Rhett Dawson / Boston, Massachusetts
01 / The Challenge
For universities, hospitals, cities, and the public owners of big building portfolios in Boston.
You have a deferred maintenance number you cannot defend, a roof replacement and a BERDO deadline in the same year, and a board asking what happens if you wait. Boston’s major building owners have more legitimate needs than money. I help you decide what gets funded next and what waiting costs.
See the case studiesBefore you fund it
Five questions to ask before any capital investment gets funded. A clear comparison, without a score that hides the judgment.
Safety, legal obligations, keeping critical services running. The non-negotiable core that frames everything else.
What fails, what it costs to run in the meantime, what gets disrupted. Deferral gets a price, not a shrug.
Repair it, replace it, consolidate it, change how it operates, get rid of it. The proposed project is one option. It is not the only one.
Funding restrictions, dependencies on other projects, useful life, uncertainty. The stuff that moves a project up, down, or later.
Staff capacity, design readiness, outages, procurement, approvals. A funded project nobody can deliver is a plan on paper only.
02 / Case Studies
Six Boston building and infrastructure studies. Each shows a different capital problem, the documented facts, and a question to bring back to your own buildings.
Independent studies of public sources. These owners are subjects of study. No advisory relationship is implied.
Foundation movement and structural shoring preceded the decision to replace the arena.
$350 million approved replacement cost, reported in August 2026. Source: College Hockey News
When should you stop extending your building’s life?
Read the full case study
A deteriorating garage beneath campus buildings became a wider demolition and renewal project.
$181.7 million overall project total reported by UMass, including academic building renovations. Source: UMass Boston
Which repairs depend on the buildings around them?
Full case study in progress
Falling concrete led to structural repairs. A redevelopment procurement was later cancelled.
$30 million in further repairs planned to keep the garage standing for roughly ten more years. Source: StreetsblogMASS, September 2026
What will another replacement delay cost you?
Full case study in progress
The city proposed rebuilding and expanding vocational education across the campus. Future capacity is part of the capital decision.
2,200 students in grades 7–12 in the city’s 2023 vision. Source: City of Boston
What future use must you settle before setting the budget?
Full case study in progress
Phased restoration joined historic public spaces with renewal of building systems.
1991–2002 multiphase restoration period recorded by the library. Source: Boston Public Library
How will you renew systems while keeping your building open?
Full case study in progress
The bridge closed after inspectors found unsafe floor beams. The city later planned removal with no immediate replacement.
$31 million total budget reported in March 2025. Source: Boston Globe
What still costs money after you stop using it?
Full case study in progress
03 / Services
Your capital plan has to explain what gets funded, what waits, and why. I help you compare the needs, test the alternatives, and put the decision in terms your board can weigh.
“A funded list you can explain.”
Needs exceed your budget and condition evidence has gaps. You get a funded list with documented needs, inferred risks, criteria, weights, approval steps, and delivery roles made clear.
“Put a price on waiting.”
Your board wants the cost of another year’s delay. You get a renewal plan ranked by condition and failure consequences, showing what can wait and where delay adds cost or risk.
“One sequence for roofs, systems, and emissions.”
Your roof replacement and BERDO deadline coincide. You get one sequence for roofs, systems, and emissions, comparing lifecycle costs and compliance paths, with the Alternative Compliance Payment used as a compliance cost benchmark.
“Compare the options before choosing the project.”
You keep repairing a building without knowing whether to keep it. You get repair, replacement, consolidation, and disposal compared on one page, with costs, consequences, and uncertainties.
04 / Insights
Local news and source documents, with a short read on what each means for your buildings.
A new hospital puts replacement and expansion on the same capital agenda as the buildings you already operate. For your portfolio, what work still has to be funded while a major new facility is being built?
The groundbreaking is a useful point to revisit the sequence around a major project. Which dependencies, approvals, and service moves have to fit your construction plan?
The application window runs from October 15 to November 16, 2026. For your buildings, use the planning opportunity to put emissions work alongside equipment age, condition, and the rest of the capital plan.
After about $45 million in repair work, another $30 million is planned to keep the garage standing for roughly ten more years. Give your own interim repairs a time limit and a cost to compare with replacement.
The $234 per metric ton of CO2e payment is a compliance cost benchmark, not a published investment hurdle rate. It informs project economics alongside lifecycle costs, timing, and other compliance pathways.
The vote advances a study without settling the final rebuild cost. Keep your building’s future use and capacity open to comparison before settling its budget.
The scale makes the tradeoffs visible. For your own plan, ask what is funded, what remains exposed, and what your team can actually deliver.
The need is more than a hundred times the annual programming level of about 156.5 million dollars, and 5.57 billion dollars of it is deferred maintenance. Buildings built in the same decades wear out in the same decades, so if your portfolio has an age cohort, your need arrives as a shark chart, not a slope.
Your backlog total describes the portfolio, but it does not make the funding case. Show which services, compliance obligations, conditions, and operating costs change at each funding level.
If you manage buildings like these, this is the conversation I have for a living. If you are trying to decide what to fund and what can wait, let’s talk.
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