Architectural Design Standards

Architectural Design Standards provide a basis for savings. Imagine an opportunity to reduce your outlay by 30% over the ten years just in the security design budget alone, with a potential for a one year return on investment.

It is possible to achieve such a goal! The approach is to conceptually program security for all of the organization's facilities. Defining the criteria allows for efficiency while providing for site variations based on actual conditions. In essence, the best of both worlds, while reducing construction costs!

Historically, organizations have treated most construction projects independently. Many times, each portion of a project is treated as a unique and separate part of the overall. Standards allow security decisions, once made, to become tools for future development.

Even larger savings can accrue from the architectural process because, as each architect starts to develop a building design, the security criteria for each aspect is defined in the Architectural Design Standards for security.

Assume that your organization will invest approximately $100,000,000 per year in new construction over the next ten years, for a total of $1,000,000,000. Typically, security issues account for 0.7% to 1.5% of total construction costs. This implies that $10,000,000 capital dollars may be spent for security products and services related to new construction over the next ten years.

Furthermore, the planning, design, engineering, and project management associated with the security budget accounts for 10% of the total ten-year outlay. This represents a value of $1,000,000 or an average of $100,000 per year. Using architectural design standards, the 10 year costs could be reduced to as low as $700,000.

Areas that can be addressed include:
· Public to private boundaries
· Lighting
· Parking
· Landscaping
· Lobbies
· Perimeters
· Each type of interior space

Lobby standards may include the desk, exterior door, interior control, CCTV, access to restrooms, phones, lighting, and conference rooms exterior to the interior boundary.

Many additional benefits can be recognized. Utilizing the same standards, renovation projects would also benefit, although the economics are more difficult to identify because of varying site conditions that must be addressed.

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