With an ever-growing student body, Fayetteville High School in Arkansas decided to expand its capacity while creating a new, improved environment using Kawneer curtain walls to help students fulfill their potential. Three renowned architectural firms came together to design and build an impressive 530,000-square-foot campus capable of housing 3,000 students. It comprises two massive building blocks with a new arena, performing arts center, auditorium, music and athletic spaces, student commons, food service and administrative offices.
Despite being able to accommodate a large student population, the school was planned around the principle of multiple, independent small learning communities (SLCs) with 700 students. Each community has access to various rooms such as flexible multimedia labs, woodworking shops, robotics labs and bleacher-like grand staircases that transform into mini-auditoriums or leisure areas.
Fayetteville High School benefits from an abundance of daylight and delivers innovative learning areas that compel the next generation to envision solutions for today’s and tomorrow’s challenges.
Design highlights
The new school was built upon the foundations of the original building as a tribute to the institution's heritage and to retain its desirable location. The facility also managed to create a new connection to the local landscape by creating a natural link between the building and the outside area.
Kawneer provides reliability with versatile features
The school’s interior is illuminated by 28,000-square-feet of curtain wall and 14,000-square-feet of storefront glass, delivering an unobstructed, breezy design that provides a healthy environment for students and teachers.
Kawneer’s 1600 Wall System®1 Curtain Wall was installed with four rows of Versoleil® SunShade and Trifab® VersaGlaze® 451T Stick Framing System.
The main entrance was repositioned to create a more inviting, visible entry into the high school, and the open floor plan allows more daylight to come inside, creating a brighter and more inspirational atmosphere throughout the renovated building. Another prominent design feature is the large southward-facing windows overlooking a landscaped student commons area, which create a collegiate campus feel reflective of the school’s ties to the University of Arkansas. Other sustainable features - including the use of recycled building materials and energy-efficient environmental-control systems - contributed to LEED Gold® certification of the building.
The architects strategically installed skylights and vertical windows within the deep floor plates, flooding the windowless internal areas with daylight.
The challenge
The architects faced many challenges throughout the building’s construction. The whole project took four years to be completed and was done while the school was operating. Additionally, the project involved construction, demolitions and renovations, demanding several building techniques and machinery used in many structures around the campus.
The solution
The modernization was completed in a phased approach to minimize disruptions to the school's routine. Most demolitions were carried out during the summer break to keep teachers and students safe.
Despite being seamlessly integrated with the surroundings, the new school has a distinctive identity that is welcoming and modern at the same time.
Find out more at Kawneer.com.
PROJECT INFORMATION:
Building: Fayetteville High School
Location: Arkansas
Architects:
Hight Jackson Associates, Rogers, AR
Marlon Blackwell Architects, Fayetteville, AR
DLR Group, Overland Park, KS
General Contractor: Nabholz Construction Corp., Rogers, AR
Glazing Contractor: ACE Glass Construction, Little Rock, AR
PRODUCTS USED:
- 1600 Wall System®1 Curtain Wall
- 350 Medium Stile Standard Entrance
- Trifab® VersaGlaze® 451T Stick Framing System
- Trifab® VersaGlaze® 451T SS Framing System
- 1010 Sliding Mall Front
- Versoleil® SunShade - Outrigger System - for Curtain Wall
Related Stories
| May 14, 2013
Easy net-zero energy buildings [infographic]
"Be a Zero Hero" infographic educates building industry professionals on ultra energy-efficient structural insulated panel construction
| Apr 23, 2013
Building material innovation: Concrete cloth simplifies difficult pours
Milliken recently debuted a flexible fabric that allows for concrete installations on slopes, in water, and in other hard to reach places—without the need for molds or mixing.
| Apr 16, 2013
5 projects that profited from insulated metal panels
From an orchid-shaped visitor center to California’s largest public works project, each of these projects benefited from IMP technology.
| Mar 29, 2013
Sheetrock Brand UltraLight Panels first and only ICC ES compliant panel for ceilings
USG Corporation, a leading building products company and the industry innovator in lightweight drywall, is pleased to announce that its award-winning SHEETROCK® UltraLight Panels are now ICC Evaluation Services compliant for installation on ceilings with the long edges parallel to the framing.
| Mar 20, 2013
Folding glass walls revitalize student center
Single-glazed storefronts in the student center at California’s West Valley College were replaced with aluminum-framed, thermally broken windows from NanaWall in a bronze finish that emulates the look of the original building.
| Feb 28, 2013
Lend Lease builds world's tallest timber apartment building
Construction giant Lend Lease recently put the finishing touches on Forté, a 10-story apartment complex in Melbourne, Australia's Victoria Harbour that was built entirely with cross laminated timber (CTL) technology.
| Sep 7, 2012
The keys to success in the K-12 school market
When educators and school administrators describe their vision for new K-12 school buildings as ‘21st-century learning spaces,’ they’re not exaggerating. Many new schools are truly different in concept from their counterparts of only a few years ago.
