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No.  Approval for study or design does not necessarily mean that the project is approved for construction. A capital facilities project is only approved to proceed to construction once it has received the necessary approvals outlined in the Capital Facilities Process.

Yes. A capital facilities project could be deferred during project development due to insufficient needs analysis, lack of available funding, or other reasons. Reactivation may be possible in subsequent years.

The Capital Facilities Committee includes:

• Provost (Co-Chair)
• Executive Vice President (Co-Chair)
• Office of the Provost designees
• Office of Budget and Planning designees
• Facilities designees

The Capital Facilities Workgroup, a subset of the full Capital Facilities Committee, reports to and supports the Committee and its co-chairs. The CFW receives and reviews project initiation requests; engages with the initiative sponsor and other stakeholders as necessary to inform the project; communicates the approved project approval path, budget, scope of work, and project schedule to the school/unit and stakeholders; and shepherds projects through the approval stages.

The Capital Facilities Workgroup includes:

• Office of the Provost designees
• Office of Budget and Planning designees
• Facilities designees

The CFW will communicate approval paths and project approvals with the school/unit and the necessary stakeholders.

All questions regarding the Capital Facilities Process should be directed to the Capital Facilities Workgroup at cfw@northwestern.edu.

Once approved through the Resource Planning Process, the project may be initiated by completing the .

The CFW will review the form, consult with appropriate units, and assign an approval path. This will initiate the project with Facilities and the Office of Budget and Planning.

Please see the Process Overview for more information regarding approval paths.

Notification of capital resource allocations will outline the timeframe for initiating a project. For example, the initiation period for a project that is approved during the FY2019 Resource Planning Process may be in the first, second, third, or fourth quarter of FY2019 (September 2018 – August 2019).

Projects will only be considered for initiation within the timeframe specified in the Resource Allocation Letter. Please contact the CFW at cfw@northwestern.edu if project circumstances have changed that may require the advancement or deferral of project initiation.

The CFW will confirm receipt of the Request Form. The Request Form will be reviewed at the next CFW meeting. As necessary, the CFW may engage with the school/unit and/or other university stakeholders to further inform the project initiation request.

CFW will:

• Notify the customers when projects are approved to proceed through the Capital Facilities Process.
• Inform the customer when a project is approved to proceed through the Capital Facilities Process and which approval path has been assigned
• Facilities will establish a project name and project number
• Facilities will assign a project planner or project manager
• Office of Budget and Planning will begin tracking the project and/or will establish a chart-string as applicable

Projects that are underway but are not yet under construction will require a before receiving approval to proceed into construction. The CFW will be reaching out to each school/unit to identify approval paths for projects currently in planning and design.

A chart-string is not required until a project is assigned a project path by the CFW.

Based on a project’s approval path, the project will proceed through a set of phases. Each phase may include various related sub-phases and tasks that must be completed. The project cannot advance to the next project phase until the scope, schedule, and budget are aligned. The CFW may advise that a project requires Conceptual Design, Feasibility Study, or Master Plan for full consideration in future fiscal years. Please see the Project Development section of this website.

The Capital Facilities Process is designed to ensure that projects are continually reviewed and aligned throughout the project development. If a project changes, a can be submitted as a Budget Adjustment request.  The CFW will review and determine the next step before the project advances.

Please see the Capital Project Development Phases and Approvals document for an overview of the materials required at each approval point.   The CFW will determine when a capital facilities project is ready for review by the Capital Facilities Committee.

The Facilities project planner/manager will facilitate preparation of the necessary documents with the school/unit in advance of each approval point. The CFW will review, prepare, and schedule projects for review by the Capital Facilities Committee and will develop the Capital Facilities Committee Resolution.

Schools/units may be invited to present their project to the Capital Facilities Committee.

The Capital Facilities Committee Resolution is the formal form used to summarize information for the Capital Facilities Committee. The form is also used to document approval decisions by the Capital Facilities Committee at the conclusion of the Programming/Pre-Design/Feasibility or Schematic Design project phases.

Yes. Projects that do not qualify as capital facilities projects should continue to be initiated directly with Facilities. However, non-capital projects will be transitioned into the Capital Facilities Process when:

• A project is more than $75k and has potential to be capitalized; and/or
• A project has a high community impact; and/or
• A project has a high campus physical impact; and/or
• The project will alter the functional use of the space

To ensure alignment with University Priorities and organizational support, schools/units are encouraged to include all space need requests in the Resource Planning Process. That said, it is understood that occasionally, preliminary work is needed to best inform the future request.  For this reason, the Capital Facilities Committee will also review space need requests. For full consideration, please submit a as a Space Request.

Please note the following:

• Approval to investigate a space need does not necessarily result in project approval nor space reassignment.
• External consultants cannot be engaged to assess a space need without endorsement by the Resource Planning Committee.
• The school/unit will be required to submit a Capital Resource Request as part of the annual Resource Planning Process if the results of the initial space assessment qualifies as a capital facilities project and the unit wishes to move the project forward.
• Facilities staff time will be limited to 3 hours for review and consult of a space need request.
• This form is not to be used for space reservation requests. To reserve a campus space, please reference the .