How UNC Chapel Hill Thinks About Capital Projects, Design Partners, & the Future of Campus Planning

Higher education capital planning, university procurement, and what it really takes to win AEC work with a public university anchor this conversation with Howard Wertheimer, FAIA Emeritus, LEED AP, Interim Associate Vice Chancellor for Facilities at UNC-Chapel Hill. Howard has spent more than two decades on both sides of the design and construction table. He built his career in private practice, including 21 years as a Partner and Principal at Lord, Aeck and Sargent, before moving into ownership and institutional leadership roles at Georgia Tech, Vanderbilt University, and now UNC-Chapel Hill, where he oversees planning, design, construction, and operations across nearly 20 million square feet of campus facilities. Host Katie Cash sits down with Howard to unpack how UNC's capital improvement plan comes together, from early pre-planning and budgeting through board approval, and what firms need to understand about the state's advertising and procurement process. Howard explains why attention to detail on proposals, from accurate references to correctly spelled university names, matters more than most firms realize, and how outdated reference contacts can quietly sink a submission. He also shares how UNC brought in an independent cost estimator to reconcile budgets on a CM at risk delivery project and saved three million dollars on a single job, along with a look at the 950-acre former airport site UNC recently acquired for future campus development. Whether a firm is chasing its first project with a public university or working to strengthen a long-standing relationship, Howard's perspective from both sides of the table offers a clear, practical roadmap. It is a conversation packed with guidance for any AEC firm serious about growing its higher education practice. Key Takeaways • Sweat the details. Typos, misspelled university names, and language copied from a previous proposal read as a lack of care and are one of the fastest ways to lose credibility with a selection committee. • Keep references current and relevant. Outdated contact information undermines a proposal before anyone picks up the phone, and a reference tied to the wrong project type can do just as much damage. • Local presence builds trust. For out-of-state firms pursuing public university work, having someone who can be on site within a day matters, especially on the construction side. • Independent cost estimating pays for itself. Bringing in a third-party estimator to reconcile budgets between the design team and the CM helped UNC save three million dollars on a single project.