DCM to become Facilities Planning and Development

LAWRENCE — A campus fixture, best known by the three-letter acronym DCM, will soon have a new name.

Design and Construction Management is becoming Facilities Planning and Development. The people and the end product are the same, but the processes are being streamlined, and the focus is expanding. The changes allow the division to remove process redundancies and place greater emphasis on campus sustainability efforts, said Shannan Nelson, associate vice provost of campus operations. 

Jim Modig is remaining in place as university architect and will still oversee Facilities Planning and Development activities. The unit will lead activities related to structures and infrastructure at KU – actual construction projects. Modig has been at KU for more than 35 years and was named university architect in 2013.

Jeff Severin is now the director of Campus Planning and Sustainability. The new unit takes on space planning and management responsibilities. The office will also assume the lead on advancing overarching space usage toward a larger vision of sustainability. Severin has been at KU since 2004, serving as director of the Center for Sustainability since 2007, and has played a role in a variety of sustainability and campus planning initiatives in that capacity.

As part of the reformation, Facilities Planning and Development will shift procedures for small project requests for new construction, renovation and code updates. The new process, which will be shared with administrators across campus, expedites initial evaluation of project requests to provide a cost estimate, timeline and expected start date.