind replacement, and in 2004, a database was created to house the results of the assessments.
Since that initial round of FCAs, 20-25% of the campus is re-surveyed every year, and the data is updated to reflect projects that have completed, changes in deferred maintenance backlog, and adding any new needs. In 2015, the FCA program was revised and a new standardized assessment program was developed and implemented. The intent is that the customer (School or Center) will use the prioritization, organization, and report generating capabilities of the database as an effective capital budgeting tool for addressing their needs for capital renewal and reducing deferred maintenance.
Use of the FCAs by the Facility Renewal Fund (FRF)
The data in the FCA database is one of the tools available to identify eligible projects for FRF funding. In general, eligible projects must meet the followint criteria:
Replacement of building assets that are non-programmatic and would be considered part of the building and its infrastructure, agnostic to the school or center occupying the building
Replacement of existing assets only. New or additional equipment is not eligible.
Replacement of assets which have reached the end of their service life. Service life is based on industry standards provided by ASHRAE, BOMA, and others.
Replacement of assets deemed "immediate" or "high" priority. See below for explanation of these designations.
Fire sprinklers that are required by changes to the Philadelphia Fire Code.
Project Priority Levels
Each asset in the FCA database is assigned one of four priority levels. The priority levels indicate the severity of the need for replacement as well as recommended time frame. The four priority levels are defined below.
Immediate Level
Address immediately. These include safety or code violations, and critical equipment that is not functional or close to failure. Generally needed to be executed in the next year.
High Level
Schedule soon. These include items needing attention in the near term, as failure would impact the mission. Generally scheduled for execution two to four years out.
Medium Level
Schedule in the foreseeable future. Generally scheduled for execution five to seven years out.
Low Level
Less important projects related to aesthetic or minor performance issues, or projects related to systems or equipment that will reach the end of its useful life cycle within the ten-year scope of this Assessment. Generally scheduled for execution eight to ten years out.