Operating and maintaining buildings for arts and culture deserves just as much, if not more, attention than projects that result in new buildings.  Over the last 20 years, a cultural-sector building boom has resulted in an industry-wide obsession with new construction, and we are now finding that too little attention has been paid to buildings’ implications for long-term operations. Most cultural organizations will own or occupy their facilities for many years, and incur significant operating costs including utilities, systems upkeep, and building maintenance.  Over long periods, these accumulated costs can dwarf the initial cost of construction!  On an ongoing basis, the more efficient and effective the operations and maintenance, the fewer resources the building will require, and the more funds will be available in support of your mission. In this tool, we’ll summarize two key areas:

• Major maintenance projects that take place incrementally over the life of the building
• Maximizing the building’s everyday operational efficiency and effectiveness.

Getting Started

Useful tips to help you get the most out of Plan It | Build It:

1. You can use either the Next Step button or the left navigation to move though each project phase.
2. Hovering over or clicking each of the phases on the left navigation to expand and collapse the steps.
3. Key points in each step are marked with an icon.
4. Hover over dotted underlined terms and a definition will appear.
5. The Resources button contains links to information, industry-standard guidelines and best practices in ArtsBuild Ontario’s Resource Library.
6. Want to take this information offline? Each page features a Print / Save /PDF option

Questions? Comments? Additional Resources? Contact Us!

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