Space study documenting building use, efficiency by the square foot Published July 1, 2010 By Wayne Crenshaw 78th Air Base Wing ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. -- A small team at Robins is doing painstaking work in buildings throughout the base, with possible ramifications for how space is used in the future. The Space Optimization Tiger Team is made up of six people who in pairs go through buildings with a laser measuring device and a tablet computer. Unless blueprints are determined to be accurate and updated, which is often not the case, they go through buildings measuring every wall, ceiling, door and window. They also describe how every room is used, along with information such as floor type and ceiling height. The effort is part of an Air Force mandate handed down last June requiring all bases to give an exact accounting of all buildings used for administrative purposes. At Robins, that's 115 buildings. The data will be used for a space-optimization study to determine whether all space is being used as efficiently as possible. The data will be analyzed, compared to real property records, and potentially used to make decisions about changes in how buildings are configured, said Craig Henry, environmental sustainment chief in the 78th Civil Engineer Group. "We aren't necessarily trying to reduce space," he said. "We want to validate we are using our space appropriately. We may find we don't have enough space with all of the growth we are experiencing." Because there are benefits other than space optimization, the base will also collect data on all 696 non-residential buildings on base which exceed 1,000 square feet. Henry said exact building measurements can, to cite one example, ensure the base is not overpaying on contracts such as janitorial work. Accurate floor plans are also highly useful to security forces in the event of a hostage situation, or the fire department in case someone is trapped in a burning building. The team's survey of the old commissary was used in designing the new Airman's Attic, which just recently opened, he added. Although the base has traditionally accounted for the square footage of its buildings, the actual floor plans can sometimes be incorrect due to renovations or other changes made through the years. Sometimes, even with newer buildings, the measurement of the actual building as built can be different from the blueprints. Engineering technicians Dillon Daniels and Ikea Battle were taking measurements of the Base Exchange last week. They were finding some differences in their measurements from what the original floor plans indicated, so their work was updating all of those measurements. Sometimes if the floor plans on hand appear to be correct, they may have to do very little measuring, but that's often not the case. "Sometimes we just have to start from scratch," Battle said.