Oakton Community College
With almost 8,000 undergraduate students enrolled, Oakton Community College understands the important role facilities play in the journey to education advancement. As a public community college, Oakton offers a wealth of educational options in the heart of Chicago’s northern suburbs with campuses in Des Plaines and Skokie, Illinois. FOS of CannonDesign was brought on board in February of 2020 to conduct a facility condition assessment (FCA) and complete an asset inventory for preventive and predictive maintenance planning.
The FOS team truly banded together for this project. At the start, our dedicated Field Project Manager had surgery, so another assessor stepped up and went in his place. The team arrived in Illinois on Superbowl Sunday, which meant the campus was closed down for holiday break (an ideal scenario since campus closures allow us complete access with minimal disruptions for either party). Overall, the assessment went smoothly despite the several feet of snow on the roof which eliminated our visibility. Our team pivoted and based the roof reporting on any leaks showing from the inside. The FOS team is ever flexible, proven on this project when the snowy weather made some parts of the job more challenging, and the team came together to share cold-weather gear and ensure that all elements of the project scope were completed.
When asked to rate the value of our services, satisfaction with our team, and usefulness of the data – Senior Manager of Campus Facilities & Construction Richard Schwass gave us top marks, saying, “Our experience with the entire team was very pleasurable. The individuals that worked on our project were extremely experienced in their respectful fields. The overall report provided us with very useful information that we will definitely use in our future facilities maintenance and replacement planning.”
The importance of data was especially critical for this campus. The biggest problem we found during our FCA was that the campus had quite a bit of ground settlement on their foundations across multiple buildings. With older buildings and equipment this isn’t a surprise, but the data from our assessment allowed Oakton to focus on tangible, quantitative information to facilitate decision making. They are now in the process of partnering with our parent company, CannonDesign, to receive structural engineering services for their foundations.
