Building Quality Assessment
Through work done in conjunction with Massey University in New Zealand ap­proximately 20 years ago, Rider Levett Bucknall discovered that it is possible to measure the quality of a building; not whether it is pretty and not whether it is in a good location, but whether it is a good-quality building compared to its peers. It is important to note that by determining building quality in conjunction with lifecycle cost analysis and pre-emptive building life extension studies, better decisions can be made about capital investments, usage and minimization of resource usage.

Armed with these tools, owners can make careful decisions about how to use their existing assets more effectively and extend their lives, thereby saving scarce natural resources altogether – for a building that is not demolished and replaced is a considerable saving of resources.

The challenge for the construction industry lies in what Eugene Kranz described as “our ability to invent things that will allow us to use very limited resources.”

The industry actually has no choice and will change. Perhaps not because people perceive it to be a worthy change, but because the economics of scarce resources – in the Age of Environmental Thrift – will demand it.

Julian Anderson is president of Rider Levett Bucknall. He can be reached at 877-431-2976 or e-mail him at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . For more information, visit rlb.com.

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