About Rickes Associates

Rickes Associates is a data-informed and solution-oriented higher education space planning and programming firm.

We are wholly and exclusively higher education planners, committed to ensuring that institutional space resources are effectively and efficiently allocated. With our focused expertise and deep experience, we have served as a trusted advisor and change agent for more than 300 colleges and universities on over 500 planning projects throughout 33 states and abroad.

Each planning project is infused with the institution’s unique mission, vision, and culture. Translating and distilling data from a variety of sources into viable space options is key to obtaining stakeholder agreement and advancing actionable solutions. At Rickes Associates, we have been doing exactly that for over three decades: quantifying and qualifying space needs within an institution’s strategic context by aligning enrollment, staffing, and programs with space. Our use of credible and transparent metrics and analytics inform thoughtful recommendations.

As higher education futurists, our work is grounded in a holistic understanding of the dynamic forces transforming institutional space. We don’t just analyze trends but anticipate them, turning demographic shifts, evolving pedagogies, and fiscal realities into attainable strategies that position campuses for long-term success. Our portfolio of projects embraces the diverse nature of higher education today, including research universities, liberal arts colleges, community colleges, state colleges, MSIs, women’s colleges, and faith-based institutions. We are proven higher education strategists, offering thoughtful and implementable recommendations about how institutions can leverage existing resources to become more future-resilient in a landscape where change is the only constant.