IRVINE, Calif.—LPA recently won an Award of Excellence from the American Institute of Architects (national) Educational Facility Design Awards for the design of Tarbut V’Torah’s expansion. Only six projects in the country received this recognition.

Completed in 2018, this project was an effort to modernize the campus and re-establish the school’s prominence in Irvine, Calif. The total cost for lower school construction and upper school STEAM building was $25 million.

The campus expansion was part of a new strategic plan developed by the school’s trustees to grow the student body and re-establish Tarbut V’Torah as a premier independent school. LPA worked closely with the school’s administration and community to co-develop a program that responds to the school’s vision of future-ready learning environments.

The expansion of the campus included the addition of three new buildings—a maker building, a STEAM building, and a fitness building, in addition to outdoor learning environments. LPA’s engineers, designers and landscape architects worked with school leaders and students to develop spaces that address the social and emotional aspects of students, as well as the academic.

The school’s flexible learning environments allow for hands-on, project-based learning, indoors and out. Classrooms with glass walls open to the expansive views of the scenic Southern California community. A quad adjacent to the new buildings includes small group pods, an amphitheater and stage, evening performance lighting, a lunch terrace, an 18-foot-long concrete work bench table and a roof top huddle deck.

DPR Construction was the general contractor on this impressive project.

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Yucaipa and torrance, Calif.—DLR Group was recently selected to provide design services for two higher education campuses in Southern California. The two replacement projects include new performing arts facilities at Crafton Hills College in Yucaipa, and El Camino College in Torrance.

DLR Group’s design for a new performing arts center at Crafton Hills College will provide a modern venue for educational spaces, as well as a state-of-the-art auditorium and stage facility to better meet the needs of students and the surrounding community. The auditorium will include a lobby and outdoor terrace, a 300-seat auditorium with an orchestra pit, black box theater, and backstage facilities such as dressing rooms, green room, offices, storage, wood shop, and costume shop. The complex will be equipped with next-generation theater technology and acoustics and serve a variety of events for music and student performances.

The project will target LEED Gold Certification and net-zero energy use to become an innovative case study for sustainability in the arts. Crafton Hills College is part of the San Bernardino Community College District.

At El Camino College, DLR Group’s design for a new music and theater building will continue the strong tradition of the arts on campus by creating new opportunities for collaboration and growth in the program. Currently more than 65 years old, the existing music building is limited in the technology, systems, and infrastructure to support modern music and theatre instructional programs.

DLR Group is designing a transformative new facility that provides students with the latest amenities and technology for music and theater needs, while also creating an upgraded audience experience for members of the community. The facility will house a proscenium theater, recital hall, black box studio theater, and an array of performance support, student collaboration spaces, and practice rooms. The design will embrace the campus master plan by providing students with connections to outdoor spaces, informal gathering areas, and create new transparency to arts education by exposing the practice and rehearsal spaces to the campus and community. A common outdoor courtyard will serve as a gathering spot for students and an informal outdoor performance stage to showcase the talent of the program to the broader campus. The new building will be a leader in sustainability by capturing daylighting and views and responding directly to user wellness, while minimizing energy use as an example project on campus.

“DLR Group delivers award-winning performing arts designs that meet the specific needs of each institution and user group,” said DLR Group Principal Leigh Anne Jones, AIA. “We are thrilled to partner with Crafton Hills College and El Camino College to enhance their facilities and enrich the experience for performing arts and music students for many generations to come.”

Construction on the Crafton Hills College project is scheduled to begin May 2022 with an estimated completion date of March 2024. It is funded through state and local monies, including the voter approved Measure CC.

The El Camino project is scheduled to begin construction in August 2022 with an estimated completion date of August 2024. It is funded through state and local monies, including the voter approved Measure E. The cost of these projects has not yet been disclosed.

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With support and funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) through the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the trade groups have produced a free publication for download by administrators, contractors, consulting engineers, architects, designers and of K-12 school buildings to learn how to design and create net-zero energy buildings — and save money in the meantime. Net-zero energy use refers to the status of a building that draws from outside resources equal or less energy than it provides using on-site renewable energy sources.

The new guide expands on Atlanta-headquartered ASHRAE’s previous publications regarding advanced energy design and provides specific guidance for on-site implementation of renewable energy practices. It also provides a set of energy performance goals for reaching the Holy Grail of net-zero energy. Moreover, the benchmarks are provided for all ASHRAE climate zones, including site and source energy.

As Jean-Claude Brizard, partner and vice president at Cross & Joftus wrote in the guide’s forward: “Zero energy may not be essential to the success of such schools, but in the hands of creative, innovative educators it provides abundant opportunities for authentic, problem- and project-based learning.”

The guide is optimized for K-12 school buildings, including elementary, middle and high schools, and covers such space types as administrative and office space, classrooms, hallways, restrooms, gymnasiums and multipurpose rooms, libraries, and food preparation and dining areas. It also puts an emphasis on environmental stewardship, as it observes in its first chapter, “A zero-energy school signals a shift toward recognizing and protecting natural resources and mitigating climate change to the entire community.”

Download the free guide here.

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Earlier this month, the Washington, D.C.-headquartered American Institute of Architects (AIA) announced the winners for its annual 2018 Honor Awards, a plaudit long-held as the greatest honor in architecture and design. In a curious coincidence of national pride, all of the winning architects are U.S.-based, however, their work is scattered all over the globe. Business Insider scribe Leanna Garfield did the heavy-lifting of ferreting through the list of honorees for, ahem, teachable monuments and found these, which we heartily encourage you to click through, too.

Consider the beauty above — Reeds Spring Middle School; Reeds Spring, Missouri designed by Dake Wells Architecture. As the AIA site explained: “Taking advantage of the site’s dramatic topography, this new middle school places the two largest programmatic spaces below grade, providing energy efficiency and storm resiliency for nearly 400 students and teachers. A cascading atrium is the heart of the school, flooded with light and activity, connecting collaborative teaching zones and flexible learning environments. A wood screen references the nearby woods while providing added safety and warmth to the building interior.”

“Cascading Atrium.” Yep, that’s our new band name. Sigh.

Selected from roughly 500 submissions, 17 recipients located throughout the world will be honored at the AIA Conference on Architecture 2018 in New York City, said the AIA in a statement. Congrats to all the honorees — but especially the schools!

The American Institute of Architects just announced the winners of its annual 2018 Honor Awards, considered the highest achievement in architecture.

Source: Beautiful schools in the AIA 2018 Honor Awards – Business Insider

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Cost estimating can make or break a project — and ensures that no surprises will arise come bid day. Continuing to cost estimate throughout the construction process can further guarantee that projects stay on budget and that facility owners are given timely information about system life cycles.

School Construction News recently spoke with Paul Whitson, AIA, LEED GA, senior vice president and regional health care leader in HOK’s St. Louis office, to gain some insight on cost-estimating during the design and construction of major projects.

Q: How often do you use cost estimating while designing a project?

Whitson: Almost always. It’s essential in understanding how many square feet are needed for a project and how much it will cost. On a project for the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs, we are using it in the early programming stages for the school’s Sports Medicine and Performance Center. We have teamed with a construction manager who will use cost estimating to accurately identify constructability issues and deliver the best outcomes for the school.

Q: How does the cost estimating process differ between specific project phases?

Whitson: Ideally, it should reduce costs from concept to the construction document phase. At the concept phase, more allowances are made in estimating for the unknown. But as project planning advances, refinements can be made as site issues and layout become better known. There are generally two big changes in project phases: when you move from unit-costing to systems-costing and when unforeseen contingency costs become clearer. In each case, as the unknown aspects peel away, the costs should go down. Essentially, the more that is known, the better for accurate cost estimating.

Q: How can cost estimating help facilities save money and stay within budget?

Whitson: [Cost estimating] can help in two ways. First, it is a great benefit in setting benchmarks to make the best use of capital on the project and keep it within budget. But it also provides valuable information for that next project, where it can be used to predict future costs for similar projects or an added phase. We use technology like Revit and BIM to model systems early in the project. The model gives team members a better understanding of how all facets of the project fit together and overcomes conflicts to avoid having to make costly changes later on in the project.

Q: How can cost estimating help in the maintenance/operations of the building once a construction project is completed?

Whitson: That’s part of the system costs, and in general proceeds with the understanding of the first cost versus the operating costs over the life of the project. There may be cheaper HVAC systems, but their cost must be viewed over the long term. A more expensive system can provide greater value in efficiency and energy conservation over the life of the system.

Stay tuned for the Architect Roundtable in the March/April issue of School Construction News for more insight on cost estimating.

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