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Measuring the impact of a new $500-million precinct on a university campus
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Measuring the impact of a new $500-million precinct on a university campus

By February 20, 2023October 18th, 2023No Comments

Place Intelligence was engaged by one of Australia’s leading universities to measure the performance uplift on campus after the development of a $500-million precinct

Challenge

Our client, one of Australia’s top public research universities with a 60,000 student population, wanted to understand historical patterns of place use to quantify the impact of a new $500 million precinct.

The client’s campus of the future included a new transport interchange, a 60-key hotel, four new buildings, 3000sq m of commercial and retail and student housing for 1000 students.

Engagement

Our team led a comprehensive data analysis exercise to index patterns of place use and activity across every building on the campus. Capturing a historical data point for the campus, before the new development came online, allowed our client to progressively measure the benefit and impact of their new investment.

Our team built a comprehensive campus index to measure multiple years of place usage and movement in buildings and in public space. We established a baseline of campus usage to measure change over time, indexing yearly, monthly, weekly and daily activity.

Studies

  • Campus precinct to highlight area footfall heat maps and statistical insights
  • Campus roads to show relative demand within and surrounding the campus
  • Campus buildings to show demand and activity profiles for each campus building
  • Cross building movement to highlight the relationships of movements between buildings over time
  • Footpaths, parking lots and public open space to highlight patterns of activity in each asset class over time 
  • Visitor origin analysis to highlight the home suburbs of campus users and students from across the metro area
  • Human mobility data to analyse the performance of buildings and campus activity over time.

Impact

  • The university was able to quantify place performance uplift after the completion of the new precinct
  • Indexed the most-used buildings on campus to help inform capital expenditure decision making and building prioritisation
  • Mapped the cross-precinct flow of people between each building, uncovering connections between faculty buildings, public spaces and campus precincts
  • Quantified student activity patterns, to enable evidence-based planning and activation decisions 
  • Validated and measured the change in campus usage over time, using yearly, monthly, weekly and daily activity indices
  • Quantified lost opportunity, including $6 million of off-campus leakage to a nearby shopping centre
  • Our work supported multiple stakeholders, including the campus asset teams life-cycle planning, and the experience and campus activation teams placemaking work.

Place Intelligence data was used to inform an investment strategy into buildings at the end of their lifecycle.

Norion Ubechel, CEO, Place Intelligence

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