The Town of Amherst, NY is the second largest and most populated suburb of Buffalo. Established in 1818, the Town celebrated its 200th anniversary in 2018. With buildings in their portfolio that vary in complexity, from highway department buildings to the Amherst Northtown Recreation Center, it was imperative to find a consultant to perform a town-wide facility assessment. That’s where FOS came in.

Over a 7-month period, our in-house assessment teams were deployed into the field to conduct building condition surveys across 767,036 square feet over 29 sites. We performed a UniFormat Level 3/5 assessment, collecting information to advise components and systems-based deferred maintenance and capital renewal projects. Cost estimates were developed for each individual component that was assessed or inventoried. The hybrid approach helps reduce the data overload for the Town’s internal teams, but still ensures a useful product that is maintainable for the long-term.

Being conveniently located in the backyard of our downtown Buffalo headquarters, working with this client afforded us the chance to engage architectural assessors throughout the project’s duration and allocate time for training our newer staff members. The portion of the assessment surrounding energy consumption was found particularly educational by one of our architectural assessors, Pratyusha Jampana, who said, “The sector of facilities management (FM) is developing rapidly. In this industry, there is only one way to go—above and beyond. The seamless integration of FM and sustainability, in my opinion, is the most notable change or advancement in the near future. FM would not have the option of selecting whether to take the steps toward sustainability or not because the two must coexist.”

The information gathered during these assessments will be used to enhance the Town’s approach to facilities management. With the assessment complete, the Town will work with our FCA software, FOScore®, to identify priorities and projects for their capital improvement program.