School Construction
USC Village, a six-building, 1.25-million-sf expansion of the University of Southern California's University Park campus, will be ready for occpancy this fall. The project took 12 years from conception to completion. Image: USC
Prefabrication of the six buildings’ walls reduced construction time by a year.
A rendering of the 42,500-sf, $29 million Innovation and Discovery Center at Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pa., which broke ground last October. Kinsley Construction is the GC on the project, designed by Ellenzweig. Last year, spending on education construction spending rose nationally by 6.5% to $88.9 billion. And a new survey of preK-12 school districts and colleges finds strong construction and renovation activities underway this year. The Ursinus project should be completed in time for the fall 2018 semester. Image: Ellenzweig
Surveys of school districts and colleges, though, raise questions about financing for future proj...
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The 50,600-sf John J. Sbrega Health and Science Building is highlighted by an atrium that connects labs and serves as a “learning commons.” Achieving zero-net-energy in this building did not impact its $31.5 million construction budget. Image: Courtesy of Bond
Bristol Community College wants to be carbon neutral by 2050.
Spending on Construction Put in Place has almost completely recovered from the hit it took during the recession. But spending in the Education sector continues to be well below its latest peak. Image: JLL
Post-recession slump suggests a settling in at a “normal” level similar to the mid aughts.
To accommodate rises in its national stature and enrollment, UC Merced has embarked on an ambitious four-year expansion program that will add new academic, housing, and student-life facilities to its enlarged campus. Image: University of California, Merced
Its growth strategy includes adding 1.2 million sf of space for teaching, housing, and research. ...
Photo: Michelle McLoughlin, Reuters
The new Sandy Hook Elementary School has been carefully designed with state-of-the-art safety mea...
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LEx Labs prototype classroom, a joint venture of design firm Huckabee, Baylor University, and an education service center. Photo courtesy Huckabee
Space flexibility is critical to classroom design. Spaces have to be adaptable, even allowing for...
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Charleston (S.C.) Catholic School Upper School Addition and Sacred Heart Church Renovation, designed by KSQ Design. Photo courtesy KSQ Design
Gilbane, Balfour Beatty, and Core Construction head Building Design+Construction’s annual ranking...
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The 18,884-sf Collegiate Center addition to Thomas Edison Prepatory High School, Tulsa, Okla., has a floating cantilever study lounge. Two multipurpose rooms double as FEMA-361 safe rooms that can each protect up to 600 persons from winds up to 240 mph. The $4.4 million addition provides 15 distinct spaces. KSQ Design led the Building Team, with the assistance of Wallace Engineering (SE), AEG Engineering, and Crossland Construction (GC). Photo courtesy KSQ Design
AECOM, Jacobs, and STV top Building Design+Construction’s annual ranking of the nation’s largest...
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Recently completed Riverhead (N.Y.) High School expansion was one of the projects within the school district’s $78 million capital program where BBS Architects implemented the “Bridge” design concept. By improving and expanding schools built between the 1930s and the 1960s, the architects created a vibrant secondary downtown that serves–or bridges–the entire community. The thoughtful design was the catalyst that attracted new restaurants, and shopping and entertainment venues to an area that was formerly a sleepy crossroads. Photo: Tom Sibley/Wilk Marketing Communications
DLR Group, Stantec, and Huckabee top Building Design+Construction’s annual ranking of the nation’...
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UC Merced's campus will greatly expand over the next four years, as the state's Board of Regents has approved a design and construction plan that would allow the 11-year-old university to increase its enrollment by nearly 50%. Image: Courtesy UC Merced
The state’s Board of Regents has approved a $1.34 billion plan that would add nearly 1.2 million...
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Construction in Tempe, Ariz. Photo: lunita lu/Creative Commons.
Legislature accused of ignoring 1994 ruling ordering state to pick up some of the costs.
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Melbourne (Fla.) High School. Photo: Scapler/Wikimedia Commons.
Critics fear rules will hamper ability to build schools with desired features.
Photo: Pasco County Schools/Creative Commons.
Millions of students said to be learning in obsolete facilities.
Renderings courtesy Grimshaw, BVN
The design of the high-rise is based on the template of Schools-within-Schools (SWIS), a system t...
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This AIA CES Discovery course discusses the six elements of an EIFS wall assembly; common EIFS fa...
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The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Innovation Accelerator in Wauwatosa, Wis., was conceived as a place where business and industry meets academic research to launch intellectual property. On the Building Team: UWM Real Estate Foundation (developer), Eppstein Uhen Architects (architect), and Miron Construction (GC). Photo: C&N Photography, courtesy Eppstein Uhen Architects
BD+C's rankings of the nation's largest S+T sector design and construction firms, as reported in...
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Model of the Children's Institute Watts Campus, designed by Frank Gehry. Images courtesy Gehry Partners
The new facility, which will have rooms for counseling, afterschool activities, and youth program...
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Diamond Ranch High School in Pomona, Calif. Photo: Carol Highsmith/Wikimedia Commons
Also okays design-build for public works projects over $1 million
The explosive demand for tech office space in and around metropolitan areas has led to creative redevelopment opportunities for Building Teams. The Playa Jefferson complex in Playa Vista, Calif., remade a series of nondescript, low-rise office buildings into state-of-the-art tech space for mature and startup companies. Photo: Benny Chan Fotoworks, courtesy Gensler
In the race for highly coveted tech companies and startups, cities, institutions, and developers...
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Intrinsic School, Chicago, combines STEM and humanities in podlike settings. The Intrinsic charter system was founded by CEO Melissa Zaikos. The Building Team: Wheeler Kearns Architects (designer), Enspect Engineering (SE), Wolff Landscape Architect, and Clune Construction (GC). Photo: Steve Hall/Hedrich Blessing
Whether new or reconstructed, schools must meet new demands that emanate from the real world and...
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The $50 million Oakland University Engineering Center, in Rochester, Mich., was completed last August by Walbridge (CM at risk). The five-story, 149,879-sf facility, designed by SmithGroupJJR, pulls together functions that were scattered over four buildings. The center provides instructional and R&D space for the university’s School of Engineering and Computer Science. Photo: Jason Robinson Photography, LLC
At a time when competition for the cream of the student/faculty crop is intensifying, colleges an...
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The project has been described as the biggest construction project in the school’s 170-year history. Renderings courtesy OMA
Designs for what will be the biggest construction project in the school’s 170-year history featur...
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Image: Pixabay
In an effort to balance security and fire safety features within codes, standards and planning, N...
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Students use a quiet zone at Falcon Virtual Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., a $1.2 million adaptive reuse of an aging manufacturing warehouse. Home-schooled students, working students, and transitional students can use spaces within the facility when they need to work together on projects or seek instructional support from teachers. DLR Group designed and planned the 20,000-sf facility for 400 students of Falcon School District 49. Photo: ©Ed LaCasse
How the latest design, construction, and teaching concepts are being implemented in the next gene...
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Photo: Stan Shebs via Wikimedia Common
The Nevada Senate approved a bill that would suspend prevailing wage rules on school projects....
Photo courtesy EnergyManagementSystems.org
When school districts demand the latest and greatest, they need to think about how those choices...
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Wrestling room doubles as safe room at a Wichita, Kan., school. Photo: FEMA
Many school districts continue to resist mandating the inclusion of safe rooms or storm shelters...
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The 11th high school in Houston’s Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District will be part of a 179-acre, 592,000-sf “educational village” that eventually will include middle and elementary schools. The project is one of dozens of new K-12 campuses being planned throughout Texas to keep up with the population growth. Rendering: PBK Architects, courtesy Cypress-Fairbanks ISD
Many districts are struggling to have new construction and renovation keep pace with student popu...
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Natural light floods the interior spaces. All photos: copyright Joseph Romeo
The 280,000-sf school achieved 91 points, out of 100 base points possible for LEED, making it the...
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