Stanford University’s School Planning Laboratory was established in 1951 with a grant from the Ford Foundation to assist schools and colleges with facilities issues, principally related to renovations and new construction. The Ford Foundation then established Educational Facilities Laboratories in New York in 1958, and Stanford became a regional laboratory for EFL. In 1961 UT’s School Planning Laboratory was established within the College of Education as the second regional laboratory. It assisted school systems throughout Tennessee, the nation, and some foreign countries with planning, construction issues, and program development.
Grants from the Ford Foundation ($4.5 million in 1961 and $10 million in 1965) allowed schools and colleges to contract for expertise, paying only half of the actual planning costs. The School Planning Laboratory used the expertise of UT professors and outside consultants. In 1978 the director of the laboratory, Dr. George Trotter, was killed in the crash of a UT airplane while on a consulting trip to Maryland.