Although prospective students most often choose a school based on its academic standing, residence halls – where college students spend the majority of their time – can often be a significant influencer. Keenly aware of the importance of dormitories in the college selection process, schools are upgrading residence halls to ‘keep up with the Joneses’ and meet the current quality of life standards set by competitors in order to lure prospective students.

In addition, the state of the economy and increased safety awareness are driving trends in residence hall construction as colleges and universities continue to request more efficient construction methods and life safety upgrades.

Dorm Sweet Dorm

Gone are the days of simple dormitories viewed merely as a roof to put over students’ heads. Focused on an improved quality of life, colleges and universities are in competition to offer a variety of amenities to make residence halls feel more like home.

To provide privacy while also creating a group environment, many colleges and universities are building large suites with common areas, which feature additional windows for more natural light and views, and apartment-like conveniences such as kitchenettes with stoves and refrigerators. Riding the technology wave, schools now request as many as five data ports for Internet hook-up in every room, as well as a cable TV port, putting similar emphasis on these amenities as they do on the need for multiple electric outlets and telephone jacks. It is only a matter of time until wireless Internet access becomes the norm for dormitory rooms.

As colleges and universities compete for students, many schools are upgrading residence halls with quality study and gathering rooms featuring comfortable furniture, data access, natural light and connection to the outside.

Quality study and gathering rooms, which feature comfortable furniture, data access, natural light and connection to the outside are also top priority for new and upgraded residence halls. Additionally, a trend that points to schools’ desire to increase quality of life standards is occurring at on-campus dining facilities, which are now more like restaurants in terms of food choice and atmosphere than traditional school cafeterias.

Saving Time and the Environment

With the economy showing signs of recovery and fundraising dollars making a comeback, many colleges and universities are now moving forward on residence hall projects that may have been delayed due to lack of funding. To make up for lost time – and complete these projects before the competition – design/build residence hall projects are on the upswing. Because only one firm drives the process, colleges and universities are attracted to the streamlining effect of the design/build process, providing school officials with a one-stop shopping experience.

Shawmut Design and Construction and Baker Design Group Inc. built a new study room for an undergraduate Boston College residence hall with floor-to-ceiling windows and glass doors to provide an abundance of natural light, as well as access to an outdoor meeting area.

In addition to saving time, schools are also focused on saving the environment and sustainable design. Due to the high-cost of attaining LEED certification for a residence hall, however, many colleges and universities opt to achieve more of a "practical green" status, which only involves cost-efficient "green" practices. Such efforts, which do not incur large premiums, include construction recycling, reusing materials, indoor air quality, and adding windows to provide natural light.

Safety First

With an increased awareness of safety issues in residence halls due to recent highly publicized dormitory fires and other similar tragedies, many college and universities are pouring funds into life safety upgrades now more than ever. Bringing fire safety systems and emergency egress up to code is of utmost importance to colleges and universities, in order to create a safe environment for students and build trust among parents.

As always, competition drives change and innovation and this is more than evident at school residence halls across the country. With an eye toward an improving economy, building teams can expect even greater strides toward quality of life upgrades, especially by way of technology, as well as "greener" dormitories.

Lee Dellicker is vice president of the institutional group at Shawmut Design and Construction, a $350 million construction management company located in Boston, with expertise in campus construction for independent schools, colleges and universities. The company was named the 20th largest construction manager for educational projects in the U.S. by ENR. He can be reached at (617) 622-7000.

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Two years after conceiving of the Pueblo Educational Village, the district now has two separate elementary schools and a conference center-totaling 110,000 square feet-anchoring a once-distressed shopping center. Project officials say that the conversion of an unused supermarket is drawing new retailers to the site; the mall has gone from an occupancy rate of 30 percent to over 90 percent. In addition, the mall’s original retailers report a 50 percent increase in sales, creating a growing tax base for the district and sales are expected to climb now that the first of 1,200 students started using the facilities in January. District officials currently are planning two more schools in vacant commercial buildings in distressed areas.

The conversion was designed by Thomas Blurock Architects of Costa Mesa, Calif., a firm specializing in education design and increasingly recognized for creative solutions in urban districts with special demands. Since design was finished, the firm has been busy presenting Pueblo Educational Village to districts throughout California and Hawaii. A presentation also was made to the Coalition for Adequate School Housing and, in November, representatives for California Governor Gray Davis visited the site.

Unconventional Site & Design

The 25-acre site was purchased for $5.5 million. When asked why a shopping center site was used, Barbara Helton-Berg, project architect and project manager, replies that, “number one, it made economic sense, and number two, it was fast. We shaved at least six to nine months off the design process.” She adds that “the design was approved by the Division of the State Architect (DSA) in 11 months, where 18 months would be typical for a new facility of this size.” The total cost of the project was $12.6 million at $120 per square foot.

Helton-Berg says the building itself teaches students about the structure’s history and the work required to create Pueblo Educational Village. “Below a datum plane of nine feet six inches, the facility is highly finished. Above that mark, the old guts of the building are left exposed. There’s a clear understanding that the polished spaces have been created for the students,” she says. “The schools inhabit the larger, older structure like a hermit crab.”

The two elementary schools are connected by a glass-enclosed media center in the middle of the facility, unifying the classroom clusters. Decorating the space is a see-through silk screen-that adheres glass like wallpaper-with a 10-foot tall mural depicting the history of transportation.

Each school has its own secondary commons area with skylights exceeding 50 feet in length. Skylights also illuminate interior corridors, built at non-linear angles to animate the facility. A color-coded compass pattern painted on the concrete floor orients students to the building’s different components.

Construction Challenges

The site originally contained a series of buildings with a common walkway. When the structure was converted to a mall in the 1970s, a skin was wrapped around all those buildings to enclose them. Unlike most malls, these structures were cobbled together, didn’t have a central plan, and each utilized separate HVAC systems and roofing structures.

“It was a big challenge giving the facility a uniform function,” said Assistant Superintendent Ed Marsh. “All the agencies involved helped us problem-solve to build this new animal.”

And there were a lot of problems to solve, including making sure this converted commercial space met California’s school construction and seismic requirements; the school is in earthquake country, only 50 miles from the epicenter of the 1994 Northridge earthquake and seismic requirements are much tighter since the supermarket was built in the 1970s.

But it is the huge, panelized roof that presented the toughest hurdle for both designers and builders. Helton-Berg’s plans required builders to remove a 6,000-square-foot section at the facility’s southeast corner to make way for high, clerestory glazing in the central commons area. At the northwest corner, another large section was removed to create a higher roof volume and a long span for the conference center.

The roof also was extended and placed on 35-foot-tall concrete columns. Not only does the overhang provide drop-off shelter for cars, but also creates outdoor lobby space for use during teacher conferences.

“The original roof was built to keep the rain out, and that’s about it,” says Construction Manager David Chapman of Pinner Construction Company Inc. “We had to strengthen this building, meet DSA requirements, and still try to keep it within the budget of a remodeling job.” Brace frames and grade beams were installed to bolster the roof system. The brace frames cut sheer through the center of the building tying the exterior walls together and making the box more rigid.

“It impresses me the way Pomona is developing these economically distressed, urban areas,” Chapman adds. “They’re creating something that’s not only pleasing architecturally, but is also usable. I think that helps the community all around us.”

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The familiar saying, “If you’re going to do something, do it right,” may sound old-fashioned, but its meaning is always relevant. To Dallas architects SHW Group and their team of consultants, such thinking led to the design of Roy Lee Walker Elementary School, considered one of the country’s most comprehensive sustainable schools. Many new construction projects include elements of “green design,” but this 68,000-square-foot school goes several steps further, incorporating such features as sundials, rainwater harvesting, and solar energy collection, among others.

Located on an 8.5-acre site in McKinney, Texas, the $9.3 million school was completed in 2000 and won a Citation Award in our 2001 design awards competition. But, this school is about more than design. The building’s special features are incorporated into its curriculum-what the district calls Eco-Education-so students learn how such things effect their environment.

Sustainable 91视频

Daylighting is considered the school’s key feature, and enough natural sunlight is collected each day to completely illuminate the school. Monitors on the roof collect sunlight, which is then bounced off a series of baffles and filtered into the classrooms. The school attributes higher attendance, increased concentration levels, and better scholastic performance to the natural lighting. Tooth decay also was reported to be nine times less as a result of the sunlight.

Rainwater harvesting and natural landscaping work together to lessen the school’s impact on the environment. High-maintenance, manicured grounds give way to native plants that thrive in this climate. When watering is necessary, the sprinkler system sources the water from one of six rain water-filled cisterns; the cisterns are kept full by special gutters that collect and channel rain water into them.

Alternative energy sources supply the school with power. A 30-foot-high windmill standing alongside the school is more than a decorative element; it’s used to convert wind into power, operating, among other things, the school’s sprinkler system mentioned above. Solar energy is used to produce the school’s hot water supply.

Academics have improved as a result of the natural daylighting.

While the school’s clocks keep track of time the traditional way, two, large sundials track time in a historic manner. Students have fun trying to tell time with the sundials, which also help them identify the longest and shortest days of the year, June 21 and Dec. 21, respectively.

During construction, the contractor, Pogue Inc., was required to recycle building scraps. Three separate dumpsters were brought in and it became someone’s full-time job to monitor the disposal process. Only local products were used in an effort to cut down on pollution caused by transportation. The products had to be recycled or otherwise environmentally-friendly and could not have glue or other toxic elements.

Long-Lasting Effect

While this school is designed to help the environment today, SHW Group says it actually was built for the future-the sustainable environment will adapt to changes around it and the facility won’t have any more of an impact on its surroundings than it does now.

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The primary component of teaching lab flexibility is the comprehensive preparation area, where science materials can be assembled and later brought into the lab. For cash-strapped universities and high schools, shared spaces decrease the need for laboratories dedicated only to one scientific discipline.

Preparation rooms can be either centralized or distributed near classroom clusters. Flexible storage options are key, using high-density storage systems or industrial storage systems that are well organized and properly staffed.

Configuring lab and instructional space often takes up most of the discussion when planners sit down to create a new teaching laboratory. Flexible design actualizes science classrooms that rely on teamwork and hands-on assignments, where the lecturer may take on the role of a coach or make use of interactive teaching software.

All at once, furnishings must allow students to work in teams, access interactive learning programs, and pay attention to their instructor. In some cases, this means basic ergonomics, something that is only beginning to impact laboratories. As one university administrator quipped upon opening a new teaching laboratory, “Student chairs are comfortable and equipped with casters – the greatest boon to science reform.”

Fundamental shifts also are occurring in ventilation standards, which have been a driving force in laboratory design since the 1960s, when most science facilities made the move to 100 percent outside air and directional airflow to prevent the migration of fumes into classrooms and hallways.

Although this change was much needed, it proved cumbersome to designers. But requirements for laboratories are relaxing with recent establishment of the International Building Code (IBC). “Previous codes had very stringent and justifiable limits on the quantities and classes of chemicals and their distribution in buildings,” says Janet Baum, a principal at Health Education + Research Associates Inc. (HERA), a national planning and architecture firm specializing in laboratory design. “From our understanding of the IBC, this has loosened up a little bit, meaning that greater quantities and more even distribution is possible.”

In addition, the development of microchemistry allows undergraduate science departments to reduce the need for full-size beakers and test tubes. “Microchemistry uses almost dollhouse-size glassware and minute quantities of chemicals that allow more flexibility and their distribution in buildings,” says Baum.

Most importantly, scientists themselves have embraced facilities planning as a way of achieving their pedagogic goals. The National Science Foundation supports Project Kaleidoscope (PKAL), an organization dedicated to implementing and evaluating new approaches to learning in the classroom and lab. PKAL places equal importance on faculty, curriculum, and facilities issues. Since 1992, the organization sponsored 18 workshops and seminars on facilities planning with the participation of nearly 400 colleges and universities.

Just as scientists work with designers, designers work with manufacturers. HERA, which plans and designs laboratories both inside and outside academia, has worked with manufacturers to develop specialized furnishings for the fast-changing laboratory market. “There’s a constant dialogue between designers and furniture manufacturers,” says Baum, who sold designs for Health & Emergency Laboratory Panel (HELP) to Fisher Hamilton last year.

“The HELP station is something we found we needed in all the teaching labs. Now, it’s a ‘standard special’ item we can get from Fisher Hamilton-instead of having to detail it on every project.” More recently, the firm designed a new specimen examination table for science students to layout a wide array of samples for visual inspection, (The unit, dubbed the “FXT,” has yet to be acquired by a manufacturer).

Although a premium is placed on modular furniture systems that can be moved, this isn’t possible with some expensive scientific equipment that demands a controlled climate. In these applications, equipment is placed in a fixed location with furniture systems that accommodate shared instrumentation. Thus, the same equipment can be used for different science courses.

Baum says laboratory design requires keeping up with scientific trends by reading scholarly journals, touring other labs, and listening to reports by faculty and administrators. For example, genetics is a subject that only recently came to be taught comprehensively in undergraduate facilities. Today’s college genomics programs go beyond the mere study of fruit flies to include DNA analysis and electrophoresis. These methods, in turn, require bio-safety cabinets and incubators for tissue cultures – an important trend to note for equipment planning.

The arrival of computers presents additional planning challenges. “Computers bring even more angst to the decision-making process,” says Baum, referring to questions such as: are the PCs shared between two or four students? Is the university providing computers, or will students use their own laptops?

“In two years, the school may change its philosophy and its hardware, so our teaching labs have to accommodate the total change-out of technology,” says Baum. “It’s a much bigger question than just, ‘Where do students dissect the frog?'”

For more information on teaching lab planning and programs, go to:

www.labplan.org

Lab Products

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Polished concrete floors contribute to the industrial feel of Alabama’s Brewbaker Technology Magnet High School in Montgomery. They also provide a convenient racing track for the student-designed CO2 cars speeding down the hallways.

Built for only $70 per square foot, the $5.6 million facility gets its 21st century look from cost-efficient, pre-finished aluminum wall panels. The extensive use of interior view windows highlights the collaborative environment, filled with busy gearheads and tinkerers. “We’re looking for the average student who has an interest in technology,” says Brewbaker Principal Stan Cox. “We’ve seen ‘C’ or ‘D’ students turn into honor roll students because they’re in their element. They see the connection of textbook concepts to real-world applications.”

The school-to-work curriculum was created with input from Montgomery’s local Chamber of Commerce, who told school officials what skills they most valued. Traditional coursework in subjects such as English and math is integrated with Brewbaker Tech’s six academies: e-commerce, information technology, graphic design, engineering, building sciences, and a medical program. All students also participate in a required college and career program.

One project that exemplifies the school’s integrated, project-based approach is the planned greenhouse. Using CAD software, engineering students will design the structure. Students trained in graphic design will assist e-commerce students in their task to market and sell the plants. Finally, Brewbaker Tech’s environmental science students and landscaping classes will actually run the greenhouse. Giving students skills for the job market is the goal.

View windows help make student activity contageous.

“Our statistics showed that 70 percent of the Montgomery area’s students start college, but only 18 percent actually graduate with a four-year degree,” says Cox. “So, for whatever reason, students are not staying in college and have to start again at square one earning minimum-wage. We’ve built in a safety net now. In case students have to work while going to college or they start college and drop down to part-time, they have skills to get a good job.” Many Brewbaker students graduate with professional certification, such as the building sciences students who enter the workforce as first-class journeymen.

Almost all student coursework is performed on computers. The school boasts a computer-to-student ratio of 1:2, with 870 Dell computers serving a student body of 463. Their computer desktops follow them from classroom to classroom. On the school’s intranet, students check their calendars and check for special announcements. Students on the other side of the Digital Divide may check out laptops and digital cameras for homework.

Meanwhile, teachers use the intranet to coordinate with one another’s lesson plans. Overhead projectors allow teachers to use PowerPoint or the Web. They also can use conferencing/presentation computer systems with flex cams. Medical students take advantage of digital biological probes or work with computerized patient simulators, dummies that exhibit over 150 medical conditions. But technology is emphasized in conjunction with collaboration.

“In my educational background, every student was responsible only for his or her work. We train students that way and don’t teach collaboration, and then we expect these students to enter the work environment and work collaboratively,” says science teacher Ted Missildine. “But for 12 years of their educational life, we’ve taught them they’re responsible for their work alone. With the design of this curriculum, we teach them to work as a group. The building’s design lends itself to this.”

Corrugated aluminum panels provided an easy route for running wiring.

Special interior design elements include uplighting that is favorable to viewing computer monitors. The attractive, checkerboard pattern in the stained concrete is echoed above in a five-foot-square grid of ceiling tiles. Visitors to Brewbaker Tech are amazed at how quiet the facility is when they see how much activity is going on; sound is trapped in the air gap between sheetrock and the metal panels and acoustical buffering is provided by the insulation above the ceiling grid.

2WR/HolmesWilkins Architects Inc. used a pre-engineered metal building frame that gave the building flexibility. This setup proved essential when the Alabama Department of Education suggested a change in the original plans, saying each tech academy should have a central core space. “We completely redesigned the building interior and it only set the last bid package back three weeks,” said project manager Mike Rutland. The corrugated metal wall panels added an unexpected aspect of flexibility because they had ribs that could be used for wiring raceways. No holes needed to be cut into the walls, and when the building was redesigned, a new networking configuration was accomplished easily.

Despite the no-frills approach to construction, Brewbaker Tech is getting a lot of attention. Officials from other school districts in the Southeast visit regularly, and some have come from as far away as California. And the school continues to grow. Opened in August 2000, the Phase II addition of 10,000 square feet was started ahead of schedule and will be ready for occupancy this month. More classroom and curriculum space will be added in Phase III, expected to begin soon.

“When we were putting the school together, the U.S. Department of Labor told us that 100 percent of all jobs will require computer literacy by 2010. I believe that this school will prepare students for the year 2010 and thereafter,” says Principal Cox. “They have the skills and they’re not afraid of the technology. We don’t hear the question, ‘When am I ever going to use this?'” Taking advantage of Brewbaker Tech’s project-based approach to learning, 91视频 handed the photo assignment to Adam Stewart, a 9th grade graphics student.

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With nothing but a shortage of space on the horizon, it makes sense to build permanent surge buildings rather than dedicate money to temporary structures. California colleges and universities, faced not only with the baby boom echo, are increasingly turning to the staging building when campus structures are closed for earthquake-tolerance upgrades.

The initial role of the new Kinross staging building is to provide space for departments displaced by seismic retrofit projects at the University of California at Los Angeles. But, despite its simplicity, this three-story surge building is so appealing, its first occupants may be tempted to stay when their original buildings reopen in 2004.
"In lieu of trailers, this is first-class flex space," says Steven Ehrlich, FAIA, who has observed an increased demand for permanent surge spaces in California. His firm, Steven Ehrlich Architects, designed the Kinross staging building to serve as a "flexible factory," cycling in different departments on a two-year schedule. Large volumes with exposed steel and mechanical ducts offer a tough industrial aesthetic and lend the facility to multiple future uses.

"The Kinross was fairly inexpensive, and I think that’s because Steven optimized every element he used," says UCLA Campus Architect Mark Fisher. "We were looking at generic office buildings for the same cost."

The larger the facility, the more cumbersome the fire rating, so Ehrlich designers avoided fire-rated construction. Because steel was not relied upon to provide all the structural resistance, designers were not required to enclose the steel in drywall or apply an expensive, unattractive fire-retardant coating. "It’s not a precious building," says Ehrlich. Cleverly navigating building codes drove down costs for the 75,000-square-foot staging building to $9.8 million.

"All the steel is vertically load-bearing, but it’s not moment-frame steel, meaning it does not take out any of the lateral loads," explains Ehrlich. Instead, concrete masonry separation walls resist the lateral loads-a serious concern on a campus that suffered extensive damage from lateral movement in the Northridge earthquake of 1994.
The fire-separation walls are arranged in a tripartite scheme. Cleaving the concrete block by as much as two inches provided shadows and texture. Fisher says the new staging building offers a concrete block version of the split-face tripartite at the Getty Museum, an architectural landmark that can be seen from UCLA’s campus.

High volume ceilings on the ground and third floors offer flexibility and separate two academic departments, while office space on the second floor acts a sound buffer.

High volume spaces of about 18 feet were prescribed for the ground level and third level, while the middle level has a floor-to-ceiling height of 13 feet and is broken up into rooms and offices. Acting as an acoustical buffer between the upper and lower floors, the middle level will prove important for the first two occupant groups-the Art Department and the Dance & World Culture Department. "Our dance troupe uses a lot of heavy drums and tends to be a bit noisy, and the art students tend to be quiet," Fisher notes.

Knowing that the art and dance departments would inaugurate the facility challenged designers to accommodate them while also designing a space that remained flexible for future occupants. "We have high ceiling dance spaces with sprung floors in the same building with art studios and a metal shop," says Fisher. "The building is very responsive to the initial program and also designed to be flexible for the next program. For example, those sprung floors are on top of concrete so they can be pulled out quickly, and we can turn this building into office space if we need to."

Light was brought in using skylights and glass block because inclusion of an atrium would have required architects to meet codes that compromised flexibility.

Other architectural features underscore the difference between a temporary surge facility and the Kinross, which is also intended to help improve the profile of UCLA’s Southwest Campus. A large roof overhang extends over the southern exterior wall to block out the sun and reduces the heat-load on the façade. The west end incorporates a series of garden walls, and a private garden off the dance studio gives dancers a preview of the garden theater they will use in their permanent quarters.

Ever mindful of building codes, designers were able to draw in natural light without atriums-and the added costs and special conditions that come with them. The design team opted instead to install skylights and glass block floors to bring light from the roof to the ground level. Similarly, placing some stairways on the exterior eliminated the associated finishes of the interior stairs.

Two roll-up garage doors can be opened to make the barrier between outdoors and indoors disappear, allowing outdoor performances or class sessions. In addition, the garage doors facilitate the regular movement of equipment in and out of the building.
"The great strength of this building is its honesty and the smart use of building materials," says Fisher. "The occupants might not want to go back to their independent buildings when they’re opened. In fact, they’ve already said they believe this is as good as the space they’ll be occupying later."

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School district officials in Chaska, Minn., were not ready to have a third middle school, nor were they ready to build an addition onto the high school, so they opted to build a school just for ninth graders.

The 124,000-square-foot Pioneer Ridge Freshman Center not only frees up space in the two existing middle schools, but also in the adjacent high school. And it creates a specialized, small environment for freshman to come together from the two middle schools for just one year before they embark on their high school journeys.

Built at a cost of $15.9 million, including the land, the two-story building can be converted into a middle school, but, according to Principal Designer Mohammed Lawal of KKE Architects, it’s been pretty successful since its September 2002 opening, so officials may not want to change the concept.

Additionally, said Lawal, "because it is a ninth grade center, one of the things we wanted to do is make it a very memorable experience, for just one year."

The school serves 600 freshman divided into four teams of 150 students each. Aside from the 16 classrooms, which average 850 square feet each, there are exploratory classrooms including industrial art, music, and family and consumer sciences.

"The educational planning is designed to foster the sense of a smaller school," said Lawal. "There are four classrooms on a floor." The center is also intended to better prepare students for the rigor and challenge of high school.

The commons is a two-story area that serves as a gathering place and a cafeteria. Color is used here on some metal panels and the glass framing. The exterior of this portion of the center incorporates red brick.

The freshman center is sited on the same campus as the district’s only high school. Architect Lawal explained how the 27-acre site itself presented one of the biggest challenges.

"The site was odd shaped-long and narrow. It had a 10 foot to 12 foot grade change right across the middle of the site," said Lawal. To compensate, the building is tightly curved up into the wedge of the site. Architects positioned it right along the cliff. There is also a large wetland on the east side of the site.

The building contains an abundance of windows, and color was a significant part of the design. Blocks of color are used to identify different areas within the school. The exterior is also colorful, clad in deep blues and green.

Other exterior materials include the use of red brick, metal panels, precast concrete, and a two-story glass wall that frames the cafeteria/commons.

"We kept it pretty simple on the inside, material wise," said Lawal. Linoleum was installed on the floors, acoustic panel clouds hang in the ceiling, some colored metal panels are used in the cafeteria area, and a burnish block indicates bathroom locations.

There are only approximately 169 freshman centers in the United States.

This one was the first of its kind designed by KKE Architects. The concept behind some freshman centers is to give more attention to that group of students, which in some communities, has a high dropout rate.

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Take the Field Inc. is a non-profit group upgrading New York City’s public school fields through a combination of private and public finance. Work is nearing completion, with 37 of 44 fields already refurbished, the large majority under the direction of the architecture and engineering firm of LZA Associates.

Success was achieved by performing “triage” on each project individually, says Dan Marguiles, project manager for LZA, a division of The Thornton-Tomasetti Group. Take the Field visited 52 schools with a representative from the Board of Education, and they rated them on a scale, Marguiles says. They all had unique conditions, and you can’t plead ignorance of what’s below ground.

Poor soil, construction rubble, old landfills, subsurface storage tanks, underground streams, and inadequate storm-water systems were among the impediments to creating stable, long-lasting playing surfaces that drain efficiently. LZA Associates met the challenge in part thanks to extensive experience designing airports, which are notorious for being sited above unsuitable materials.

Anyone can come in and take five feet off every site, and if you do that, every site would cost $6 [million] to $10 million dollars, says Marguiles. That wasn’t an option for Marguiles, who preferred to see each total renovation, including fences and bleachers, come in at under $2.5 million. Typically, we tried to reuse as much of the existing materials as we could, improve the structural performance, and isolate the voids. Preventing differential settlement by improving storm-water performance is the key.

Cost-effective ground improvement options included simply removing old fill and replacing it with lighter weight fill, using rollers weighing several tons to compact the soil, or Deep Dynamic Compaction, repeatedly dropping 12,000 lb. weights from cranes to the ground surface, compacting earth and materials at significant subsurface depths.

Leaping Forward

Aiding the goal of proper drainage, the latest generation of artificial turf systems offers superior drainage qualities. Water runs down into a network of herringbone-patterned, channeled drains under the playing surface and then to the edge of a track. Instead of sheeting off the surface, water enters the storm-water system at a slower, more controlled pace, avoiding puddling and allows playing to resume only an hour after a rain.

Artificial playing surfaces have advanced considerably since the days of AstroTurf, which earned a reputation for causing carpet burn and more serious injuries. Padding systems have since grown more complex and currently receive glowing press, with many professional football players now preferring the new artificial turf to natural grass.

Better footing, more cushion, less abrasion, and reduced maintenance costs are only the most common accolades. Marguiles is also an enthusiast for artificial grass, but he remains a skeptic in negotiation. Although artificial turf manufacturers each like to claim their system is unique, Marguiles says most of them offer comparable products, some of which they might not even actively market.

The challenge, he counters, is getting any given manufacturer to meet your needs and your budget. Some are going to give you their C product, and charge you the A dollars, Marguiles warns.

Sitting down with a turf sales representative can be a dizzying experience, particularly when purchasing a field used for multiple sports with different requirements. Injury criteria, skid resistance, and shock attenuation are some of the factors to be consideredand detailed in generic engineering specifications before bidding openly.

One decision is whether specs should call for padding with 100 percent rubber infill or a combination of rubber and sand. While Marguiles recognizes that an all-rubber infill offers superior performance in many sports, Take the Field Inc. specified the all-rubber infill. Though turf manufacturers would argue that sand-rubber combinations have been enhanced to prevent degradation, Marguiles was concerned that sand can shift, leading to an uneven playing surface.

Cushion

Shock attenuation, or absorbency, hinges on a G-Max scale that rates the hardness of a playing surface, which become harder over time and puts athletes at risk. The ASTM sets a general accepted level of protection for the user at a maximum G-Max rating of 200. Take the Field Inc. specified a G-Max rating of 130 over the life of the warranty, with a rating of 105 at installation, increasing the likelihood the product will perform for at least 10 years without flattening or otherwise degrading.

Too many products on the market give a 200 G-Max, says Marguiles. They give you 150 or 170 initially, and then in five years, Boink!’ We have multiuse fields in almost every case, where a soccer player and a baseball outfielder may be using the same area. You want to ask: What is a good range everyone should be playing on?

Natural-grass die-hards should note that artificial turf is considered a sustainable product because of its good drainage and because it typically contains recycled rubber. And, of course, less maintenance is needed with the new turf systems. But in some cases, LZA determined that staff were doing an excellent job of maintaining their existing grass fields, which, Marguiles says, are most appropriate when dedicated to one sport.

The baseball diamond at New Dorp High School in Staten Island was one such field. Marguiles says the New Dorp crew, working in support of the school’s championship teams under a tight budget, had turned maintenance of the ragged field into an art. It was an even surface even though it was half grass, half weeds, he says. No bald spots, pretty nice.

Turf Makers Compete

Even professional football players, who long complained that the first generation of artificial turf was little more than a green carpet, are warming up to the new high-tech turf, saying it really does feel similar to grass. More NFL stadiums and practice fields are using the product, including a recent installation of FieldTurf at Giants Stadium in New York.

SRI Sports Inc. partnered with Take the Field Inc. to upgrade 12 outdoor athletic high school facilities so far, including South Bronx High School and Adlai Stevenson High School. Some fields also received a Relay track by SRI Sports. The firm’s AstroPlay product comes with an infill of rubber or optional light sand and rubber. Also available is the SRI’s nylon Root Zone for improved shock absorption and infill stability.

Another player in the synthetic turf market is A-Turf, which has completed more than 1,000 synthetic grass fields worldwide using the Regupol underpad and is backed by a coast-to-coast network of installers. A-Turf features three infill and two conventional synthetic grass systems suited for football, soccer, lacrosse, field hockey, baseball, and multi-sport areas.

Meanwhile, the 2012 Turf System is constructed exclusively for SafePlay International Inc. by Polyloom Corporation of America. The company says olefin fibers are softer and less abrasive than monofilament nylon fibers. The fibers do not absorb moisture and are highly stabilized to prevent ultraviolet degradation and fading. Among SafePlay’s four recent projects in New York City are an outdoor soccer/football field for Thomas Jefferson High School and a soccer/football/baseball field at Christopher Columbus High School.

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Each school administration decides for itself how it will incorporate technology into the library, and because clients now have more options, the future promises a greater variety of library configurations. "We’re seeing resources grow less dependent on hard copy and printed page as more information becomes available through electronic means such as CDs or DVDs," says Sid Bowen, a principal at Flansburgh Associates, a firm specializing in educational architecture and planning.

"Initially, the computer media centers grew, but it’s now shifting," Bowen says. "Book shelves are actually shrinking at the high school level. In our practice, we’re seeing that libraries are being built with less space, and particularly with a less typical ‘library look.’ So, there’s more room for learning spaces, whether they’re project rooms or some other type of environment, depending on the needs of the school."

Flansburgh Associates designed the new Ipswich Middle/High School, a facility for grades 6-12 completed in 2001, with each cluster of eight classrooms arranged around a "kiva," a sunken area for multi-media presentations. These media sub-centers incorporate three padded steps to allow students to lounge on the floor, an idea that has been closely associated with the Boston firm.

"It was controversial when we did it, especially at the high school level," Bowen says. "Some instructors were nervous about promoting casualness. But the feedback from the administration was that college students work that way, and kids should be acclimated to that. The demands are no less substantial in terms of performance."

Ipswich represented the cutting edge when it was designed, but designers are very aware that not all schools seek the latest technology. The curriculum always comes first. Or, as Bowen says, "It’s not finding universal acceptance; it’s finding niche opportunities." Another Flansburgh project, completed the same year, demonstrates that even schools regarded as traditional are demanding new library configurations that differ both from the old model and from the libraries that look to the latest innovations to meet their educational goals.

The new pavilion and library at Xavierian Brothers High School are very much progressive symbols, yet also carry out the Jesuit mission-a scholarly foundation resting on the tradition of individual study. The library’s modern profile incorporates the existing chapel, sited at an angle to help frame a new entrance. A lobby on one side of the library echoes the equally-sized library atrium that flanks the other side of the chapel.

The library component of the expansion includes multiple computer banks, and shelving for books and periodicals. Support spaces are located on the perimeter of the skylit reading room, and include a larger instructional classroom equipped with Smartboard technology and a faculty resource room. "The building materials are richer than those of the interesting building [and] add light and spirit to the whole notion of education," says Alan Ross, Flansburgh’s principal-in-charge for the Xavierian project. The second floor is a computer technology section, computer classrooms, and office space.

Where Ipswich emphasizes group learning, Xavierian Brothers cultivates discipline and individual study, factors that drove Flansburgh Associates to create a double-height reading room with 26 individual study carrels with power and data ports. Larger study nooks with fixed computer stations, interspersed between shelves for printed reference material, show how technology can accommodate the lone scholar even in a staid atmosphere of white maple.

The second floor of the Xavierian library holds computer classrooms and office space, which are separated acoustically from the library. Though interior windows look out onto the carrels below, the Xavierian Brothers didn’t want students on the two levels distracting one another, leading to inclusion of slats that act as visual baffles between the areas.

Bowen admits that the two projects discussed here, only a year old, don’t capture all the trends occurring in high school library design. In fact, he sees the high school as the latecomer. "The curriculum that’s the front edge of all this is middle school," Bowen says. "As middle schools are done, we’re seeing much more different outlooks on how to do not just libraries, but all spaces. I think that’s where we’re going to see the trend ultimately drive the product, first at the middle school level and finally in high school."

Bowen says the focus on creating a place where kids can carry out research or engage in projects is changing libraries as fast as technology, and is now paying careful attention to projects elsewhere in the country where media centers are being broken down to become several places, instead of just one.

"There will always be stacks," Bowen assures us. "It’s more a matter of their relationship to the building and the user and the other spaces that you would call a ‘library.’

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Truman High School Principal Pam Morris-Stendal, her staff, and the Federal Way School District believe they have both a curriculum and a facility design that will allow the concept to succeed. The small school also has the backing of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which provided a portion of funds needed to construct the $4 million, 23,000-square-foot facility, in addition to financing generous student scholarships.

As part of the school’s commitment to project-based learning, all students at Truman High School spend at least two days per week fulfilling internships with banks, health care providers, newspapers, and other local organizations. Fewer students mean less noise and allows learning in smaller groups. This reduced student presence also lends itself to an inexpensive, open layout that’s light on finishes.

Based in part on a concept developed by Big Picture Schools of Providence, R.I., Truman’s 102 students begin their school days in the Commons, a large assembly space that also accommodates dining and student presentations. From their morning assembly, students move in groups of 17 to six learning areas with partial-height walls and no doors.

The master plan for the site, developed by Mahlum Architects of Seattle, orients the buildings into a cohesive campus on the property’s northern perimeter. The setup maximizes solar exposure to both the buildings and the open public spaces, while providing easy access to adjacent Steele Lake Park.

Opened in February, the new school is made up of two simple buildings offset from each other and joined by a common entry, administrative offices, meeting room, student store, kitchen, and mechanical and electrical rooms. The two structures are mirror images, each having three sizes of rooms or areas in which to gather.

The open learning areas are called "Advisories" and radiate out from a central activity area that reinforces the emphasis on community. Students are then split into smaller teams and can use one of four enclosed study rooms or the computer workstations placed behind the partial-height walls. "The need for acoustic isolation isn’t as great because the advisors are standing up teaching these kids. It’s more like a seminar where there might be group discussions instead of one person lecturing to others," says Mahlum’s project director, David Mount.

"The models that were built in the 1970s weren’t successful because teachers taught in the same way they always did," says Mount. "There were teachers lecturing to a class and a teacher adjacent doing the same thing. It was a real distraction. This way, the program is more integrated and there’s much less direct instruction." School officials didn’t wait for the new building to open before implementing their new educational program, which has been in place for more than a year.

It remains the responsibility of each student to monitor their own volume in the appropriate areas, but spaces are provided where students can make more noise. In addition to the small study rooms, planners added a large project room with sinks and larger tables to serve as a catch-all for messy projects.

The enclosed project room also can be used by visiting presenters who lecture in the traditional manner. This may prove to be the most important improvement over the open classrooms of the past; showing movies was particularly problematic in open classrooms, and teachers often used bookcases or curtains as impromptu sound buffers.

Ceiling and wall panels include sound-absorption material, and meeting areas are of varying sizes to further dampen reflective noises in the advisory areas. The mechanical systems also were enlisted to fight background noise; ductwork was fine tuned to create just the right noise level so speech in another area cannot be understood, making it less of a distraction.

"One of our challenges was to maximize the use of natural daylighting throughout since learning can take place anywhere within the footprint of the building," said Mount. The solution: a raised central clerestory that provides diffused daylight throughout the building. Vents at the clerestory level and operable windows allow for natural ventilation, while each Advisory has large windows with a four-foot roof overhang to keep out the glare of direct sunlight.

Truman High School earned a 2002 / Citation Award.

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